Source: The Internet

Yes! Teacher

I am a teacher who has just graduated from university and it is my first time in taking a class. I teach children at lower levels. Every time I see the smiles on those children’s faces, all my worries and anxieties are forgotten. However, sometimes when they are naughty it makes me want to throttle them to death. Of course, I would not really throttle them because I do not want to go to jail!

In total, there are 36 little gremlins in my class, all of whom I both love and hate!  I love this job very much, but there are often times when I feel disheartened and helpless. These negative feelings mainly derive from one pupil in the class, his name is Shao Wei-hua.

He delays in doing his homework every time, he is at the bottom of the class for his exam results, there is no signature in his contact book, he does not bring back reply slips and his personality is totally withdrawn. Moreover, his exam results are below 20 marks every time. All of these make me very worried as he is only in national primary one!  With his homework being so bad, what shall I do with him?

I often hear people say that teachers at national primary school level play an important role to enlighten a child. They have a huge influence on the child’s future. Due to this, I strongly believe that I have a responsibility to teach him well. However, punishing him is no use, scolding him shows no improvement and should I counsel him I would only hear a superficial false reply, ‘Yes!  Teacher.’ He continues to delay in completing homework, he continues not to bring things and he continues not to prepare for exams. I really do not know what I can do to help him improve!

A
“All pupils, hand in your compositions tomorrow!  The title is ‘My Family’. Class dismissed!”

“Goodbye, Teacher.” shouted the children together.

“Bye-bye!”  I responded with a smile.

“Come over here, Shao Wei-hua!”  I called him over as he lifted his schoolbag.

“Teacher, what’s the matter?”  he asked with his innocent face and eyes opened wide.

“Tomorrow!  Remember to hand in your composition, together with the homework from the last art lesson, you’re the only one who hasn’t returned it!  Quickly hand it in!”

“Yes!  Teacher.” Still the same sentence, he does not know how many times he has said to me “Yes!  Teacher.”, but it has not come true once. Although his face always shows an expression of such seriousness, I know that his guarantee and its probability of realisation is very, very slim............

“Alright!  Bye-bye. Please be careful on the road!”

“Goodbye Teacher!”  as he waved his hand with a splendid smile. I watched the view of his back and I sighed slightly. How could such a good mannered child be so undisciplined when doing things!  I hoped that this time he really did what he said.

B
The next morning, “Row-prefect, please collect the compositions and let me know who has not handed this in?”

“Teacher, we’ve all handed this in from our row!”
“Teacher, we’ve also handed this in!”  Each row-prefect in turn handed over the compositions for their classmates.
“Teacher, Shao Wei-hua hasn’t handed his in!”  Exactly as I expected. His guarantee yesterday was just a blank cheque.

“Shao Wei-wah.”
“Yes!”  He stood up.

“Yesterday, did Teacher not especially remind you?  Why have you still not handed this in?”  He did not answer my question. Instead, he lowered his head and kept his lips tightly shut.

“As punishment, stand at the back of the class for this lesson and have a good think about this.”
“Yes!  Teacher.” No matter whether I punish or scold him, he would not angrily stomp or sulk, but he would just politely say, “Yes!  Teacher.”

“Everyone, take out your Maths book and turn to page 64 ..............” I started to teach and every child attentively looked at the blackboard, except for him.

That day after school it suddenly poured down with heavy rain. The shower came so unexpectedly, that only a few people brought any rainwear. Therefore, as I walked past the hallway, I saw many children forming a long queue in front of the public telephone. I guessed that they were calling their parents to come and pick them up!  Amongst the mass of children I saw that Shao Wei-hua was also standing in the queue and he was next to use the telephone.

Then, as the child in front of him hung up the phone, he walked forward, dropped in the coin, picked up the receiver; however, he did not even attempt to dial and hung up the phone. He then left with his head lowered in despair. He walked alone into the heavy rain.

How can this be?  I opened my umbrella and chased ahead.

“Wei-hua, what happened, why don’t you ask your mum or dad to come and pick you up?”  I crouched down to talk to him at his level.
“There’s no need, Teacher, I can go home myself.”

