Ex-students’ Gatherings

Over the past few months, I have attended several ex-students’ gatherings. Those were undoubtedly joyous occasions. It was a great delight to see the positive changes in them. On one such occasion, a young man often caught dozing off in class handed me his business card displaying his job title as director of a prestigious company. When I saw a young mother taking care of her lovely twins, reminding them to be polite, I just could not believe that she was the same girl who used to irritate the teachers with her rough manners and blunt remarks.

Meeting the students who graduated from Sacred Heart decades ago gave me tremendous joy. They were the ‘girls’ I had taught in the initial years of my teaching career. I actually owed them much for my ‘on-the-job training’. If they had not been so accepting and cooperative, my class presentations, however well prepared, would not have met the desired goal on account of my lack of experience. 

My eyes watered when they thanked me repeatedly for helping them develop a solid foundation in their English learning. I thanked them in return for their appreciation for my effort, which, I honestly admit, would have amounted to nothing if they had not themselves been serious in their class participation. And those were the years when lessons were far less interesting without multi-media teaching aids. 

One thing worth mentioning is that my memory is often put to the test as there are always some who greet me with this question: Do you remember who I am?’  Well, I have had a poor memory for names. My long service as a teacher has meant that I have taught numerous students whose names have got confused. But fortunately their faces have not changed beyond recognition. So I hope I will not be challenged with the same question again in later gatherings.

Ex-students’ gatherings have become more frequent in recent years probably because social networking websites have kept friends in better contact even if they are miles apart. And the link thus established will remain. Most of them have, in fact, made a plan for another gathering in the near future.