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This story is shared by a former student who suffered at the hands of a cruel teacher, but it was another teacher who inspired him to turn his life around.
I grew up poor. I was literally the “Kampung Boy” from the Lat Comics. Neither of my parents were educated, and that made it really important that I get one. I was in High School, and I missed a few days of class because I was sick.
When I went back to school, my mother wrote a handwritten letter to the teacher explaining my absence. As I handed in the letter to my English teacher, Ms Amy, a dark shadow crossed her face.
“Why is the handwriting so bad? Did you write this?”
“My mother wrote it, ma’am.”
“You are lying! I‘m going to speak to your parents.”
“You are lying! I‘m going to speak to your parents.”
“No, I’m telling you the truth. That’s my mother’s handwriting.”
“You wrote this letter! Admit it. You wanted to ponteng school.”
My mothers’ handwriting and spelling are pretty bad as she didn’t finish high school, and it is something that I know she’s embarrassed about.
My father was almost completely illiterate as well. Hearing my teacher denigrate it like that was quite depressing.
I looked at her and calculated which was worse: Having my parents come to defend me, and force them to deal with that kind of humiliation, or just taking a beating and being done with it.
So I shut up and took the beating and the public ridicule from my “Teacher”. She called me a liar, cheat and several other things I won’t repeat. That was almost 30 years ago.
From that childhood memory, I’ve always tried to understand my students first before dispensing my version of ‘justice’.
I became a rebel, but one teacher turned my life around.
After my father passed away from liver failure (he was an alcoholic), I grew up to be a rebel teen who would pick fights in class and smoke behind the boys’ toilets during recess.
But it was my Kemahiran Hidup teacher, Cik Hanis, who turned my life around. She was the most influential teacher in my life.
I had gotten into trouble in her class: another student had pushed me into a wood lathe, and I became enraged and began to hit him.
“Jaya, why are you wasting your life? Why aren’t you going to college?”
Cik Hanis stopped the fight, but instead of sending me to the office, she sat me down and asked a simple question: “Jaya, why are you wasting your life? Why aren’t you going to college?”
I didn’t know anything about colleges or scholarships. No one had ever considered that a fatherless boy from the poorest neighborhood had a future.
That day, instead of rushing off for lunch, she stayed and explained possible education options to me. At the end of our talk, she sent me to see a secretary who had a child at a local college.
After 20 years, I’ve become an educator myself.
Well, almost 20 years have passed, and what have I done with the knowledge she gave me? I gained an MBA at the age of 35. I taught English at a local primary school and then moved up the chain of command from teacher to principal.
Today I have a PhD in English Literature. I am an educator who’s won a number of prestigious educational awards.
But where would I be if a truly caring teacher had not taken the time out of her break to speak with me? It was, without question, only her confidence in me that propelled me forward.
I have repaid her kindness hundreds of times by encouraging misguided youngsters to aim higher. If I have saved any children, it is because of her. If I have been a successful educator, it is because I had a great role model in Cik Hanis.
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Also read: How My Mathematics Teacher Saved Me From A Beating By My Father
How My Mathematics Teacher Saved Me From A Beating By My Father
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