Little Lessons

It’s funny how some of life’s lessons are taught to you by the very people who need to be hearing them from you. 

On our last day at summer school, we took our 8th graders upstairs to play cricket in an empty classroom. During this, a 7th grader came to me and asked if I had the letter C from the Scrabble board game [The 7th graders were playing a game of treasure hunt in which they were given a list of things to find.] I told him I did and went with him downstairs to get it from my bag. He thanked me and I went back upstairs. A short while later he returned and asked me if I had my ID card which I could lend to him for the game too. I went down with him again and let him have it, asking him to return both my things after the game. Later during the day when I was working on something in the staffroom, he came to return my things and thanked me. I took them and got back to my work. He knocked again and called me. When I reached him he asked me my name. Puzzled I replied, ‘My name is Yumna.’ He went back to his class leaving me wondering why he did what he just did. I went back to my class after a while and we began to wrap up. As the day drew to a close, I saw the 7th grader standing at my door. I went to him and he handed to me a card and a sheet of paper saying this was for me. Apparently he had gotten hold of a blank copy of a certificate that was distributed in his class and had written my name on it: Miss Amna. The card was actually something he had written for his own teacher but their name was crossed out and replaced with my name, once again: Miss Amna. I was more amazed than amused by this gesture of undeserved appreciation from a child I hardly knew. How often do we thank strangers for their random acts of kindness? Do we even acknowledge the kindness of people who AREN’T strangers to us?

One of the things we did at our classrooms was ‘Positive Posts’ where we had our students write to us about how they felt about summer school, about classes and teachers. It helped us get feedback and act on it though I think it’s unfortunate that we were able to do this only twice; once at the end of the first week, the other at the end of summer school. In the earlier one, I had gotten a note from a student saying ‘I don’t understand science.’ I spoke to him soon after and realized what issues he was saying. The second time we did positive posts, I received a note which said, ‘Miss Yumna doesn’t teach well. She gives good marks to some students and bad marks to others.’ Getting this on my last day at school really made me feel guilty and sad. I wish I was as observant as my students and had realized this earlier, without him having to point it out. I wish I could go back in time and be a better teacher to him.

Another time, before classes began I noticed there was a lot of trash in our classroom. I knew if I were to initiate the cleanup, some of the other students would definitely follow. So I got to work, picking wrappers from the floor, collecting empty juice boxes from desks. Sure enough, I first heard comments like ‘Look! The teacher is cleaning up! Have some shame!’ and this was followed by the appearance of a number of helping hands. Some even came to grab the trash from my hands so I won’t have to walk to the dustbin! The amount of respect these children show really put me to shame. It is not very often that we offer help unless asked for it.

Another thing that really impressed me was when a couple of my students actually refused to give in more time to work despite it being the season for orders. They told their employers point blank that they could not miss school for this and resisted their employers’ demands. That must have taken a lot of courage and I salute my students for taking that stand. It also makes me think how we as children never had to live through such times where we never had to make the choice between going to school or going to work. Life certainly is tougher for them and I hope they stay strong like this throughout.

And it is all of this, combined together, which made me love these kids. The simple acts of love, concern, gratitude, and respect from them really made it a learning experience for me, reminding me of the values which have eroded from our own lives over time. I will always remember these kids for teaching me these simple little lessons.