Sunday, May 31, 2009

2 Teachers I Will Always Remember

Just got back from Penang. Damn stupid and unlucky at the same time. Halfway to Penang I did something stupid and ended up hurting the engine of my poor car. Fortunately my car was still able enough to take Princess and me back to Penang but I had to leave my car in a workshop there.

In the mean time I have to borrow another car from my Dad. A Honda Civic.... great car actually... really like it!

Anyway I was talking to Princess today about two teachers I have had in my life that I will always remember.... but not for good reasons.

Let me tell you about both of them.

1) "Selamat Pagi Datin".

The first teacher was one I had in secondary school. She only came in as a replacement teacher one day. When she walked into the class, my friend Samuel who was the class monitor shouted out the routine
"Class Stand...."

And the whole class of 40 boys got up from their seats and stood up.

Then they followed the class monitor's cue when he said
"Selamat Pagi Cikgu".

When everyone proceeded to sit down, the teacher shouted 
"SEKALI LAGI!"

Puzzled the class monitor shouted the greeting.. but a lot louder

"SELAMAT PAGI CIKGU!!!"

The whole classroom including myself echoed at the top of our lungs just in case she was upset we didn't say it loud enough at first.

Seconds later we all stood to watch her to see if we could all sit down and yet it wasn't enough.

She scolded us and made us wish her a few more times until she finally got fed up and told us to say instead
"SELAMAT PAGI DATIN!"

So we all followed her cue and finally she let us sit down.

We later found out that day that her husband is a Dato so she insists that everyone greet her as Datin... not as Cikgu.

2) "I knew you could do it"

The other teacher I will always remember is my mathematics teacher in college. Here's the story.

I didn't do Add Maths in school because knowing that I never wanted to be a Doctor, Scientist, Engineer or anything like that I decided to go into the Arts Stream instead. When I went into A-Levels though I wanted to take Maths and the first time I walked into a Maths class there I was terrified. I had never before even heard of anything like Differentiation or Integration at the point in time and the teacher was teaching it as the basics as if everyone was already supposed to know it.

Of course everyone around me was doing okay because all of them did Add Maths in school but I was completely clueless. So after the first class I went up to the teacher Miss J, and asked her for help. After she learned that I never did Add Maths she told me to drop the subject or she's pretty sure I will fail or get a C or D or something.

I refused to believe that I couldn't do it so I started taking private tuition and working very hard on my maths. Miss J wasn't much help though. Whenever I went up to her for help she would get impatient with me and say 

"I told you to drop it! You're going to fail now... nothing you can do".

On the other hand, she was really nice to a select group of A students in the class who were good in math. I don't look up to teachers like this. I mean anyone can teach students who are naturally already good in the subject.... but a teacher really proves his/her worth he/she teaches someone who is bad in the subject and guide the student to an A at the end. This teacher had no patience to do any of that.

Somewhere in the mid-term or something she gave this really hard test where almost everyone except a few people passed the test. She came up to me and said 
"I'm surprised you passed Tim".

At the end of my A-Levels I had gotten an A for Mathematics. I bumped into her in a mall with some of my friends the other day and I told her my results.

She said then
"Congrats... I always knew you could do it".

She was suddenly all nice to me and COMPLETELY ignorant to the fact that for 1 and a half years she had reminded me that I would fail or get a C at best.

I smiled out of courtesy but at the back of my head I was thinking to myself
"No thanks to you Miss J"

So these are the two teachers I will always remember in my life. I sometimes wonder if they had impacted anyone else the same way they impacted me.

20 comments:

I Am Kapster said...

I think I know who the Datin is, lol!

Unknown said...

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_unplugged.html

Hi Tim, i would like to share these to you.

Both Sir Ken Robinson and Bill Gates' talks really inspire me a lot. In their talks, they spoke about the roles of teachers during our school life. Quite persuasive and inspiring.

Ken Wooi said...

haha sweet..
memories huh?
i do have fierce teachers last time.. but kinda forgotten about them..
however, i do remember kind good teachers!
ahh..i miss schooling life.. haha.. =D

Ray said...

the first cikgu, I mean, DATIN, seems rather arrogant to me. It's just a freakin' title, what the big deal?

the 2nd 1, try to think it as reverse psychology~ she talks you down so you could prove your worth~
But I don't believe teacher should use that method though...might break the self-esteem on weaker person...

