i was filling in the nomination form for the best lecturer award for chris ng (somehow this kind of things always end up on my plate) earlier this week when i thought about the wonderful teachers that i've had throughout my life.

from 洪老师 from peihwa who's so alike the motherly madam quek who taught me biology in bpghs to mr eddie koh from pj. all of them have left their own indelible signature on my life.

i can't remember much from my time in peihwa except for her: 洪老师, who was one of the most patient teachers i've ever had, who coaxed and mothered us mischievous rascals of a class into studying and doing as well as we could for our psle instead of playing our potential away.

in bp i spent one of my best 4 years. i just didn't realise it then. bp was made special by the teachers there. so many of them, that were determined to impact their students lives.

陈老师, 沈老师, who were always encouraging us to not neglect our mother tongue and always helpful. mr tan suan tien, who despite being my pe teacher, a supposed 'not important' lesson, always pushed us to give our beast and went out of his way to prepare us for the inter-class games.

mrs silva, who despite our initial dislike and even racist slurs never gave up on us and got the class to do well for chemistry and even the most hardened antagonist of her's in my class will now look back and say that she's a good teacher who did her best, everytime she walks into class. mr peacock, for his enthusiasm and dogged refusal to give up on my class when others surrendered. he, the hod of maths took us for amaths for sec 4 when we, collectively as a class flung amaths and gave up on ourselves. even though i didn't turn up for the amaths paper eventually, he still came up to me to congratulate m on the day i collected my results. my favourite scot, accent and all, hands down.

then there's madam quek, who like 洪老师 was a mother figure to a class deemed by many as the worst sec 4 express class. forever encouraging, yet she lectured us on numerous occasion too, but i'd be the first to admit that we deserved it. and she knew all about the difficulties of her subject, biology, which can be incredibly dry on a hot thursday afternoon at 2. because she studied and taught biology in mandarin. before she had to learn english, plus all the biological terms (in english) in order to continue teaching because of the new policy from the government to make english the first language in singapore.

last but definitely not least (he's too big to be least), the fearsome mr osgodby, who reduces to bravest of us- who're known to stare down the discipline master without flinching- to quivering masses of jelly. it's his combination of volatility, wit, sarcasm and sheer mass perhaps that makes him so petrifying, and i'm not exaggerating here (just ask any of my classmates- he's THAT terrifying.). but he's that one that hauled my struggling english grades from a 'c' in sec three to a 'b' during the prelims and all the way to an 'a' for the 'o' levels. his was a reign of terror, no doubts about it. but he got me to write, to use the english language, and thus to improve. and i'd been ticked off numerous times for my dreadful spelling. but i'm thankful for him, for he's that one who made me like literature, and english.

and lastly, from pj, the most erudite (i've never used this word to describe anyone i know before) person i've ever had the honour of meeting and knowing- the best teacher i've ever had, mr eddie koh. mr koh's the perfect teacher, with the ability to transform the dullest of topics into something exciting and engaging for the class a la chris ng (only eddie koh does it better, in my books), able to motivate the class just like madam quek, takes a personal interest in his students' lives like 陈老师, gets his class wonderful results better than mr osgodby, and generally the best teacher i've ever had. never failing to get me to enjoy his gp classes, where we can discuss about the hiv virus one minute and next, about the x-men. always caring about my life, and encouraging me through one of the worst time of my life, with the many trials that came my way. never failing to teach me more about life, that life doesn't revolve all aroung good grades, nor does it revolve all around me.

and i was totally devasted to learn that after just 1 term, he's going to leave for australia to further his studies, to pursue his love for anthropology. and even till now, he still asks about how i do in sp and recommends me books to read. books about life, books that makes one think, books that question.

and there's so much more that i want to express, that i want to add to this incredibly verbose post already, but it's a little too much as it is already, i think. but i just want to end this off with something that i came across at mr koh's blog that i find meaningful. read this, if nothing else from this entry; it'll be worth it.

while God was creating teachers, He was into His sixth day of 'overtime' when the angel appeared and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around with this one."
and God said, "have you read the specifics of this order? "

she has to: stand above all her students, yet be on their level, be able to do 180 other things not connected with the subject she teaches, have 6 pairs of hands to run events, mark essays, set exam papers, purchase tees, run on coffee, mars bars and late lunches, communicate vital knowledge to hundreds of students daily, and be right and fair, have as much, and sometimes more time for his job as he does for himself, have a smile that can endure everything from practical jokes to detached faces, go on teaching when parents question her every move , when students do not cooperate and the endless administration requests for deadlines.

the angel shook his head slowly and said, "six pairs of hands! not possible."

"it's not the hands that are causing me problems," said God. "it's the three pairs of eyes that teachers have to have."

"is that on the standard model?" asked the angel. God nodded.

one pair that can see a student for what he is and not what society has labelled him. another pair must be in the back of his head, to see what he shouldn't, but what he has to know. of course, the ones here in front can look at a student when he goofs up and reflect, 'i understand and i still believe in you," without so much as uttering a word."

"lord," said the angel, touching His sleeve gently, "go to bed. please. why not continue tomorrow?"

"I can't," said God. "I'm so close to creating something so close to myself.
already I have one who comes to work when he is too sick ...can still teach a class when they don't want to learn...loves hundreds of children and teenagers that are not her own through the years...and all of this in both sexes. and wait until you see my special education teacher! he is truly special; he will never take anything his students do for granted."

the angel circled the model of the teacher very slowly. "it's too soft," he sighed."but tough," said God excitedly. "you cannot imagine what this teacher can do or endure."

"can she think?"

"not only can she think, but she can reason and compromise too."

finally the angel bent over and ran his fingers across the cheek of the teacher."there's a leak," he pronounced. "i told you that you were putting too much into this model. You can't imagine the stress factor."

God moved in for a closer look and gently lifted the drop of moisture to His finger where it glistened and sparkled in the light.

"it's not a leak," He said. "it's a tear."

"a tear?" asked the angel. "what's it for?"

"it's for joy, sadness, disappointment, compassion, pain, loneliness.
and pride."

"You are a genius," said the angel.


the Lord looked somber,

"I didn't put it there."
-author unknown