I Am a Teacher

Was. I have left the job for half a year now. Every day now, I give thanks for this time I have now.

I worked for over twenty years as a school teacher. I remember the hours I put in. At one time early in my career, I was teaching for the first half of the day ( school starts at 7.30 am) and in the afternoon, I had to coach kids in badminton. During the tournament season, I had to bring the team out for competitions and in the interschool semis and finals, I had to perform umpiring duties as well. I remember the trepidation sitting in that high chair keeping score and shouting 'in' 'out' as eagle-eyed coaches shouted from the sidelines at their players in the court. I did not get home until 6 or 7 pm on most days. And most certainly, I would sigh looking at the stack of exercise books on my table and resolve to finish marking them during the weekends.

Weekends thus did not mean rest. Besides the marking, there were other things to prepare - meeting notes, pupils' performance data to key in, mentoring of younger teachers, meeting pupils' parents...the list goes on.

This place squeezes from me and other teachers at least ten hours of work every day to place our pupils at the top of the charts. Over the years, I have seen many good teachers quit. Many do so because they feel totally drained.

Today I clear my shelf, taking out my stationery and thinking of my time spent with the pupils, me standing in front of the class and at the table marking their work. Time does not stand still. The kids have grown up.

I will put these things back soon. It is nice to take them out once in a while to walk down some places in my mind again.