I want to inspire people. Now you may think 'who's this little kid saying that big word?'. But I have a reason to want to inspire people. It's because I have been inspired by a few. I have been to four different schools since I first joined the crèche at Mary Nilayam and have been taught by a great many teachers or rather many great teachers. And when I left each school some of the people who left a lasting impression on me were my teachers.
I was one of the average kids in the class since grade 8 at my old school - Indian School Al Ghubra - in Muscat. And definitely did not belong to any cliques and ‘popular gangs’. I was just another kid. Yet I still got those “good work”, “excellent” and “keep it up” remarks whenever I submitted an assignment or scored well in a test. I don’t know if the teacher meant any of it or if it was part of the protocol whenever a student did well. Either way those remarks produced the effect it was meant to have. It meant encouragement from the part of the teacher. He has faith in you that you can do well. I scarcely realized how important those few words were till I no longer saw them or even heard them. When I joined school here I couldn’t help but notice that some people just can’t bring themselves to appreciate someone else’s work. Instead they pounce on the winner for a treat without a word of congratulation. On the other hand if one misses a step, there hardly is anyone to encourage or give him confidence. The poor guy is pushed down, mocked at, kicked to the curb and becomes everyone’s favourite victim of criticism when what the person actually needs is someone to believe in him. Maybe this sort of thing is quite normal here but I can’t help contrasting it with the ways I was used to.
Mr. Oze was the Head of the Department of Mathematics some years back at ISG. The man is one of the greatest teachers I have met though he never actually taught me. He was my sister’s teacher. My sister had been consistently hitting 50s and 60s just managing to scrape through. Once she came home happy to show my mother a “good” in her math assignment. That was just the spark she needed. From then on Oze would make her do worksheet after worksheet and she too felt no hesitation asking him questions. In the end when the board results were out she scored a shiny 96 in math. When she met him later Oze peered over his glasses and gave a wise but kindly smile and said,” What happened to those 4 marks?”
I was one of the average kids in the class since grade 8 at my old school - Indian School Al Ghubra - in Muscat. And definitely did not belong to any cliques and ‘popular gangs’. I was just another kid. Yet I still got those “good work”, “excellent” and “keep it up” remarks whenever I submitted an assignment or scored well in a test. I don’t know if the teacher meant any of it or if it was part of the protocol whenever a student did well. Either way those remarks produced the effect it was meant to have. It meant encouragement from the part of the teacher. He has faith in you that you can do well. I scarcely realized how important those few words were till I no longer saw them or even heard them. When I joined school here I couldn’t help but notice that some people just can’t bring themselves to appreciate someone else’s work. Instead they pounce on the winner for a treat without a word of congratulation. On the other hand if one misses a step, there hardly is anyone to encourage or give him confidence. The poor guy is pushed down, mocked at, kicked to the curb and becomes everyone’s favourite victim of criticism when what the person actually needs is someone to believe in him. Maybe this sort of thing is quite normal here but I can’t help contrasting it with the ways I was used to.
Mr. Oze was the Head of the Department of Mathematics some years back at ISG. The man is one of the greatest teachers I have met though he never actually taught me. He was my sister’s teacher. My sister had been consistently hitting 50s and 60s just managing to scrape through. Once she came home happy to show my mother a “good” in her math assignment. That was just the spark she needed. From then on Oze would make her do worksheet after worksheet and she too felt no hesitation asking him questions. In the end when the board results were out she scored a shiny 96 in math. When she met him later Oze peered over his glasses and gave a wise but kindly smile and said,” What happened to those 4 marks?”
Mr. Oze wasn’t the only inspiration. There were other teachers as well who could inspire children effortlessly. Mrs Ipsita Biswas was one of them. She was one of the most efficient teachers in the school, always ready with solutions and alternatives to all kinds of crisis and she taught us all the manners we would need in our lifetime. Mrs. Ariwala spoke so glowingly of economics but could never manage to bore us. Mr. Sagayaraj, my French teacher, is a self made person which itself inspired me to do things without depending on others too much. Dr. Dogra, an epitome of ideas and thoughts, though few understood what he was trying to say, was one of my favourite teachers because if you actually listened to him you would know he was making a lot of sense.
These teachers, they taught us things that no textbook could. Many of them are role models though I doubt they know it. I was a bit disappointed when I noticed that, here, all one wants to do is finish the portion and walk out of class. I may be wrong but this is plainly my opinion. There is absolutely no interaction. It’s just the teacher, the students and the books in their most material form. What I’m trying to say is that children need to be inspired and encouraged not just to do well in the exams but to do well in life, to be good human beings. Sadly, such ideas are almost extinct among students as well as teachers today.
These teachers, they taught us things that no textbook could. Many of them are role models though I doubt they know it. I was a bit disappointed when I noticed that, here, all one wants to do is finish the portion and walk out of class. I may be wrong but this is plainly my opinion. There is absolutely no interaction. It’s just the teacher, the students and the books in their most material form. What I’m trying to say is that children need to be inspired and encouraged not just to do well in the exams but to do well in life, to be good human beings. Sadly, such ideas are almost extinct among students as well as teachers today.
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