Essay on “Letter to a Teacher” (written by Nora Rossi and Tom Cole)

Introduction:

          Letter to a Teacher is an extract from a book written in Italian language by eight school boys of Barbiana. It was later translated into English by Nora Rossi and Tom Cole in 1970. The school was actually started with 10 students by a Church father named Lorenzo Milani. The father encouraged the school boys to write a book about their experiences in the school. The result is this book. In this lesson, the boy writer expresses his grievances about the exam system, grading system in education, the teacher’s failure to understand the students, their superiority complex, partiality and de-motivation.

The Impact of Failure of the Students:

          The teachers in the Barbiana school used to fail many poor students every year. The fathers of those children were farmers or factory workers. They may have the dream that their children would come up in life after school study. But the very failure takes the boys to work again in fields and factories. Why should we fail a student who wants to come up in lilfe? While conducting the test, the teachers simply walk up and down between the desks. They look at the students suspiciously as if looking at a thief.

Students Degraded by Grading System:

          At the end of the lesson, the student-writer laughs at grading worthless boys with A in physical education. The translator of the lesson, in his introduction, talks about the grading system in Barbiana school where numbers from 0 to 10 are used to grade the students. A boy should get minimum 6 to pass the exam. Children of rich parents managed to have private tutors to complete their homework and passed but children of farmers had no money and eventually failed. In gymnastics exam, the teacher threw a ball and asked them to play basketball. The boys got confused what to do. But the teacher decided to fail them with contempt and said “My poor children.” The physical education teacher was interested in conventional ritual and did not teach anything but told the principal that the boys should take the exam again in the autumn.

The Teachers’ Ignorance and Irrelevant Teaching:

          The student-writer writes in his letter to the teacher: “You know even less about men than we do.” The boy also gives examples of how the teachers were totally ignorant of living conditions of working men and their children. They used lift and avoided seeing working men in the building. They used cars and avoided seeing the troubles of men in bus. They and their favorite students know Cicero, the great Roman orator but not about the sufferings of working men and their children.

Conclusion:

          The boy also condemns the teacher’s uncultured talk and partiality to workers by using undermining choice of words, tone and jokes. He is so angry with the teacher and says: “This is the sort of culture your poets should have given you.” The boy seems to be a representative of all such students in the world. Thus this lesson brings out the true feelings of the students towards teachers and current education system. Usually teachers would teach a lesson to students but in this lesson the student teaches a lesson to the teachers.