A teacher's tale

I chanced upon this article in The Sun and I wish to share a couple's re-union with their students:

Thank you Cikgu, we appreciate you

ON Sunday, the world celebrated World Teachers’ Day. We owe a lot to these men and women who have devoted their lives to teaching and guiding us. And for this reason we have been celebrating Teachers’ Day on Oct 5 since 1967 to commemorate the signing of the Unesco/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers on Oct 5, 1966.

So much honour has been accorded universally to teachers in recognition of their role in society. Somehow we seem to be a little bit low key these days in celebrating Oct 5.

Maybe it is because we seem to have less respect for this noblest of professions now than we once had. Indeed, we say good things only about the teachers we had. Somehow we seem reluctant to respect our children’s teachers despite the fact that they do play a role in opening the doors to the world for them.

We seem to have decided, mostly based on hearing others saying so, that teachers these days are not as dedicated as their predecessors were and lack the passion for the job. Have we considered that if they are indeed lacking in dedication and passion whose fault is it that they are seen that way.

These days, I enjoy the company of retired teachers in their sixties at breakfast, and for the past few days, even for supper when they knew I was home alone. They have many tales to tell, about funny instances at school, especially on how they skived at work. An ex-supervisor was nicknamed, ‘sweeper-visor’ for his lax supervision over fellow teachers. A headmaster is known as ‘hau cheong’ in Cantonese, so his wife should be known as, ‘hau poh’ which actually means ‘loose woman’!

At a drinks stall among the temporary food stalls next to Pusing market, the couple always wish us ‘Cikgu’ even though two out of three of us were not. When corrected, she would say, ‘it is the same lah, just one word to show our respect for teachers’. The husband would tell us why he thinks highly of teachers, relating instances of special treatment at hospital, government departments and banks.

One of our occasional members had just related his re-union with his ex-students in Triang, Pahang. They have actually lost contact with him who incidentally, met his wife when they were teaching in the small three-classroom Chinese medium school. One of the ex-students notified a Chinese radio station that they were looking for this couple. Someone who knows them in Batu Gajah, happened to hear of the request over the radio and informed the ex-students. Contact established, a re-union was planned months ago. It was delayed by at least 6 months because this couple had already arranged to visit their daughter in the U.S. for the duration.

At supper, a few nights ago, the husband showed us a group picture taken of the whole group, including some other ex-teachers. Except for YB Leong Ngah Ngah (5-term DAP ADUN in Pahang, 4 terms as the only opposition representative), who is 2 years younger, the rest were born in the year 1954 and are 54 years old. So thoughtful of them and such respect for their teachers. No matter what level of social status some of the students have reached, their cikgus will always be respected, as cikgus like before, with fond memories. I wish the students today will appreciate their teachers too.