“But it’s raining very heavily, you’ll catch a cold like this, Teacher will take you home then.”
“It doesn’t matter, my home is opposite the school, I’ll be home quickly!”

“Really?  Teacher drives and doesn’t need an umbrella, I’ll lend this to you first. Hurry home then!”  I moved the umbrella closer to him.

“Thank you Teacher.” He took the umbrella and gave me a smile.
“Bye-bye!”  as I stroked his slightly damp hair.

Having travelled some distance after leaving the school, I suddenly remembered that I had left my mobile phone in the office so I turned back to get it. “Honestly, because of this phone I’m wasting so much time going back to get it.” I complained about my own carelessness.

Inside the car, the wipers moved unceasingly back and forth. The rain still fell heavily. As I waited at the traffic lights, a familiar shadow caught my attention. It was Shao Wei-hua!  He ran to the front of a detached house, took out a key, opened the door and went inside.

“His home is here?”  I whispered to myself. How strange, did he not say that his home was opposite the school?

However, the distance from here to the school was almost 2 kilometres. Seeing a seven-year-old child walk 2 kilometres home alone most certainly makes one feel sorry for him.

But I did not understand why he lied to me by saying that his home was only opposite the school?  Was he afraid of me?  Or was he embarrassed about me giving him a lift?

“Baa!”  as the light turned green, the car behind me sounded its horn to urge me to go. I temporarily set this doubt aside and put my foot on the accelerator.

C
“Report!”
“Please come in.”

“Teacher, I’m returning your umbrella!  Thank you.” Shao Wei-hua returned the umbrella with both hands. As I watched him return the umbrella, I could not help thinking why he remembered to return my umbrella, but still not hand in his compositions even once?  Really, this child!

However, as I saw his face when he returned the umbrella, I felt a kind of sweetness.

“Wei-hua, Teacher would like to ask you, is your home really opposite the school?”  He was silent for a long time and did not answer. Judging from his expression I knew that he lied.

“It doesn’t matter, honestly. Teacher is not going to punish you.”
“Teacher, I’m sorry!  I lied yesterday.” he said full of remorse.

“Can you tell me why you lied to your teacher?”

“Because I didn’t want to trouble you, Teacher. I can go home by myself.” On hearing his reply, I was very surprised that a 7 years old child could say such sensible words.

“Wei-hua, it’s no trouble for Teacher to drive you home, you must let me take you if there is another opportunity in the future. Do you understand?”

“Yes!”

“But you must not lie to your teacher in the future, alright!”  I warned him.

“Alright!”

“Good, you can return to the classroom!  Right, don’t forget to hand in your homework.”

“Yes, report ended!”  he saluted, turned and left.

Inside my heart I silently thought that if this child rectified those shortcomings, I think he could definitely be more adorable and he could turn out to be outstandingly perfect.

“Teacher!  Teacher!”  Wei-hua shouted as he ran looking as if he was very pleased.

“Yes?”  I looked back and saw him slightly panting with his sweet little face.

“Teacher!  I want to hand in my composition.” He opened up a piece of composition paper that was folded into a small piece.

“Wei-hua, you’re very good!  You’ve finally handed it in. Yes,..... this is a small reward for you. Make sure you always hand in your homework in the future!”  I put my hand in my pocket and took out a sweet for him.

“Yes!  Thank you Teacher.” He took the sweet and carefully put it in his pocket. He had a happy smile on his face.

In fact, I was happier, the time it took for him to hand in his homework had been shortened and this improvement gave me great pleasure. I felt happy the whole day because he had handed in the late composition. As I walked back to the office, I read his composition. I could see the twisted traces of his pencilled handwriting which was written on a piece of paper that seemed to have been rubbed over numerous times.

