Stories

If you went back to school right now, how many of your classes would change the way you brush your teeth?

Probably none.

In fact, you may be thinking about how odd a question that is.

While a bachelor’s or master’s degree may change some things, those sorts of degrees don’t normally change our daily habits—so we don’t tend to think of higher education as an experience that can change the everyday activities of our lives, down to how we brush our teeth.

Why Do You Know to Brush Your Teeth?

You probably learned the basics of daily life from a trusted adult.

But if the trusted adults in your lives were never taught those basic hygiene practices themselves, how could they have ever taught you?

(That’s the definition of a generational cycle.)

This is why those basic habits—washing your clothes, brushing your hair, using soap—are the stepping stones of Mission India’s Adult Literacy Classes.

So Much More Than Literacy

When adults in India sign up for Adult Literacy Classes, they’re signing up to gain a fifth grade-level education.

But Adult Literacy teachers know that for many of the adults they teach, a fifth grade-level ability to read and write is just the beginning. To help their students break generational cycles, they need more.

So teachers bring in specialists like doctors to hold extra trainings. The students who attend these trainings gain skills in hygiene, entrepreneurship, and civic responsibility. They learn to properly pack their food, wash their hands, scrub their clothes upstream from where the cattle bathe, and—yes—brush their teeth.

Even One Small Step…

Sure, these cycles feel small.

But that’s why they’re the stepping stones of Adult Literacy Classes—making these small changes feels doable. For many Adult Literacy students, taking those steps is the first time they feel like they have agency in their circumstances.

And one small step often becomes another. Then another.

Then agency becomes dignity.

And dignity becomes hope.

Breaking Generational Cycles

When Adult Literacy students have access to small solutions that meet real needs, their lives begin to change… but that’s not all.

They become parents who teach their children hygiene practices. Just like your parents—or other trusted adults—did for you.

Suddenly a generational cycle of tooth pain, doctor’s bills, and phantom sicknesses becomes health, financial stability, and hope for the future.

And that’s how a lesson on brushing your teeth breaks generational cycles. 

Ready to Build Some Stepping Stones?

Right now, you can connect adults across India to Adult Literacy Classes that will break chains—both theirs, and their children’s. Your gift of $40 will teach adults to read, write, and prepare their families for a brighter future.