The Power of Memory

A text by Lee Lee, my childhood friend

南燕来电要我写一篇怀念老师的感言。当时，我马上想到我小学的级任老师——曾玉清老师。曾老师虽然已离开了世上多年，可是我对她的教导仍然念念不忘。

曾老师是我小学一年级至六年级的级任老师。六年时间的相处，说长不长，说短也不短。所以，一切校园的点点滴滴至今还铭记在我的脑海里.

自从毕业后，我从来不曾联络老师，直到金峰从外国回来，与贵兴来拜访时，我才知道曾老师得了癌症。我听后，心里非常的难过。

当时，我心里想我一定要抽出时间去马六甲探望她。可是我的一拖再拖而把这件事给搁了。直到我再次得到她的消息时，她已经去世有好几个月了。我觉得非常的遗憾和痛心。

趁着这一个教师节，我希望曾老师能在另一个极乐世界永远的快乐。在此，我默默的向您说声：“曾老师，我永远的怀念您！”

Translation

I was asked to write something to thank the teacher who has left an impact in my life. Almost immediately i am reminded of 曾玉清老师, my primary school teacher who has thought us for 6 years, from Standard 1 to standard 6.

曾玉清老师 was my favorite teacher, whatever she thought is still engraved in my mind. 6 years in the primary school wasn't that long, but i have fond memories of the school and this teachers.

When a primary classmate of ours, Kim Fong came back from US, dropped by to visit, with another friend Kooi Heng, then we got to know that 曾玉清老师 had suffered from cancer. I was very sad.

I wanted to pay her a visit, but somehow, procrestination got a better hold of me. By the time i received the late teacher's news few months later, my favorite teacher had passed away. I regretted my procrestination and I was deeply sadden myself for not making effort to just visit her.

The above was a gist of what was written by Lee Lee, in remembrance of her favorite teacher who has thought her 6 years in the primary school.

It was our planned effort to make the teacher happy, unknowingly Lee Lee has churned out her deepest thought, and a sincere confession which comes with some degree of regret and guilt.

Lee Lee, i appreciate your openness, i thank you for sharing.

While Lee lee has excellent memories of what the teacher has thought her 40 years ago, personally I experienced something quite the opposite, not with 曾玉清老师 but my primary school's Maths teacher.

Up to today, I puzzled at this particular teacher, who was my Maths teacher for 6 years in the primary school, why he hated me so much by picking fault with me, and find many ways to punish me during the Maths lesson. I still shivers at the thought of my knuckles being hit so hard with rulers, irregardless of how hard I tried to please him by doing all the works given.

For no apparent reason that I knew, the Maths teacher, before the starting of class, would call me up, isolated me to stand in front of the class, while he carried on with his lesson, the entire 30 minutes, if it was one period, and sometimes more if it was two periods. I stood there like an idiot, wondering what was done that has caused his wrath to unleash his anger towards me, but unable to escape from the humiliation & embarassment that I was subjected to.

Frankly, I was hurting and hated to be treated in such mean ways, I didn't know what to do but endured the Maths teacher's abusive behavior. The unspoken fears did have an impact in my life then.

Growing up, I have a deep rooted hatred towards the Maths teacher, so much so it affected my learning of Maths in secondary school.

One thing I am sure now, I dislike pain-enhanced teaching, if at all it achieved the objective of learning.

For this Maths teacher, I will say he doesn't deserve my respect of him.


And so.............., TEACHER/S......, do have a heart for the children that is put under your care.



Many many years down the road, someone may put up your picture while they blog, and listed down all the crimes you committed against humanity


The Maths teacher that I dislike most, with lousy teaching.This is Xu
许
Lao shi ( Xu lao shu )

or just call you up to say, hei my dear teacher, how are you ? have time for lunch or dinner ?



or during the Teacher's Day, someone you unexpected may call you to say, you are my favorite teacher,




I appreciate you.

Surely there is a value that ties up with childhood memories.

许

What Friendship Is To Me

Lee Lee and I share a special bonding since our childhood friendship.

We value family, friendship and appreciate teachers as well as openness in our friendship.

We may not meet as often as we like to, due to family commitments, living in separate locations in the city, busy in earning a decent living, but we keep this special bond of friendship close to our heart by calling each other from time to time.

Come Teacher’s day every year, as far as I can remember, for the past few many years, we have been calling each other , reminding one another to make a call to our teachers to wish them a Happy Teacher’s Day.

We had a chance to meet and when one of our primary school classmate, came back from US to visit his family in 2006, he too shares a desire to meet some teachers whom we have fond memories with.

Thus, we put our head together, do some friend search to find our classmates and networking , we ended up in Malacca in Teacher Fung & Teacher Lim ‘s house.

There was excitement, nostalgic moments and we had a good time reminiscing childhood memories.

Came 2009 teacher day, I suggested to Lee Lee to do something different from what we have been doing ,I suggested besides calling the the teacher to wish them Happy teacher’s day, we will share our experience in appreciating teachers, in the hope that others can learn to give an encouragement to their teacher as well.

Lee Lee has responded so well to my suggestion and she wrote me an article, which I should have posted it before the teacher’s day on May 16, 2009. However, somehow ...............thus the delay until now, well it’s never too late than never ………..

Besides calling the teachers to wish them Happy Teacher's Day, this is what was done..............and i tressure it near to my heart.

To be continued..