Monday, August 25, 2008

My Ex-student and Being Responsible

What a quiet Tuesday morning. It was 11 in the morning and I just got up from my morning nap...actually the new medicine given by the doctor yesterday was only making me sleepy. It made me sleep early, hence I could not reply to the messages which I received last night.

About four hours ago, before 7 am, I had to make (frantic) calls to the school to inform them that I would be on leave for the next two days. My arms and tummy still hurt. However, my efforts were in vain. I had to call the person doing relief today...who? me? No, no, the other person, Pn Noor Anisah. Fortunately, even though she was also not in school (she had to go to Kuala Lumpur), the relief duties were already prepared by her. But I knew I had to let Cik Rahimah know about this.

Before taking a bath, I also replied to a message received last night.

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The familiar sound of rain trickling down could be heard faintly. Oh no! My laundry! Hey! I couldn't run!

I made a dash (?!) out of my house , oh Thank God it was only drizzling! No need for me to hurt my body by making fast movements. But as I looked through the gates of my house, I saw a young man riding a motorcycle, obviously he was performing his duties . In a split second, I was able to recall his name, R, a former student of mine, a form 5 student in 1997.

Yes, everything suddenly flashed before me. How I first entered his class, how he was able to influence his friends, how he enjoyed being the big boy (not in size, mind you) compared with the other fifth formers.... as he was already 19 when he sat for SPM, how he talked about his house in Rawang, how he said "Teacher, you are really brilliant" because I got to find his genuine address ....(you see, he had been using another person's address all his life in that school to avoid receiving letters from school), how I heard from another teacher that he had kicked the big dustbin outside a class because he was angry and also how frustrated he was not being able to take part in athletic events as he was already past 18 years of age.

That was one h@#$ of an ex-student of mine!

I must be quite young to be able to recognise my ex-student easily.

Yes, they come in different sizes, bringing with them their own problems and not to forget, their own dignity. Yes! (Again), I wish to emphasize that in a way, I did respect this boy, despite his cranky behaviour.

One good thing about him was that he was a responsible person as he took responsibility for what he did and for what he said. (That can't really explain why he acted foolishly, at times) Strangely, this guy did not like to talk bad about others, not even about his teachers. If he had to say something bad, he would say it sincerely, it may sound rude at that time, but he was speaking the truth.

Will I be telling the same thing about my other ex-students? Or my future ex-students?

The moral of the story is : take pride in your school , your friends, your family and your teachers. When you meet others, don't make any sweeping statement about them (above). Instead, re-evaluate what you have now, take responsibility of what you tell others about your school, your teachers etc.

What you say can hurt other people. Even when you did not mean it.

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