Dear Santa,
Last year you gave me a box full of Legos on Christmas day. Thank you, it brought back many of my childhood memories. But one day, while I was building a pyramid with them with the children I work with now as a teacher, I thought of something. I would like to share that idea with you and as a present this year, I hope you can bring me some answers to the many questions I have.
When we were building the pyramid, I realized that it represented the society we live in. The bottom layer, which was the largest, was responsible for preventing the top from tumbling down and falling apart. Similarly, in society, it is the underserved population that serves as the bottom layer and acts as the root that keeps the rest of the society from crumbling down. They are employed in factories to do the labor, work as household helps, and keep the streets clean. These are some of the many important jobs they do. Then why are they not given the respect they deserve? Why are the families still struggling to feed themselves, send their children to school and have a roof over their heads?
The bottom layer of the pyramid is made up of different people from all walks of life. But it is also true that a majority of the people are the ones that do not belong to the dominant groups of the society – the Muslims, the blacks, the Hispanics, the lower caste, the disabled and the people from the LGBTQ community, to name a few. Why does the society treat these people differently and make them feel as though they are not a part of them? Aren’t we all human beings at the end of the day? Why does our place of birth play such an important role in determining our future?
When I was young, my father told me how he had to give up his dream to be a teacher because teachers did not make enough money in our society. His parents told him that if he worked as a teacher, he would not be able to support his family. So he decided to work in a field that did not make him happy. Why are teachers underpaid when they are the ones who play an important role in shaping children who are supposed to be the future of the society? And why do the people at the top of the pyramid go to fancy and expensive schools where the teachers do get paid well but the people in the bottom layer are barely able to afford a government school? Why are a majority of the teachers women and the only men that I see are in Physical Education? And why do we have a grading system with standard assessments when each individual learns and grows in different ways?
When I see the children I work with ask other teachers and their parents these questions, they are often told, "You are too young to be asking these questions. And this is just how the society works." But that is not true. As an aspiring teacher, I know that if we wanted to make a change, we could do so. But for some reason, we have learned to accept the dominant culture without questioning it. In the civics class, we tell the children that we are a democracy, but it is a lie. If we are a democracy, then why do teachers ask children to accept the dominant culture at face value? Why is everyone brushing aside a transgender child’s genuine confusion about his gender identity as though it is just a phase that will pass without giving him the opportunity to explore himself? Why are children being stopped from asking questions outside of what is given in the textbook – questions about the wars, the presence of inequity in the society, the killings of innocent people in their neighborhood? Why is learning the English language given so much importance when many of them do not have the basic knowledge of their mother tongue?
I have new questions that come up every day from my interactions with people around me. I know you may not have the answers to all these questions but you might have the answers to a few of them. I am just curious to know how the world came to be in its present form and if we were to do it over again, would things be any different? I think we need the bottom layer of the pyramid for a society of 7 billion people to function. But don’t you think the least this layer deserves is respect for all the hard work they put in and an equitable access to resources should they choose to move higher up in the pyramid?
I do wait eagerly to get my Christmas present this year! In return, I will strive hard to push the younger population that I work with to question, think about, and challenge what has come to be accepted as the ‘norm’ of the society.
Love,
Shiksha (a preschool teacher)
