In the last six months, I have extensively reflected on my journey as a fellow at Teach For India and I have been thinking about stories that have lived in my head since the first day of fellowship. Stories from parents who struggle to make ends meet and find respite in government schemes that help their families fare through difficult times, stories of children who are their family's last hope out of poverty, so much so that they find your Monday morning read aloud sessions a practice in vain because they are carrying the burden of learning something more concrete that would help them push past walls of unemployment; stories of teachers who have tried and failed because no matter how much we try to make our teaching methods accommodative, some things are always out of our control. Between all of this, I think about the heterogeneous nature of my own classroom- how learning can look so different for each child despite sitting in the same class; how everything about our existence is so diverse that we experience most things differently than others. However, inequity to me doesn't come down to differences solely. It comes down to the lack of resources and interventions to not only bridge these gaps, but also to find a shared space for all children to experience equal opportunities.

Due to the pandemic the structural gaps in education have widened. On the surface, everything is coming back to normal. There are several programs that are aiming to counterbalance the learning losses children have faced, but on a whole there's so much more to be done at several levels. 

I read an essay some time in December that highlighted the importance of how walking into the ed-space requires leaders to walk in as instruments of tangibility, and that's something that has stayed with me since. While working with children from disadvantaged communities, I have realized the importance of identifying what children need in order to break through the cycle of poverty, and contributing to their growth in a way that would help them achieve tangible results.