To Teach and Learn

Before, 12 Sci C, 2010 What stood tall for thirty years or more is now being hammered down. A new traditional gate will soon welcome all who come to the school. As a student I walked under the old gate ten years ago and today I am witnessing it getting demolished. I feel a profound loss or else I would not be writing this. This gate stood mighty and firm for so many years. It was often the favourite spot for the students to take photographs before it - souvenirs after graduation. The gate proudly posed behind many to grace the people in the photographs. And people knew it was Punakha HSS because of the Gate, it was Phunakha’s face for so many years. Demolition  A Buddhist Gate. Courtesy Google image The Gate didn’t have our traditional architectural feature but it had deeper expressions of what is rooted in us as Buddhist, The Wheel of Dharma. The Dharmacakra on three flying banners adorned the Gate and it took the school to many a great heights ...

Western or foreign students in movies and books are interesting. Movies like Dangerous Minds, Coach Carter , and books like To Sir with Love or The Water is Wide  portray students who are challenging. These stories are about ordinary teachers who love their job. Imagining these movies and books I cannot help but feel lucky to be teach my students.  I feel lucky to have students who are genuine in their effort to learn.  I am thankful to have students who put up with me during hot sweaty Punakha afternoons.  I am proud to have students who work hard to do their best. I am thankful to have students who are genuine in the respect and I am grateful for the friendship we share. Though I share jokes with them, they know that there is a line between us which we should respect.  My classroom is safe because there are no guns or knives. Students are not high or intoxicated. And they listen to me when I reason with them. They challenge me and the book when i...

I love English, I always loved English even as a child and through English I define myself as a teacher. It has only been four years as an English language teacher but I want to see myself growing old with this subject. With every lesson I teach in the class there are new words to learn, new phrases to understand and new excitements to enjoy every time I read lines that come with powerful spontaneous over flow of the writers’ emotions. I envy theses writers for having so many words and so much skill at their disposal to express themselves and their surrounding with so much clarity and coherence. Every word mingles with other words to create pictures in the readers’ mind, images that are rich and provoke one’s imagination to wander and reach for new horizons. I love English and by expressing my love for this subject I want my students to also love this rich subject of literature and language. Today in our country the quality of education is questioned and with this the standard of ...