Clearing an engineering degree from one of the country's top technical institutes, an MBA from an elite management school, and then cracking one of the toughest competitive exams to become a government officer, that path is usually held up as the gold standard of success in India. Yet the person who actually walked that path, IAS officer Divya Mittal, says all those degrees still left out some of the most important lessons of life. Her old social media post is being widely shared again around Teacher's Day 2026.
Divya Mittal is in the news for two reasons right now. First, she recently resigned from the administrative service, catching many people off guard. Second, an old post of hers has resurfaced and gone viral, pointing to what she feels was the biggest gap in her education. She is fairly active on social media, and her posts regularly strike a chord with people online.
She cracked tough exams but never learned to sit with her own mind
In her post, Divya Mittal wrote, "It never taught me how to quiet my own mind or handle loneliness." In other words, her schooling and training prepared her to handle demanding exams and big responsibilities, but not to find inner calm or cope with being alone. She points out that people spend years being trained purely to achieve, while almost no time is ever set aside to learn how to actually feel content and balanced.
Suppressing feelings was taught, not processing them
According to Divya, schools tend to treat quiet, well behaved children as disciplined ones. Students memorise the periodic table by heart, yet nobody explains the emotional chemistry of a broken heart. Children are taught to bottle up their feelings instead of working through them. The result shows up later in life: when a real crisis hits as an adult, many people simply don't know how to hold themselves together.
Nobody teaches you how to say no or set boundaries
School years are spent practising long essays, but never learning how to firmly say no to something or put personal pain into words. Divya notes that there is no class anywhere that teaches how to handle a rude or bullying boss at work, or how to draw a clear line around what you will and won't tolerate.
Ready-made answers win in class, but real life rewards good questions
In the classroom, the student who always has a polished, pre-prepared answer tends to be praised the most. But in the real world, it's the person who knows how to ask the right question at the right time who actually gets ahead. Divya says this classroom habit of accepting everything without question later turns into blindly following other people's opinions as adults.
Debt management never made it into the syllabus
Maths classes are full of exercises in solving for an unknown value of X, yet no lesson ever covers how to keep yourself out of a debt trap. Divya believes that being good with money isn't just about earning more, it's about controlling unnecessary spending and staying mentally at peace over finances, a subject that simply has no place in the school curriculum.
Real discipline comes from keeping promises to yourself
The entire structure of school runs on a timetable, where someone is always around to tell you what to do next. But once you're an adult with no one watching over you, most people lose their sense of direction. Divya's view is that genuine discipline never comes from fear of someone else; it comes from actually following through on the promises you make to yourself.
Loneliness isn't a punishment, it's a chance to know yourself
Through the school years, a person is almost always surrounded by a group of friends, which is exactly why the sudden silence of adult life can feel so unsettling. Divya says school never taught anyone how to become their own best friend, even though being alone isn't a sign of sadness, it's actually one of the best opportunities to reconnect with yourself.
Reading people's real intentions is a missing skill too
Childhood friendships tend to be innocent and uncomplicated, but the world looks very different once you grow up. School never teaches anyone how to see past the mask someone wears or read their real intentions, which is why so many adults end up feeling cheated in their relationships.
PT classes existed for the body, nothing existed for the mind
Schools offer PT and sports periods to keep the body fit, but nothing at all is taught for the health of the mind and spirit. That gap is exactly why people learn to keep pushing themselves even after they're exhausted, a habit that eventually leads to burnout. Divya stresses how important it is to recognise when stress is crossing a healthy limit, and when it's time to actually ask for help.
Knowing yourself beyond medals and degrees is the real education
Divya Mittal says people spend their entire lives chasing the race to become the topper or the best in class, yet they never really pause to figure out who they are once the medals and degrees are stripped away. Her point is that before blindly following the paths the world lays out, it's essential to understand what your own mind truly wants, and that, she says, is the biggest lesson no textbook ever teaches.