The content was very simple and also very amiable. He wrote: My Family.
There are three people in my family, one is me, one is father and one is mother. My father is very handsome and my mother is very beautiful. Every day Dad goes out to work and works very hard, and every day I go to school and study very hard. Only Mum is the most fortunate one. All she has to do is to relax and stay at home and wait for Dad and me to come home. Sometimes, I really envy Mum. I have heard from classmates that their mum and dad quarrel. But my Mum and Dad have a good relationship and they never quarrel. Therefore, my family is very harmonious, very happy. During the holidays, I love watching TV with Mum and Dad the most. Although Dad is very busy at work, he cannot always take us out to play, this does not matter because we are very happy being together, I love my Mum and Dad.

I smiled as I finished reading. I felt that Wei-hua was a really lovely child, he even thought that going to school was very hard and his mum was very relaxed at home; next time, when I have a chance, I will definitely tell him that being a housewife is really not relaxing at all!  His essay revealed his innocence. It also lets people see that he has a perfect and happy family. He must be dearly loved by his mother and father at home!  Just like a testament to a phrase in one children song ‘My Lovely Family!’

However, my happiness did not last very long, the class monitor hurriedly ran into the office and said, “Teacher, there’re boys fighting in the class!”

Oh my God!  I am most afraid of children fighting!  Later, this side will be bruised and the other side will be swollen, and I have to spend half a day explaining this to the parents.

Arriving in the classroom, “Shao Wei-hua, Lin Chong-guang, what’re you two doing?”  As I shouted, the two children who were in a tangle immediately stopped.

“Why are you fighting?”

“He hit me first!”  Lin Chong-guang spoke first.

“Shao Wei-hua, why did you hit him?”

“Because......he snatched the sweet Teacher gave me. I asked him to give it back, he didn’t listen.” Wei-hua slowly said word by word.

“But no matter what has happened, you still can’t hit other people. And you, you can’t just randomly take things that belong to other people. You’re both at fault. Apologise to each other and then shake hands!”

I said this with a blank face, but I was startled inside. For just a small sweet, the normally withdrawn and non-contentious Wen-hua had hit someone. It looked like the sweet was very important to him.

“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry.”
Both children stubbornly apologised to each other, they shook hands to say truce. After school, I again saw Shao Wei-hua standing alone in the hallway.

“Wei-hua, who are you waiting for?”

“My father said he has spare time today so he can come and pick me up!”

“Oh yes, you still haven’t returned the reply slip for Parent’s Evening which I gave you a few days ago. If you hand this in tomorrow, Teacher will give you a whole bag of sweets!”  I recalled the incident today when he fought with his classmate over a sweet, so I offered him this deal!

“Really?”  He looked at me with his eyes opened wide.

“Of course it’s true!  Let’s hook our fingers.” I stretched out my little finger and hooked it onto his little finger and then we both stamped a thumb gesture with each other.

“My word is my bond!  I have to go now.”

D
“Wei-hua, you see!  I’ve bought the sweets, have you brought the reply slip back?”  I said whilst shaking the bag of sweets in my hand.

“Teacher, sorry. I forgot!”  he said most upsettingly.

“You can’t have the sweets then. But if you bring the homework back tomorrow, I’ll still let you have the sweets!  Do you understand?”  He looked so upset being unable to eat the sweets, I felt a little bit guilty.

“If I bring my homework back in the future, will I have sweets every time?”  he asked with an expression of unexpected joy.

“Correct!  After you hand in all the homework you have missed in the past, and from now on, all new homework should be handed in on time!”  I raised my index finger to remind him.

On entering the office I suddenly remembered that I had to confirm the numbers for Parents Evening; and I had just forgotten to ask Wei-hua whether his parents wanted to come!

Oh!  I remember that in his essay he wrote that his mum was at home. Let me give her a call to ask her and I can also have a chat about Wei-hua at the same time.
“Beep~beep~beep~beep~beep~” I waited for a long while and still no one answered. I guessed she might have gone out!  Forget it!  I can ask Wei-hua later!

In the next few days, I felt that Wei-hua was trying his best to return his homework. I was really pleased with his progress. Other than the sweets being the main contributing factor, I felt that my praises were also a big motivation. Every time I praised him, his expression was so happy and so proud.

