Teachers, Beware!

it was a shocker-with just a few months to go before I take voluntary retirement, my student who is now my colleague tells me that as a teacher I was a terror!!! and I always thought that I was the sweetest and most amiable person on earth!!

she tells me that the story that is still doing the rounds about me is that once, during my lecture, a fly buzzed around my face. and I looked at it once and it vanished. they don’t know how the vanishing act was achieved. probably got charred, the students still say.

and she remmbers each occasion when I blew my lid off- and the strangest thing is, I don’t remember any of them! in fact I don’t remember ever getting angry with that particular batch. I used to like them and enjoy my lecture sessions with them!!!!!

I had half a mind to withdraw my decision to retire and go on so that I get sometime to repair my image.

no use , my student turned colleague says, too late. there’s a gulf between the person I know as my colleague and the person who was my teacher.

I have just a few more months in service and I have made up my mind that atleast the present batch of students will take home pleasant memories about me.

and so I have started damage control operations.

last week I entered the class room smiling broadly. tried to sustain that countenenance throughout. did I catch the students exchanging furtive glances? am not sure but I certainly do hope I did not over do it. don’t want them to think that I’ve become soft in the brain overnight.

but I intent to keep at it.

in the meanwhile, teachers, be careful how you conduct yourself in the lecture rooms. you are on the wrong side of the desk from where a a perplexed expression will appear like a scowl, a sneeze like a tornado, and silence like an iceberg.