RingChen

I love teaching my students. I dont know if they reciprocate the feeling while being taught by me but I must say, when I took on this job 4 years ago little did I know that I was heading towards an experience of a lifetime. The very first thing I learnt about my seemingly innocent students was not to take anyone at face value. And that, they will do anything to wriggle out of class.

The first class I took was in a make-shift cabin of yore cause the campus was not ready yet. Two batches of first year students were huddled together in a dark classroom; dark cause power had just failed. And it was the first day after a long vacation. And it was an afternoon class. And they were to study Electrical. With a brand new rookie teacher. I suppose all of these put together prompted them to implore to me not to take class that day puhleezeee…. ma’m how can we study in the dark…. pretty please….

I took pity on them and let them off. When I walked out, the Vice Principal asked me why I wasnt taking their class. When told about the dark story, he walked into the now-silent class and pulled a cord leading to the ceiling and lo presto! The middle part of the wooden ceiling lifts and as if like magic, light floods into the now-bright classroom.

The class burst out laughing, after the VP had left, of course. Needless to say, I became wiser that day onwards.

What I like about teaching these young minds is not limited to just the text book stuff. If I may include Miss Wormwood’s concise teacher definition, “It’s not enough that we have to be disciplinarians. Now we need to be psychologists.” Well… almost…

When you’re dealing with 300 students, you need to come out of your perfect-world and accept that some students need attention, encouragement, even love while a few others may simply require the scolding of their lifetime. I’ve encountered the most intelligent students, with a sad drawback of not being able to communicate in English. Then there are ones who get by without the least bit of studying and instead concentrate on getting into trouble maybe because they “hate” their parents. Some are plain dunces who will desperately attempt with all they got but wont make it through their first year.

We have sportsmen who will sacrifice their sessional tests for the upcoming cricket match; then there are these shy, quiet students who will take the last seat and never look up from their desk. There are boyfriends & girlfriends who will stay joined at the hips in each class; while some are so irritating that I have to tell them to shut up and not ask a 100 irrelevant questions or else…

There are students who will always bunk their classes & fall short of attendance (who actually remind me of my days in college!) There are class clowns who are sometimes too funny for their own good; some students are born leaders, teachers’ pet, groupies, politicians, stalkers even! Each of them as different and unique from the other.

I am happy imparting education, not only professionally but also in terms of doing the right thing - morally & socially. One of my favourite alternate lecture is to tell students not to litter the environment and to make sure they put garbage in bins and not fly it in the campus. Another stress is to make sure they discard their Hindi, Nepali, Telegu, Punjabi and speak in English. Period.

Its an uphill task sometimes and the young mind may not take the enforcements too well in their stride but what makes up for that is my ex-students coming back to visit me, call me up or email me about how well they’re doing and that they miss the college. I miss them all too.

In the meantime, all I can do is sing, “We dont need no education” along with my students during one of their numerous talent shows and get ragged during Teacher’s Day. I think this year I may finally have to dance for them.