A slow-learner...How's your feeling ????

How does it feel to have a slow-learner child ?? Frustrated?? Regret ?? Pity ?? Angry ??



I used to be a teacher back in the early 90s and I remember I was asked to teach English and Maths to form 3 and form 4 classes at a school in Kemasik , Terengganu. Most of the students came from poor fishermen's families and of course most of their parents were not educated( lucky if they passed std.6 ).

The worst class that I taught at that time was Form 3B2......only 4 girls out of 33 students and not a single student could read Bahasa Malaysia and for English........you know the answer.... I went to see the Principal because I was blank of what to teach...I couldn't teach them based on the Form 3 syllabus ...I asked my very kind Principal, Cikgu Shaari Cheek if I could just teach them the basic English like std 1/2 lessons ...at least they would get something rather than nothing. There's no way those poor and weak students could pass their SRP and them passing English... I would not dreammm.....The Principal gave a nod to my request..he too understood that there's no way I could teach those guys to get at least D8 in just a few months before the SRP....

I was happy with the support given by cikgu shaari because if the nazir came and checked my teaching record Mr principal would help me with the explanation....thank God the nazir came when I was organizing an English week and I had a compliment for doing something that had never been done before (gannu at that time was still in 'dark ages', sorry gannu folks... )
....a week full of games, quizzes, singing, drama, speech all done in English.

3B2 was always the hot topic discussed in the staffroom and at one point one teacher said(I ingat lagi ayat dia )....." I tak taulah apa nak jadi dengan budak-budak tu, satu apa pun tak tau buat, bukan je tak pandai belajar, taktau serba serbi, menyapu pun tak betul, habuk tak habis disapu, baju kotor, arahan orang tak faham..."...I selalu menyampuk....Pity them.... I was closed to some of them and I even gave a free 5 minutes/day english reading session to a few students who were willing to sacrifice their recess period and came to learn simple reading with me at the school library.... Those students couldn't even pronounce the words 'he' she' 'am' correctly...can you imagine how i felt teaching ....Most of the time , I felt so so sad... One day this boy M came and he had something in his hand and he said to me ; " teacher, kita nok beghi hadiah ke teacher ..." he handed me a gift wrapped in an A4 typing paper... It really touched my heart knowing that he was a very poor orphan... I opened the gift....a small pocket size pack of tissue paper ( at that time it was 20 cents ). I couldn't hold my tears not because it was a very cheap gift but I was really touched by the fact he gave me something to show his appreciation ...me teaching him to pronounce the word he........

Out of 33 only 4 managed to get thru SRP and continued studying..the rest...history.. boys ..fishermen....girls....who knows...I once met M at a coffee shop in Kijal, he called me..."teacher, ingak lagi dok ke kite"..... I looked at him and said... "Oh..M... ingat ".. and he worked as a waiter and he insisted to pay for my teh ais and 3 pau kacang....

Back to my opening question.... how do you feel to have like 3B2 students as your children????

Just recently Izzat brought his exam report card...he got no2 and scored 'mumtaz'/ cemerlang.. he got 19.1 /20 ( here they set 20% for 1st exam. 20 for 2nd, 40 for final, 20 for class participation...alhamdulillah....he's always the top in class since std 1 at Al Amin back then and still is ....Mimi brought back a large rattan+steel serving tray as a presentfrom school for scoring high marks at her little pre- school...Alhamdulillah.

Having all my children being among the top 5 at schools at all time, I sometimes do not know what or how to react if having a 'not-so-clever' child in academics........