I don't even remember most of my teachers already...

pinksterz said...

Before i came to egypt to study i had to go for this stupid preparatory arabic crash coure thingy. I was the worst student in the class, and i still remember one of the ustaz said to me that he knew "i wont be able to survive in egypt at all" being the last student in exam and all. Hah! Now I cant wait to go back and find him and speak my fluent (well relatively better than before lah :P) arabic to his face wei. Hohohoho! :P

Cindy Khor said...

kinda sacarstic teachers i would say, a little bit snobbish... hopefully your car would be alright after the repair...and doesn't cost you a bomb

KY said...

no teacher ever left a good impression instead?

Dc said...

there are all kinds of teachers around the world, as there are all kinds of human beings with different bringing up and such. So you will meet an asshole anywhere u go that's for certain.

Anyhow, why is your blog taking forever to load, and kennysia's too, zzzzz. so sien

Vy said...

Wah, that datin is really there to teach meh? And I agree with you about teachers like Miss J. What's her worth. Sigh~ I miss my schooling days. Those were the best!

Pookyma said...

farking datin...she damn 9 lansi..

pretending to be emo and stuff when she taught us physics last time.

wat's so special about her that we have to call her datin.it's not like she earned the title or anything.

i nv liked her,so do my peers

Boss Stewie said...

miss: how you know wan?

michael: hey man.. thanks for sharing. will check it out right now

kenwooi: yeah i had a number of good teachers as well.. and the fierce ones too... fortunately the good ones outnumber the bad ones still

ray: yeah... and it's not like any of us knew

pinksterz: hahahaha take a picture of his face when you do it and post it on your blog ok? How is Egypt like?

cindy: yeah it'll be ok.. just don't know how much it'll cost me :(

ky: got ler.. maybe I'll save them for another entry

dcyk: hahahaa... are you surfing frmo malaysia dude?

vy: yeah she was there to teach but she must've had some high achieving Dato husband.. i geuss

pooky: yah.. damn lansi! you know her meh?

erin: really??? but this datin teacher was a school teacher. do you think it's the same? some more she was in penang

pinkbag said...

huhu.. i know who the datin is also.. same school, served under her house.

~~haha~~ said...

wtf o, that first teacher? dai sai meh get datin? zzz... and i think the second teacher malu last time she "sut" (scold) you, so want to forget abt it, and say congrats, and how she always think that you can do it to you.

kevinpnp said...

You'll never get these kinda teachers in my secondary school for long. You know why?

Cause these kinda teachers will be bullied by students. Simply because the students often out smart the teachers. We never give a damn to maths teachers AT ALL. Because they deserve no respect from us.

ash said...

I always wonder why ppl think we give a damn if they have a datin/dato title or not. The titles serve no purpose nowadays because they're extremely overrated. Don't we already see a lot of news bout sultans selling the titles for hundreds thousands?

Wilson J Q Quah said...

Boss, miss J is my fav teacher. Dun talk bad bout her hehe.

pinkpaperplane said...

Hey I had the exact same kind of teacher for Add Maths at school! She completely ignored me and when I asked her questions she would say "Cuba Sendiri" "Cuba Lagi" GRRR... and she'd go back chatting and discussing questions with her select group of students.

m@y3 g@L said...

about the SELAMAT PAGI DATIN remind me of my secondary teacher as well. The situation that u describe was just exactly wat happen to my class tat time. Can't stand her though...

eunicetan said...

I loved Mr Cheng! Although it did feel terrible when I had to measure up to a higher bar he had set for me but the experience was worth it. But he did write me a very nice testimonial after :P

But after leaving SXI, I realise that my fondest memories of sixth form were of him, my econs teacher and BOD. And nasi lemak goreng.

wEtwEtwAtEr said...

I love Miss J too! Hahaha...

"You boys at the back there, do whatever you like la! You fail not my problem..." Miss J.