Children
were lined up for the annual dinner at Bhavan’s Vidya Mandir School in
Cochin. At the head of the dinner table was a large pile of apples. A
teacher wrote a note and placed it next to the apples. It read, "Take
only one. God is watching." Moving through the line, to the other end of
the table, was a pile of chocolates. One little boy wrote his own note
and put it next to the chocolates. It read, "Take as many chocolates as
you want. God is watching the apples."
School evokes the funniest memories in everyone’s life. The fun we had
in school had something candid and artless about it. It didn’t hurt
anyone. It often arose out of our ignorance and uncorrupted mind.
When I was in 4th standard, my history teacher asked a question “How are
tides formed”. My friend answered, “Teacher, the tides are a fight
between the Earth and moon. All water in the earth rushes towards the
moon due to vacuum, as there is no air or water there. I forgot where
the sun joins in this fight”
Cadbury Chocolate not only brings water in my mouth but also a smile on
my face. You really witness many hilarious moments in a classroom when
your teacher is witty and considerate. Our 4th STD teacher was once
giving revision of multiplication lessons. He asked a boy what is the
product of 9 and 8. He replied 74. The teacher immediately took a
Cadbury chocolate and gave it to him. We protested to the teacher that
he should not be given the chocolate, as the answer was 72. The teacher
replied “Calm down! Calm down! … He is improving. Yesterday he told 88.
Sometimes an indifferent modern student can really puzzle a teacher. The
same mathematics teacher once asked a student “Thomas, if we subtract 75
from 75, what is the difference?” Thomas promptly agreed with the
teacher “That is what I say teacher, what the difference is? Why should
we worry? Who cares?”
I have started reliving this nostalgia about school days with my school
going kids .Fed up with the logic of Arithmetic, my son, when he was in
second standard, came and told me “Papa, our Maths teacher is really
crazy”. I asked him, “Why?” He replied, “Dad, yesterday she taught us
that 1+3 is 4, today she is telling 2+2 is four. I don’t know what she
will come up with tomorrow.” Don’t you sense an aura of innocence when
children make such queries?
Sometimes your kids find new meanings in old sayings. My elder son is
quite lazy to wake up in the morning whereas my younger son wakes up
with me, takes his breakfast and is ready by 7’O clock. I once taunted
my elder son saying that he should learn from his younger brother and
advised him ”Remember, only the early bird gets the worm”. His wise
reply was, “Let him have it Papa, I will settle for an Omelet”.
Children can be inventive and creative on occasions to outwit you. We
were once having a dinner in a friend’s house. A girl in third standard
proudly brought to me a nature scenery she had painted. I asked her
“Meenu, What is this painting of yours supposed to show?”. She replied
“Uncle, It is a cow eating grass in a meadow”. I asked her “But, where
is the grass”. Meenu answered – “Why, the cow has eaten it all”. I was
puzzled and asked her– “But, where then is the cow”. She retorted
smartly “It has gone to another meadow to look for more grass”
Misunderstanding is a common ground for laughter in school life. I
belong to a teacher family. My mother, grandfather, uncle were all
teachers. My sister also started her career as a teacher. At the time of
her marriage, the school headmaster who had a typical British style of
writing put up a notice on the notice board, which read like this- “The
teachers and Students of St. Joseph’s School, Alleppey convey their
heartiest felicitations to Miss Valsala on the occasion of her
forthcoming marriage and wish her a long and happy married life”. A day
after this circular, my sister went to the Headmaster thanking him for
his kind gesture but suggested to him that possibly he could have
avoided certain tough words like ‘forthcoming’ because many students
asked her what happened in her earlier three marriages.
Kids can be really smart when they come up with ingenious answers. My
wife who is also a teacher had this incident to tell me about a 2nd Std
student. She was asking her students about the homework she had given
them the previous day. She noticed a boy looking downcast.
She asked, “What happened Paul? Haven’t you done the homework?”
“I was stupid teacher. I did my homework but my little brother made an
aero plane out of that paper.”
“ Well, it is too bad Paul that you did not keep your homework paper
safely after completing it. Anyway, give it to me, I will try to unfold
it”
“Oh! Teacher that is just not possible.” said Paul looking sadder. “You
see teacher, the plane was hijacked today morning.”
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Children
were lined up for the annual dinner at Bhavan’s Vidya Mandir School in
Cochin. At the head of the dinner table was a large pile of apples. A
teacher wrote a note and placed it next to the apples. It read, "Take
only one. God is watching." Moving through the line, to the other end of
the table, was a pile of chocolates. One little boy wrote his own note
and put it next to the chocolates. It read, "Take as many chocolates as
you want. God is watching the apples."