Once, when I was chatting to a few children in the class, one of the female pupils said, with the tone similar to having discovered a new continent, “Teacher!  Let me tell you, Shao Wei-hua has been very strange lately!”

“Strange?  Surely not. What about him?”  I asked puzzled.

“This is it, last time I saw him ringing his mum at the hallway.”

“Oh~~ why is it so strange.” Children are often very affectionate to their mum, why is it so strange phoning mum.

“But teacher, the conversation was very strange, I overheard him saying to his mother, ‘Mum, today I handed in my homework, my teacher gave me a sweet!’  Who would telephone their mum to say this?  They can talk about it at home!”  The female pupil said all in one breath.

“Really?  So unnecessary, making a phone call to talk about this.”

“Oh!  I’ve seen this before as well.” The other children also quickly voiced their opinion, agreeing that Wei-hua’s behaviour was very strange.

“It’s still fine!  Maybe he was so happy that he wanted to let his mum know as soon as possible. There’s no need to think too much. Wei-hua’s a very polite child. Although his work is not so good and he returns his homework late, he still has a lot of good qualities. You all need to learn the good things from him, and at the same time, help him change his bad habits.” I said to the children, hoping that they would not consider Wei-hua as a strange child because of such a trivial matter, otherwise this would only make the already isolated Wei-hua, avoid associating with others. Furthermore, I have already put in a lot of effort and have seen a slight improvement. I don’t want him to have any more problems communicating with his classmates.

“Yes!”  After hearing this, the children stopped discussing this matter.

A few days later, it was 28th September, Teacher’s Day. This Teacher’s Day was my first Teacher’s Day. Even though I was not on holiday, I felt particularly good.

‘Dong!  Dong!  Dong!’  The bell rang.

“Class monitor !  Class dismissed. School finishes.”

“Goodbye Teacher!”  All the children suddenly came forward and swarmed around me.

“Teacher, Happy Teacher’s Day!”  greeted the children whilst handing over a card.

“Wow~~ you drew this yourself!  It’s very beautiful. Thank you, I love it.” I looked at the picture of a female drawn with coloured pencils and assumed that this must be a drawing of me, inside the words were densely written in phonetics, I was very moved when I read them.

“Teacher, this is for you!”

“It’s beautifully wrapped, what’s it?”  I asked curiously.

“Teacher, have a guess yourself!”

“Teacher, you have this one from me as well!”

“Teacher! Look this way.” Within a short while I was fully surrounded by the children. As I left the classroom for the staffroom to tidy a few things, my hands were already full of small and large presents. I sat in the staffroom opening all the gifts. I smiled and my eyes went red, as I started thinking no matter how much more hard work I had to put in every day, it would be worthwhile.

I went to the car park, and suddenly heard the sound of children fighting.

I immediately rushed over to see. What I saw was the children from my class, not from another class. I remembered the fight last time was Wei-hua and Song-guang, now Song-guang was replaced by Zi-ting, but Wei-hua had not changed. In addition, this time Wei-hua looked very angry, even angrier than his fight last time.

Last time, they stopped fighting as soon as I shouted, but this time they did not stop no matter how much I shouted. Later, I went up to stop the fight and pulled them apart.

“Who started first?”

“He!”  Zi-ting pointed at Wei-hua.

“It’s you, why do you always like hitting other people?”  Wei-hua made me feel very disappointed. This again, he lowered his head without saying a word.

“Speak!  Why did you fight?”  I roared at him full of anger. He lowered his head without looking at me. I got even angrier.

I shouted even more loudly than before, “Shao Wei-hua, look up!  Tell me why did you fight?”

“Because he eavesdropped on my telephone conversation with my mum!”  he shouted as he cried. I had never seen him cry before, no matter whether I punished him, or scolded him, or that I smacked him, he never cried. I was shocked by his reaction.

His tears rolled down on his cheeks drop by drop.

“You hit other people when they eavesdrop on your telephone conversation!?  Is it necessary?  Also, when you use the telephone in the hallway, there are so many people around, how can it be eavesdropping?”  I felt that his reason for fighting was too irrational.

