In
this context, I wish to record my appreciation of many values that my students
taught me. There are too many instances, but I record here the ones that made
most impact on my life since they happened.
In
my very first year at BBGS, I was assigned a Form Five Class. I noticed a girl
in my class who always appeared listless and inattentive, be it the first
period or the last. When I talked to her after school, I discovered she was so
poor, she never had breakfast, nor had she any food during the break.
I
told her I would buy a tin of biscuits and keep it in my staff room locker and
she could come to the staff room and help herself without anyone knowing about
it. When the tin of biscuits was finished, it was her turn to call me aside and
tell me: “Miss Senthe, yes we are poor. Yes we wash the flats in our area and
sweep the compound. But we do not accept anything from anybody.”
Immediately,
it flashed upon me that the poor too have their dignity and we have no right to
undermine that. My God gave me the wisdom and the insight to respect her wishes
and I didn’t push it down her throat. I can’t remember her name now, but I will
remember as long as I live the one lesson she taught me: "We are poor, but we
have our own dignity".
Another
time, I was given a rather more able class. A girl in that class had shouted
back at the teacher who complained loud and long in the staff room about my
class and the rude behaviour of this girl. When I confronted the girl, she
meekly and obediently went and apologised to the teacher.
But
another onlooker student, Teh Choon Yin came to me confidentially and told me, it was the teacher who provoked Poh Choo! And so gave me a perpective from an
objective student’s point of view.
I
used to teach also, as part of the lessons in argumentative writing, “flaws in
reasoning”. One of the flaws used to be designated “missing the wood for the
trees”. A girl in that class used to pick up a point I had made (quite out of
the topic) and distract me. I would almost always be side tracked and get into
the argument. Thanks to Chitra Raghavan who pointed out to me: “You are falling
for her distraction every time.”
But
the prize for my being taught by my students goes to Moey Yoke Lai, who was a
prefect in Form 4 when I began teaching. At that time, there was a sprawling
rain tree and under it, the grass grew luxuriantly. Everywhere were signs: “Do
not walk on the grass.”
At
that time, you could walk along the corridor to the office from the staff room.
(the long way). Or you could take a short cut across the lawn, stepping on the
verdant grass. The Form Four classroom in which Moey Yoke Lai sat overlooked
this green.
One
day, I had been summoned to the office by Miss Cooke. Not knowing what this
summons would entail, I was dashing across the grass from the staff room to the
office. The Form Four class (Yoke Lai is supposed to be paying attention to the
teacher) was in session. And suddenly lo and behold, Yoke Lai, the prefect,
stands in front of me.
“Miss
Senthe, you cannot walk on the grass! You are fined 20 cents (in 1965, 30 cents
could buy you a bowl of laksa!)
She
taught me something that day, because I HAD to pay the fine. Now you’ll understand how one BBGS
pupil turned out to be a headmistress in true BBGS style!
