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by Vishmi Wijeratne
In spite of the fact that most of us think, they only live to
interrogate us and nose around our business; have you ever wondered why,
such a group of people, universally known as teachers exist?
 Even though most of us find ourselves wishing at least once every
day: that this group of people should cease to exist! Let's face it,
where will we be without them?
Our beloved parents, they were the first teachers. If they hadn't fed
us, taught us to dress and clean ourselves, we would still be in the
savage form of our ancestors, in the days of yore. This is not my basic
point, we have all passed that age and what we are really infuriated
with is: the group called teachers! But wait we shouldn't be! And they
definitely don't deserve this fury.
Yes, you might find them infuriating: when they come up to you and
"shush!" you in the most interesting part of yesterdays conversation,
with your boy/girl friend. You might consider them worthless hags when
they curve a perfect zero on, your answer sheet.
They might look like the meanest slugs when they tell you off and
favour somebody else. You might not believe me, but most of the time, we
are at fault.
Then what is the reason for them to tolerate all our insolent
insults? Do you think they don't know? (don't fool yourself thinking
that) they know what we think of them (at least to some extent), they
feel our eyes glaring at them from behind their heads; they know because
they too have passed that age.
We love to have any excuse to blame our teacher, but have you for
once looked back to the day when, she was the only one standing beside
you when you flunked?
Don't you remember the inspiring words uttered, when you were down?
Who helped you to come all this way? (You didn't do it alone as your ego
might record).
When showers of praise fell upon your good nature; sometimes by your
teacher herself; and then your ego got the better of you, and you lost
yourself; who pulled you back? You were confused about life, didn't know
what you'd be; who uttered soothing words?
My friends, do you see my point? Let me put this simply: it was
teachers.
They were always there for us; they always stood and will always
stand by us. Amidst all the insults we shower over them, they still try
to correct us, why? Because they know that someday we will realize: what
they said was true, because someday - it might not be very soon - we
will remember and say: "Oh Gosh! I can't believe this! But my teacher
was right all along!"
This doesn't mean we should solely depend on them, or that they are
always right.
They are human beings too; and they are bound to make mistakes, after
all no one ever stops learning until the end of their lives, but we
should always remember: we might have all the worldly knowledge, but a
teacher is always one step ahead of us! And remember she/he is the only
other person who is second to our parents in being selfless on our
behalf, and we should respect that.
After all a teacher is the only person who can demonstrate the fact
that: "silence is the ancient art of defeat" when we are confronted by
the group universally known as teachers. |
