‘Refused to feel small again’: Viral post reignites questions on teacher behaviour in India’s schools

As conversations around students’ mental health deepen in the wake of the recent suicide of a Delhi school student — where alleged harassment in classrooms was the focus of public outrage — a very personal post on Reddit has struck a chord with thousands of readers across India.

The post narrates how a moment of humiliation in 10th grade became a turning point for the writer, reflecting the silent emotional battles that many Indian students face inside the classroom.

A Reddit user begins by describing cheerful school life that was suddenly disrupted during a routine biology class. After a note-taking race with a friend, the teacher returned and publicly reprimanded the student — not only in front of his classmates but also after additional staff were called in to witness the reprimand.

“I still remember feeling tight in my throat, and my eyes were full,” the post read. “I cried that day. Not because I was weak, but because in that moment I felt as if the whole world had turned against me.”

The teacher then warned the student that she would be questioned again in the next class. Instead of fear, this line sparked something else entirely. Over the next days, the teen not only revised the lesson, but studied the entire biology textbook, page by page, drawing by drawing, determined never to feel “small” again.

When the teacher finally returned and began questioning the class, almost everyone struggled. Except for her.

“She asked me five questions in a row. I answered all five questions. Calmly. Correctly. Without hesitation,” the user wrote. The teacher’s attitude changed immediately. The student went from being humiliated to becoming the teacher’s “favorite student”, not because of his brilliance, but because of the resilience gained under pressure.

Years later, now in college, the student faced a similar situation, as a professor mocked her for failing to solve a math problem on the blackboard. However, this time, she didn’t feel ashamed.

“Just because I don’t know something today doesn’t mean I’ll never know it,” she wrote, adding that the strength she gained as a teenager “still protects her” today.

The account received widespread resonance on Reddit, especially as India faces increasing cases of student distress, pressure, and alleged harassment in schools and training environments. The Delhi incident, where the death of a student sparked a new debate about teachers’ conduct and accountability, has prompted many online to share their own stories of humiliation in the classroom.

The author ends her post with pride, not bitterness: pride in the child who collapsed in class, and pride in the young woman she grew up to be—a woman who refuses to let a moment of pain define her success.