Number of words: 369

Middle class children, even as young as three years, talk about their surroundings in a cause and effect fashion, lower class children speak only concretely of their approaches to objects and situations. A role play type of conversation can therefore be very helpful for a slum child to become richer and less has attained in his speech. There is also the danger that the teacher, himself of a product of middle class social standards of behaviour, tends to equate goodness and success, not with what lower class students, even with high potential, believe. The clash in values that can result from this could prove unhelpful to such students and may result in dropouts or anti-social behaviour.

Language can help here by the teacher using terms that are understood by all, irrespective of the social class to which they belong. Much of course also hinges on the textbook, but even should the book be unsuitable irrelevant, the teacher should be careful to speak in a way that rises above these distinctions and touches the universal man not in an abstract context but at the level of his humanness. For it is this quality that strides all sections of people as a unifying and levelling force that accepts everyone as of equal worth.

When the teacher has no time to cover the entire course, it is unthinkable that he can spare time for individual attention to his lower class children. The result again is an advantage to middle class children, for the matter to be studied is more relevant to them. This means a class of different social backgrounds and different motivations and interests for the teacher, rendering him less competent.

Motivation is detectable by past performance. Once detected it is ignitable, with training and encouragement. Motivation is more important than native ability. Yet it is doubtful if the pressure on overachievers could be as harmful. It is the tensions encountered by successful talented lower class adolescents who have left their way of life and feel strenuous pressures to conform to a demanding middle class view of life. The stress will be more from social than from mental pressures.

Excerpted from pages 112-113 of ‘Examinations: An Informative Update’ by M Mascarenhas.