TEACHERS . . . PECULIAR?
WELL, JUST HOW PECULIAR?
By: Zehra Nasirali
Date: 28th September,
1998
For: Mr. Macleod
Course: ENG-3AI
Are teachers normal like you & me? Do
they know how to have a good time or do they remain in their own poise of
maturity of being a teacher? Do they ever step out of their house to go to the
mall or movies or simply to fulfill their craving for Baskin Robbins ice cream?
NO! They would never do that! They probably spend the rest of their day marking
assignments, reading the dictionary or completing a row of their 'read-twice'
books!
Do they occasionally transit into the
extremes of their set boundaries & limits; do they abide staunchly to their
moral ethics and firm principles which means they give a student a big, fat
'zero' on their exam because they forgot to cross the t's or dot the is? Many
of us also wonder if teachers observe and ponder the same thoughts as we teens
keep circulating in our brains, like 'what am I going to wear tomorrow?'
Moreover, are they attentive to their surroundings (like in class) other than
spending their daily 11pm's and keeping their full attention span on Jai
Maharaj and Harold Hussein on City Plus, that they end up with a shirt that's
drowning in drool? Oh! 1 just answered my question to why, sometimes my
ink-written report is returned back to me with smudges all over... oh! Ewww!!
Once again, I wonder if teachers are as alienated as I allow my mind to
believe?
When it comes to family, I wonder if
teachers recognize their kids to be their own or if they often treat them as a
student; if not, wow! Aren't those kids lucky! The question continues: do
teachers constantly judge the knowledge capacity of their kids or do they just
give them a break? I remember just like it was yesterday, how pestered and
annoyed I'd get by my sister persistent to edit my essay, elevating
unnecessarily speech and rewriting my sloppy writing into her perfection of
calligraphy! She never paid any attention when I told her that I would get in
trouble if the teacher found out that my work was written by someone else - and
surely, I was made to stand in the comer every time my teacher detected this.
That was just the beginning. The nightmare started and my rage would reach a
110 on a mercury thermometer, the minute my sister saw, 'Grammar Quiz next
week' written on my schedule that was thumb-tacked to the bulletin board in my
room. Then it would begin; her blackboard would come out, her teacher mask she
would wear, (sometimes I really empathized with her students!) and questions
darted at me like I was a dartboard! Not only did I have to spend one day (in
the shower) but all seven consecutive days, (in the shower) as she erupted each
and every hair oil gland I had with questions, in return causing my head to
look like a wet lollipop! The funny part was that if I didn't work towards a
95% or above on her ‘no-life’ quiz, the fact that I wasn’t going to get a
golden star on my quiz paper was supposed to upset me – little did she know!
As the years flew by and I grew older, I
guess I was lucky that she ceased to buy me different editions of the Oxford
dictionary, 13 volumes of different encyclopedias and memberships at various
libraries. Instead I was promoted to Shakespeare's plays and a full life
membership at 'Poesie avec Cafe.' As
far as my sister goes, my personal experience explains it all, but as for the
other teachers, the question still stands; 'Do teachers treat their kids as
students?'
The queries don't end here but the longer
my thread of curiosity, the longer the line of questions that begins to
surface. Another question pops up in my head: Do teachers purposely make their
tests easy to pass the students or do they make their tests so hard, that their
aim is to challenge the student to the extreme, resulting in failure? Although,
all teachers aren't alike, most inspirational and enthusiastic teachers
definitely categorize under my second thought mentioned above; once again, in
my adverse opinion, teachers make a special assignment of turning students'
lives into hell.
Class mischief. Don't teachers remember
the stunts they pulled when they were students? Are they aware that students
keep a rep on how guileful they can be and get away with it? … That when
students ask to take down the attendance, they stop for a smoke halfway and
return within the next half hour? Don't they realize that when a student is in
the act of writing something when the blackboard or the overhead doesn't show
any notes, that they are
either
writing a love note to their boy/girl-friend or maybe just plainly doodling?
Don't they hear the noises a candy wrapper makes when a student discretely
unfolds it in their desk? Do teachers realize that they moment they turn their
backs on us or leave the classroom for a second, freedom
of
speech with our friends is exercised? What about during exams: do they perceive
the thought that when a student asks to borrow an eraser from a student five
desks across him, that there might be an answer written underneath it? If
teachers don't anticipate such thoughts and acts, then it is obvious that they
don't reflect upon their own teen years.
However unaware teachers might seem, we
should never underestimate them. What we don't pay attention to, that is what
they pay attention to in their own discrete ways. When you least expect it,
you'll always find them looking over their eye-glasses while pretending to do
some work. They always notice the smallest things, like the slight movement of
your mouth indicates that you're chewing gum.
Also we must never, ever underestimate the teachers' hearing; the
softest whispers of a student, I believe, are as clear as a whistle to the
teachers' ears, & trust me, an exchange of a few words with your friend is
not worth the trouble. They pick up chitchat
as fast as an iron ball drops to the ground by gravity!
Even though my tons of questions haven’t
yet been answered, my whole life of me remains to find out the answers. But for right now, I’ve drawn the conclusion
that no matter how peculiar, strict, persistent or unobservant teachers may be,
the fact that they are like our second parent, definitely entitles them to
respect from us. Whether they are what
we think they are or not, does not matter.
But I still would like to know whether. . .
Teacher’s Comments: Very interesting piece of work! I liked your tone and humour! 89%