Lesson to a Teacher
by Vaman Acharya
(Bengaluru)
Front row is a prestigious seat for the students in the class room. It is a common practice that only brilliant students should occupy the front row. This was not in the case of students of the Model Primary School Pavanpur. Students boycott front row for only one class. Neither brilliant nor average students were ready to occupy the front row. This boycott was only for a Geography class. What was the reason? There were about 25 students in the standard IV. But for the rest of the classes, it was virtually a tussle between the students to occupy front row. Those who come early used to occupy the front seat. In order to avoid disappointment among the students, the class teacher had made an arrangement to provide front seats turn by turn.
Geography teacher Amarnath was a peculiar person. In the beginning, he was unable to understand the attitude of the students. He even threatened the students for showing disrespect to his order. He called the monitor and enquired, “Rahul, I told the students not to keep the front row empty. Why students are disobeying my order? If this is continued, I will report the matter to the Head Master of the school.”
Rahul didn’t reply and straight went to his seat. Students were gossiping among themselves and created disturbance in the class. The Geography teacher was unable to find out the solution to the problem. He went to the head master and reported the behavior of the students. The head master without wasting time called Rahul to his chamber.
Rahul arrived immediately to the head master’s chamber.
“What is the matter Rahul? Why students are disobeying the order of a teacher? If this is continued, I will have to initiate disciplinary action.”
“Sir, if you permit me, I will explain the reason.”
“Yes, go ahead.”
“Sir, those who teach to cultivate good habits must practice them first and then teach others.”
The head master was in dilemma. He was thinking himself, whether his assistants particularly the geography teacher must be having bad habit. He turned to the geography teacher, “Mr. Amarnath, are you having any bad habits like smoking cigarette or chewing tobacco in the class room?
The teacher became ashamed and said, “Sir, I have a bad habit of chewing tobacco.”
At that moment Rahul said, “Respected teacher enters the class with tobacco chewing in his mouth and unable to pronounce properly. The students hesitate to occupy front seat, because while explaining the subject the spit from his mouth would fall on the face or dress of the student. With the fear in the minds of students to face the teacher directly adopted this protest not to sit on the front seat.”
Head Master after knowing the problem warned the teacher to quit the bad habit of chewing tobacco immediately. The teacher realized his mistake and apologized and took a vow to quit the bad habit.
He praised the students for their good act.