Again, he did not reply, but more and more tears came down. I thought that I needed to talk to Wei-hua properly, even though it was unpleasant to be eavesdropped on, it still did not warrant him to hit others!

I therefore said to Zi-ting, “Zi-ting, you also should not eavesdrop on other people’s conversation. You first say sorry to Wei-hua, you can then go home!”

“Sorry!”  Zi-ting saluted Wei-hua; then he picked up his books and cardigan that had just fallen on the floor as they were fighting, and walked out through the school entrance.

Now it was just Wei-hua and I. I wanted to have a serious chat with him, because I really liked this child, however, he often behaved in ways that made me think ‘how can this be possible’. Just as I wanted to say something, from the floor he picked up a roll of paper tied with a rubber band and gave it to me. Then, he said in a choking voice, “Drawing.....Drawing......homework.....” He handed in his homework. I was so happy, but this was not the time for praise.

“I’m very happy that you hand in your homework today, and I have always been fond of you, but sometimes you make me very disappointed, because sometimes you’re very naughty; but I know you’re very sensible. Today you fought over such a minor matter, I think......”

I only finished half the sentence, he rubbed his tears and shouted loudly, “He laughed at me!”

“Laugh at you?  Zi-ting laughed at you?  What did he laugh about you?”

“He laughed at what I said to my mum!”  he said with a slightly choking voice as the tears continued to roll down.

“What did you say to your mum?  Can you tell your teacher?”  I did not understand why a conversation with mum could be something that was laughed at.

He lowered his head again, like he did not want to talk. “It’s alright. I won’t laugh at you. Tell me.”

After a while, like a telephone answer machine, he repeated his conversation with his mum:

“Hello!  Mum!  I want to tell you, I have handed in my homework recently. My teacher praises me!  My teacher treats me very well, and she will give me sweets. Today I’ve even prepared a drawing as my homework for her, I’ve delayed handing in this homework for a very long time!  Because I don’t know how to draw you!  Yes, the topic is ‘My Mum’. It is very difficult to draw!  It is because of you!  Mum, I want to tell you!  I miss you very much!  I really miss you very much!  How long are you going to sleep for?  When are you going to open your eyes to see me?  Also!  Today is Teacher’s Day, every day, I see Dad putting two roses in the vase in front of your photo, I think my teacher is also a female, so she must also like flowers!  So I asked Dad to buy two more roses for me, I will bring them to school for my teacher!  Please don’t be angry with me!  Goodbye.”

When he finished speaking, from his school bag, he took out a crushed rose which was slightly out of shape, he came over to me and said, “Teacher, Happy Teacher’s Day!”

I was rendered speechless, I hugged him and could not stop crying.
 
“Teacher, Zi-ting teased me that I was mad. He said that my mum was already dead, why did I pretend that I was having a conversation with her. Teacher, I’m sorry, I won’t hit people anymore.”

I cried from deep sadness, I was heart-broken.

I was heart-broken because this child was still so mature even without a mother’s care and attention, and with his father who had no time to look after him due to work.

I imagined how he felt when he pretended his mum was still alive as he talked to her on the telephone, I imagined how he described his mum in his composition, making me so sad. Especially when his classmates saw through this, the words that he cried out, so cruel and so deeply pitiful.

“I’m sorry!”  I said to him.

I felt very apologetic. I am his teacher, yet I have not tried to understand this child properly.

All along, I was unable to calm my mood. I did not know how long I had been crying as I hugged him. In the evening, I unfolded the picture which Wei-hua drew, I could not stop the tears falling down again. The picture had a desk, there was a photo of a woman on the desk, and then there were two small vases in front of the photo, with bright red roses placed inside them.

On the lower right hand corner I marked with my red pen 100.

Postscript:
We showed this essay to Rinpoche, he said, “Very touching, he’s a real good boy.”

He continued and said, “In the future, when I pass away and return to heaven, would you remember and miss me like this?”

Our tears fell and we all replied, “We will!  Guru!”

Rinpoche said, “Oh!  Really!!  As such you all have obtained the ‘invisible’ Guru Yoga Dharma!!!”