Teachers can inspire your children.

It was Thursday, the 19th of February, 2009 that I went to Lim Ching Yih’s photocopying shop,Rincoh Enterprise, in Petani Jaya, Sungai Petani, Kedah, Malaysia. He was one of my students. While he was laminating a document I had taken to the shop, he asked me whether I remembered a Lau Chee Yong.

This Lau Chee Yong was a small, thin boy with a great interest in drawing and painting. His interest was quite obvious and I was delighted to have the opportunity to teach such a hard-working, interested student. I told him he had a future in this art and encouraged him to improve on his wonderful talent.

A teacher’s most beautiful moment is when he is told he has been able to play a part in helping someone to achieve success. When Ching Yih informed me that Chee Yong had achieved success in his career as a billboard artist, I was happy for him. When he went on further to say that Chee Yong had told him his success was inspired by me, I almost wept with joy to hear such a great compliment coming from someone I had taught so many years ago. Such moments may be few but upon hearing such compliments, I know that a teacher’s task is always worth doing, no matter how tough or frustrating it could sometimes be.

I had been fortunate to have been able to play my part in quite a number of children’s lives. Of course, there must have been times when I had failed no matter how I could have tried. There were times, at the end of the day, I could only console myself that I had done my very best.

There was a time when I met a Malay teacher at one of the examination centers. He introduced himself and told me he was one of my students. He was teaching art and craft. Then, he told me that his becoming an art and craft teacher was only made possible with my help. I did not remember how it came about, so he told me how I had told him he could be good at art and craft and I was very willing to help him. He did well in art and became an art teacher. In fact, he was posted to the very school where I had taught him art and craft.

Sometimes, teachers can give children the opportunities to express themselves in fields other than the literary one. If you are a coach, a gymnastics coach for example, you can train children to discover other talents within themselves and so have them become more confident.

In gymnastics, I have seen children grow to be stronger, healthier and more confident of themselves. They are happier people with the knowledge that they have unique abilities and qualities only they themselves are capable of. The bond between such gymnasts and their coach is very strong and a kind of love exists among them. Encouragement, sharing, determination and the knowing of their strengths and weaknesses, and being there to assist them achieve their goals can be very rewarding especially when success becomes a reality.

Parents should help by boosting their children’s confidence in their teachers and allow teachers to play a part in enriching the lives of their precious children.

Today, it sounds so much like boasting about myself but then, unless someone out there is willing to contribute in the space for comments and tell us other incidences where students have returned to say they were inspired there is no way I could write authentic stories.