Happy Teachers' Day!

On the 1st of September every year, students in Singapore celebrate Teachers' Day. Its a day set aside to honour, appreciate and recognise the effort of teachers here. Having spoken to some school-going kids recently, it appears that Teachers' Day is "just another holiday" for them. Not many students today truly appreciate the hard-work, energy and dedication that teachers put into drumming knowledge into their heads as well as moulding them into being invaluable members of society.

With today's busy lifestyle where both parents have to go out into the workforce to ensure a relatively comfortable life, the education and the nurturing of their children are often left solely to teachers. And when these kids mess up, the teachers often are on the receiving end of blame. I remember back in the day, if I made a mistake in school and was punished, I would only get "Good! You deserved it!" from my parents if I told them. Not even an ounce of sympathy could be squeezed from either. However these days, a teacher gets hauled up to the Principal's office by the parents if their child is punished. It doesn't matter if the child is wrong. And later, society wonder why our kids are so ill-behaved.

Sadly, the minute a student graduates from school, the sweat and blood of his teacher is often forgotten. And when they run into their teachers some time later in life, they pretend not to recognise them. I feel sorry for these students - and the teachers that shaped them.

My aim with this entry is not to yammer on about the sad relationship between teachers and students but to talk about one of my favourite teachers, how much I love her and will never forget what she's done for me. Her name is Mdm Tai.

First and foremost, let me start by saying that very little scared me back when I was in school. The sight of teachers or even our school's Principal would not make me flinch one bit. Fortunately, I was not a rebellious kid or else this trait would have made me "famous" in school. But at the prime of my teenage years when I was in Pre-University, I met a lady that my classmates and I actually "feared". She is Mdm Tai, an elegant lady with impeccable dress sense. No matter how noisy the class was, the minute her well-polished high-heeled shoes made its first step through the classroom door, the entire class would go silent.

Mdm Tai taught us Economics and she was an excellent teacher. She worked very hard to hammer simple economic concepts through our thick skulls. With her in-depth knowledge of the subject, you'd think she'd be better off in a cushy job working for a business or financial consultancy raking in loads of money instead of standing on her feet all day in a hot classroom inhaling chalk-dust and making sure we understood stuff like Demand & Supply and The Law of Diminishing Returns. But she came to class everyday and in the three years of Pre-University that I knew Mdm Tai, I never recalled her taking a sick day.

If there is one word that described her, it would be "strict" - in every sense of the meaning. She was a no nonsense teacher. During our second year, we had to do weekly exercises from a pink Economics book filled with multiple-choice questions. For those of us who were too lazy to get our work done - and that was all of us - we'd borrow the book from the only other Pre-University class who had already completed the exercise with Mdm Tai and we copied the answers wholesale. We were "brilliant"... but Mdm Tai was two steps ahead of us. She started the class by reading question one and asking "Prem, what is your answer?" I stood up proudly and said "C" knowing full well it was the correct answer. "Very good, Prem! But why can't the answer be "D"? Please explain." The usually talkative, jovial and effervescent Prem could only manage the intermittent "er..... er..... um.... er....". I looked around the class and I could literally see the colour drain from the faces of my chums. "Made good friends with the other class, I see.", came Mdm Tai's conclusion and I was promptly invited to stand on my chair and looking like an Oscar. Not too long after, we were all standing on our chairs. We learnt that Mdm Tai was not interested in the right answer - she really wanted to know if we actually understood what we've learnt . We started taking our assignments seriously, forming study groups and making sure we were armed to the teeth with economics theories and concepts.

Mdm Tai was not all business. We saw her fun side when we invited her, for the first time, to one of our weekend parties at my house. Mdm Tai rolled up her sleeves and helped with the barbecue, made sure the fruit punch didn't have "punch", if you get my drift and when the thumping music played by yours truly came on, she got onto the dance floor and boogie'd the night away with all of us. We all had a blast - especially since we were having a wonderful time with the teacher we "feared".

Someone reading this will ask : "If you're so scared of your teacher, what made you invite her to your party anyway?" The answer to that is simple. While she often berated us severely for our laziness or failure to understand simple theories or simply because we misbehaved, there was one thing she could never hide from us - the care and concern that showed in her eyes and in between her yelling, you could clearly hear that there wasn't a tinge of malice or disdain. That was what made us love and appreciate her. Everything she did was from the heart. We eventually realised that we did not actually fear her but it was the feeling of our immense respect for our teacher. I think we were more fearful of disappointing her.

One evening about 5 years after we graduated, all of us invited Mdm Tai to dinner in town. We hadn't seen her before that. And when she walked into the restaurant, she was as radiant and elegant as ever and her fashion sense was still top-notched. I was surprised when she walked straight to me and said "Prem! Its wonderful to see you again!" and gave me a hug! I fought hard to hold back my tears of joy.

Sadly, Mdm Tai retired from teaching in 2005 and many students will not have the good fortune of experiencing her love, care and concern - even if it is hidden by the massive scoldings. And although in her 60s now, I'll bet everything I own that even if her hair maybe a little silvery, she's still as elegant as she ever was. I'd like to think that her class of 1987 - 1989 did her proud. All of us have successful careers with some of us in very well-known local and multi-national companies as Engineers and Managers while others have gone on to becoming successful entrepreneurs and even teachers, following in Mdm Tai's footsteps.

There is so much more to write about my fantastic teacher but if I go on, this blog will turn into a book. I am not sure if Mdm Tai will ever come across this blog but if she does, I want her to know how much we all apprecite her for everything she has done for us. She was a wonderful teacher and definitely second to none. I only hope that when my son goes to school, he'll be fortunate enough to have a teacher he can appreciate and respect too.

Thank you, Mdm Tai. Our affection and appreciation for you will not be subjected to the Law of Diminishing Returns.

Happy Teachers' Day!

No prizes for picking out Mdm Tai in the picture above.

Note From Premster : Mdm Tai is in her 50s, not her 60s. Stupid, stupid Prem!!