Happy Teachers’ Day!
Here’s a bouquet of carnations to all the teachers who experienced the misfortune of having Teng Chee Yong in their classes – Charlton Primary School 1986 – 1991, Anderson Secondary School 1992 – 1995 and Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Business Studies 1996 – 1999. With hundreds and thousands of names appearing on their class registers year after year, it’s ok if they don’t remember me. Come on, we don’t remember ALL our teachers right?
Teachers don’t just teach. They mould characters. They play important roles in our early years. They are the primary reasons why we loved or hated going to school.
I remember my form teacher in Primary 3, who placed her signature in the centerfold of my exercise book after I tore out too many pages to play Tic-Tac-Toe in class.
I remember my form teacher in Primary 6, who had her students very close to her heart. I remember walking duno how many kilometres from the bus interchange to visit her at home many years ago. Yes, she was the one who told me not to waste paper during an interclass drawing competition.
I remember this Mathematics teacher in Secondary 1, who accused me of staring at him in class. Huh? Where got? And he made me go to his room for extra lessons during recess time. Hello! A boy in puberty needs to eat leh.
I remember this Chinese teacher in Secondary 2. He didn’t identify us by our names, but by our serial numbers in the class register.
I remember this Mathematics teacher in Secondary 3, who didn’t believe that class interaction was necessary. She just went on and on and on, and looked only at the overhead projector or her reference notes. The only time she looked at me, was when I said Yeah a little too loudly when the bell rang. Hahaha.
I remember this Geography teacher in Secondary 4, who came up with a string of sing-song phrases to help us remember the boring hard facts in the textbook. The irr-la-la tra-tra-ca tune remains in my mind, but I can’t really recall what that points to now.
I remember this lecturer in polytechnic- can’t mention the module cos I think she’s the only lecturing. I can never forget that she wore a bright pink blouse with a lime green skirt, complete with bright pink + lime green eye shadow.
I remember this econs lecturer in poly. She flashed a couple of transparencies and had us all jotting down each and every word on the screen swearing that those were tips for the upcoming exams. Her last transparency had four words: Happy April Fools’ Day.
I remember this other econs lecturer. First thing she did was to have us all type our mini biographies with stipulated font size and “left, right, top, bottom all one-inch margins”. Because the gender ratio in Business was (probably still is) so unbalanced, all the guys didn’t dare to be late, or she’d notice right away. It’s amazing how I could be late for 12pm lessons, yet arrived ten minutes early to chope a front row seat for her 8am lecture.
It’s Teachers’ Day tomorrow. Happy Teachers’ Day!
And to the teachers who had taught me before, I hope I hadn’t been too much trouble. At least I didn’t give you a headache like this lah hor?
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