2017 Oct 27
Sri Lanka won its independence from those tea loving ‘Suddhas’ in 1948, and enshrined the right to a free education in the constitution some 30 years later. Despite the ravages of a 27-year civil war that began in 1983 and ended in 2009, the country maintains some of the highest literacy rates in South Asia at 98.77%; as compared to 89.66% in India (at least we can beat India at this).
The backbone of the education system are the teachers who sacrifice so much to render us this service, namely their sanity because let’s face it we, kids, were and never will be a walk in the park.The Sri Lankan youth are taking it up a notch and are breaking boundaries everyday and we can assign a bit of the effort to the teachers who molded us in our formative years to be these wonderful creatures that we are now (I am still not wonderful but hey thank you for making me somewhat decent I guess).
Inspired by a recent video by Rainco which became pretty viral and is built around appreciating our teachers, we thought we’d show our appreciation.
To the teachers who patiently taught us and had unwavering faith that we will succeed in life, thank you… Teachers are important in a child’s growing stages and we would like to give a great big shout out to all those teachers who genuinely loved and cared for us to actually patiently inspire and impart knowledge to our hungry minds. Thank you for all what you have done, and every now and then some wacko journalist will write an article about just how uniquely wonderful you all were. So without further ado here is a list of things that make the teachers in our beautiful island so uniquely wonderful.
1. They will treat you like their very own children and may refer to you as ‘putha’ or ‘duwa’ and it’s like they are our second set of parents but pre warning this title comes with all of its weight meaning you will get scolded just like she tells off her chooti putha for being mischievous . There are no child protective services like in them western countries and its already a given that your ammi and thaththi probably are okay with you being caned because it probably saves them time in straightening you out , so basically there is nowhere to run here.
2. It’s like all the Sirs and Miss’s get together at an annual conference and determine a dress code that mostly involve the ladies in cotton ‘teacher’ sarees (everyone knows what I am talking about ) and the gentlemen in pants that are held by a shiny belt above their naval and right around their jolly puwak bellies . They will also at this conference give out the mandatory umbrella, the same stationary and steel/wooden ruler which again can all be repurposed and can also be used as weapons if us students get unruly. Multipurpose and efficient; nicely played.
3. The parent teacher meetings are always stressful for the students but thank god to overcrowding and teachers forgetting which Lasantha you are; are you the one from Commerce B or the other batch? They will not remember unless you are either exceptionally smart or exceptionally devilish giving us a bit of room to wiggle ourselves to safety.
Age may have caught up with them and thankfully they do not remember all the horrible things you did and would probably give your parents a generic scolding about your marks but will always talk about potential, as if we applied ourselves we would actually be better at their subject. But to be honest no one was being fooled there; my parents, teacher and I very well knew math was never my forte but they still had dreams for me. God bless their souls.
4. Comes with our culture I presume, but our teachers will always expect the whole class to rise and greet them like a monotonous choir and they will reply in an equally unenthusiastic manner Probably mocking our long emphasis when we do say Ayuuuuuuuubowaaaaaaan . But if you dare not stand up and deliver the mandatory greeting please refer to point three, because you might as well pick your beating of choice. Steel ruler or umbrella?
5. We may not have teachers rapping like in those high schools in the movies but we will learn a good list of ‘aadhi kale’ Sinhala songs courtesy of their nostalgia and probably know extensive details about their qualifications , achievements and families which we tend to use to our advantage when we want them to stop teaching and waste time . Because knowing your teachers intimate gossip about marriage and her mother in law is so much better than learning to decipher how to even start spelling the word Pythagoras .( I told you I struggled with math :/)
To all those teachers reading:
We do genuinely appreciate your efforts and truly believe you are irreplaceable and one of a kind. <3
