After an explicitly “short” hiatus I return back with a thought that might disturb many of us when we read, bringing back memories of the worst days of our lives. The ignominy of having to get hit on your arm till abrasions appeared on it just because you screamed out across the assembly hall the name of your best friend and you were just five years old. A five year old who didn’t know how loud her voice should have been when she was playing with her friend just on her way to the class!
Years back a shocking controversy had appeared about a teacher locking up a student who had barely reached a “double digit age” in her car in Dubai and the child died of asphyxiation after being locked up in a car which had no glasses rolled down for hours. How much can the small lungs of a child’s take up carbon dioxide was aware to everybody else other than that woman. Of course if she was a tad saner, patient, prudent and a caring person all that was required were words of caution accompanied with a soothing touch and stern voice to keep the child a lamb in the class!
Corporal punishment shouldn’t alone be banished from the decorum of school teaching. A patient person should only think of being a teacher, just like a compassionate human thinking of being a doctor. Teaching is the best profession in this world as far as my convictions are concerned. No adult is going to remember a teacher for the words of scorns that pricked her/his thoughts like thorns! All the teachers out there, never a consider child worthless and make it a subject of your incessant verbal and physical torture just because he/she does not possess the caliber academically. Remember Johnny Depp was a school dropout at 13 and well I needn’t continue with who Johnny Depp is today right :)
I have had the luck of having a few teachers who were gems of people and a few many more who were worser than rotten eggs! No offense to the latter since they have brought about nil effects on me and my ability to solve mental maths with their blade edged wooden scale tactics on my tiny pink hands which did turn redder just to add to the woes of an even more sensitive mother of mine. All that comes to my face is a smile partly of pity and partly of ridicule when I think about them. And those days. And now..
Parents and teachers are the creators, the moulders of an adults perception of the world, his/her life, his/her thoughts about living here and having to deal with this enormous task and emerge out a survivor. No amount of comparison is going to help a child become a better human being tomorrow. It definitely hasn’t helped me, for a while it just gave me a rather unhealthy competitive spirit which I find if anything futile today! If a child is taught to deal with his/her problems in their own way instead of asking them to adopt the techniques used by another child especially when it comes to studying, if she/he is assisted properly in this mammoth task of having to fit in the proper crowd with helping hands and loving words, there is no amount that the person would thank you later on. I am indebted to those who have instiled in me that I am a winner even if I’d score a C in my term exams.
Teachers shape one. Ones interest in subjects be it history, language, science, music and the highly intimidating mathematics, a teacher is one of the very vital people who can guide you to your choice destination in life. And no form of insult or squidging a pen between the developing knuckles of a child is going to make an individual reach the spot faster. All that it helps achieving velocity is in the construction of the pile of frustration that can be induced in the adult as a consequence of the trauma that was once attained because of an ill tempered teacher.
I take this opportunity through my blog to thank all my teachers (no doubt, especially the angels among them) and also reproach through my thoughts the ones that ridiculed me and hit me till I thought I was a loser until my ever growing confidence and faith creeped in..
“ We are beautiful in every single way, as words cant bring us down”(courtesy:Christina Aguilera) .. Neither can flogs.
To every adult out there, remember every child does carry the sting and the kisses you give them in their heart on an equal measure. They are the adults with a better and bigger conscience than us...
