The Forgotten Years...

I can't believe it myself. It had been the worst year of my childhood life and the same goes to my other classmates as well. I was 9 years old, just in Primary 3 when she became my class teacher as well as my Maths, Moral and English teacher. These four periods during class were the most stressful among all the other period throughout the school year. In the beginning, I was happy to have a different teacher to teach my class. It meant that I'm going to learn some grown-up materials in my math classes - no more additions, subtractions and multiplications which had become boring, but, to learn something called DIVISIONS. I'd always loved numbers as a child and have always loved to learn something new. The anticipation of lying in wait to learn new skills made me salivate just at the very thought of it. I've always made the senior girls in school my hero for being knowledgeable - they were top in their class, received numerous prizes, and lots more. She was a Chinese who converted to Muslim, petite and slim. There was no trace of her being stern or ill tempered. Her daughters go to the same school and the eldest is my age.

The first few months was smooth like a breeze. Occasionally she would lose her temper, but then, it was understood. Who wouldn't lose their temper when the classroom has 36 little imps running around making mischief? It was one scene during Math lesson with her when things turned ugly. We were doing divisions and was told by her to show the answers on the board as usual to save her time from marking all our workbooks. This poor classmate of mine was a slow learner, and had gotten her answers wrong. Somehow, I didn't know what went wrong - usually she will point out why the answer is wrong and what we must do to find the correct answer - the teacher scolded my classmate in front of the whole class and hit her on her head with a blackboard duster which was full of chalkdust several times as she went on scolding her. The poor girl was teary eyed but could do nothing. Crying in front of the whole class would only lead to more punishments from the teacher and would just add to her humiliations. That was the beginning of the torment.

Along the way, the teacher whom we now nicknamed "The Tigress" would pick on the slowest students in the class, starting on that poor classmate of mine named Ummi. We would hold our breaths when she selects her victims. Naturally, the smart students always gets away with it. Smart students are always trying to suck up to her just to be the teacher's pet. Unfortunately, she doesn't play favorites which is fair except for those students whom the school considered as their national treasure. Another one of her moments came to mind when I chanced upon a former classmate of mine recently.

She was my buddy. One of the slow learners in class. It was during Moral class when she humiliated my friend. The topic of the day had been the importance of personal hygiene. She said to the whole class that plaque would normally stick to the enamel of the teeth if it hadn't been brushed properly. My friend was called to the front together with another classmate. Both girls were told to scratch their teeth with their fingernails to see if there were any deposits on their teeth. Unfortunately for my friend, she got picked on by the teacher because she was a chubby kid. The teacher said she could see that my friend did not brush her teeth properly. My friend denied that there were any deposits on her fingernails only to be replied by the teacher that she couldn't see any deposits because her fingernails are long. That period of class happens to be right after recess! It took me a long while to realize that the teacher was just venting out her frustrations onto her students.

One day, after another gruelling class with her at the end of our second semester in Primary 3, I spied another teacher whom was known to be the strictest disciplinarian in school entering our classroom. The disciplinarian did not come to lecture on us for misbehaving, instead, I saw the disciplinarian talking to our class teacher The Tigress. All the other children were minding their own business while I kept watch as the two teachers were deep in discussion. Slowly, I noticed our class teacher shedding her tears as the disciplinary teacher talked to her. I did not understand what they were saying, but I do know one thing - our class teacher might have grown up problems of her own outside the school. For the first time, I saw my teacher as a whole different person. A human being with feelings.

Years went by before the truth finally came out about the former class teacher of mine. It so happened that my best friend in high school were best friends with my former teacher's eldest daughter. It was only 2 years after leaving high school when I found out that the teacher had filed for divorce from her husband. Only then did I know why she had acted mean towards our class that year. That was the year she found out her husband had been cheating on her with another woman and she vented out her anger towards us.

I remember her punishments well. I even graded them according to the severeness of the punishment. Knocking on the head with chalk filled blackboard duster was given an A grade. Ear pulling was given a B, because it was next in pain. C was given to the famous caning with the bamboo end of the feather duster. D was when she hit you with the feather duster on the dusting end because it wasn't really painful. Til now I'll be laughing to myself when I remembered the graded punishment system. I guess during those times she just hit us with whatever she could get her hands on. Now that I've talked about it, it made her seem like an abusive person when in reality it had been her present circumstances which turned her into a "monster". Sadly to say, after her as my Math teacher I totally lost my interest in Math. And I've developed a fear towards teachers with tempers all the way through high school being the shy and timid individual whom everyone knows this day...