Teacher Stories..

I think my teachers were a special breed. They were the know-all people. And we were lucky we had them to inspire us. ACS Sitiawan in those days was the school to be in. Small kampung but we'd produce not just jaguh kampung but world beaters, back in those years, when Michael Jackson's moonwalk used to be one of the crazes. 

I remember Mrs. Tan Kam Thiam, the formidable Add Maths teacher. There is no Add Math question that she could not solve. Try as we did, we never did succeed in finding a question she could not do. It was only much later she told us, there is probably no question that she had not done before. You see, she'd go through any reference books that she could get her hands on and do them all. We never stood the chance of finding one she cannot do. She had done them all.

Then there was the legendary Mrs. P. She has a name but she will always be Mrs. P to us. And when we see her, we still call her that. Last year, she gifted us an avocado tree. It's still in my garden. She was not only the Discipline Mistress but a darn good Biology teacher. She is way into her 70s and she is still writing Bio books. There used to be nothing that she didn’t seem to know. Many were in awe of her. We still are. Garang as she was, many of us, taught or not taught by her would often still enjoy moments of conversations with her. 

There was also Mrs. Wong Tai Meng, my Perdagangan cum English teacher. Small and petite, many of us would look for opportunities to talk to her. I remember cycling on the road, rushing to get back for school, hoping to catch a glimpse of her on her way to school. Never mind that her glasses were really thick. We loved her for some strange reason. But she was an interesting Perdagangan and English teacher.

Mrs. Quay Beng Tiong... and her famous pembetulan. She was strict and firm, no nonsense. Her BM was always correct. I learned to use the language from her. Everyone of us respected her, for the teacher she was. One word - tabik.

I don’t think I can recall any teacher being bad... except maybe for a primary school teacher. This was how I remembered my teachers and this is how we still talk about them even as we enter into our half a century mark. 

Fast forward to the present day. I am still in school but the stories are vastly different now. These are not my stories but the stories of my students...

I used to keep an eye on my friend’s son in school. So, whenever I saw him at the canteen during lesson time, I would ask him why. He and his friend would sheepishly sometimes smile, and with their fingers pointing to the canteen where the teachers sit....”Our teacher is still inside there, eating.” I would later find out that the teacher,  would often be late to class one period cos he would be eating in the canteen. Class time....

Then, there was this "bag/present' teacher. Every year her students must buy her presents. Very often she will ask for bags. There are other presents I supposed. but I am not too sure. Anyway, she dictates and decides the bags that the students buy for her. She calls those gifts, the symbol of their appreciation. Do not know why ladies and their bag penchants. But then again, we have Rosmah and her famous Bijan bag.

Another teacher goes into class. Hardly teaches but many says she used to be a good teacher. Maybe she got lazy or something but in later years, due to competition, her tuition classes dwindled somewhat. So, what she did was to fail and give low scores to the students. In a school where marks seem to mean a world to the students, many buckled and ended up in her tuitions. Not bad eh.. get paid to intimidate students to earn more. Oh ya... when it didn't suit her, students got cursed to die... again and again, the menacing woman she is. Wonder why she did that...

There’s this teacher who runs a tuition centre. To increase flow into the centre, there are certain seasons primed for strikes. These days PT3 exams are school based. Say what they want about it being secured, questions often find their way into the open. Very often, these teachers who run tuition centres, they are the ones who will weave their ways into convenient access of exam papers.  A few intensive classes, a couple of thousand bucks richer... Lucrative...

Another teacher would often feign forgetfulness in entering classes. Or if he entered at all, he would leave shortly. Sometimes students would try to go find him and locate him in the Staff Room, laughing rambunctiously. And when they say, “Sir, your lesson still on.” His response was classic... look at the time and say, “You all go back to class first.” And he would still go MIA.

Yet another, when asked a question, the student tak paham, so asked again. The teacher uses the same method to explain. 5 kali you ask, 5 kali you get the same explanation. Budak dah tak paham.. teacher seemed like lagi tak paham cos he is on a one way track only. These are the 'limited-edition-imagination' teachers. How to encourage creativity if teacher sendiri does not exhibit creativity.

Then there are those, who when asked a difficult question, usually it will be Math, the teacher will say, "Kita letak tanda bunga (or bintang) and we will come back to it." Next lesson, student asked the teacher about the bunga question. Teacher will say, “Oh, saya tak tanya kawan lagi.” It is repeated - oldest trick in the book. Soon students forget and that’s it. Bunga remains with the question, layu with the question dan dibuang terus dari kelas. So easy hor, to be a teacher. Dunno how to do, never mind wan. Just senyum-senyum more and be super duper nice to students, beres semua.

Now for a student to get one teacher like that in a year is bad enough. But if you get 2-3, you are skewed big time. Where once tuitions used to be remedial now it replaces the actual classes. So why even go waste time in school?

In Malaysia, many of us like to talk halal and haram. But if we go by these stories, it would be ambil gaji which is actually tak halal. Then as if that is not enough, we sugar coat our kaki busuk by being extra nice to the the students. We cover our shortcomings by being nice. And students who don't know any better, termakan habis-habis. We make them forget why they go to school. But these days, apparently everything can be made kosher (or halal)... just the intention baik can d... (our political leaders say so)

So, what plagues our schools? Well, the answer is all in the school. In religious schools, you will get teachers who will go into excessive physical punishments. In national and (now) national-type schools, you see an erosion of dedication and commitment of what it entails to be a teacher. A country built on 100% sound moral values would most probably be impossible. But that should not be an excuse not to try to build that little utopia in this broken world. The thing is... our very fallen nature will always make us do the opposite. 

So, how many of the above can you relate to? 

By the way, if you are student reading this. You should know your rights as a student. Never short change yourself by allowing your teachers to get away with not teaching y'all. Hold them accountable as teachers. 

If you are teacher reading this. Ask yourself why you became a teacher. If you are in for the extra money from tuition or just for the easy life, then ask yourself if you would like the same to be given to your own children or grandchildren.