A True Story

A new teacher in my school told us about a story. The story is actually a life experience of his, when he came out of the university and started a teaching career. According to him, this experience changes his life forever. The experience actually changes the way he views things.

When he was newbie, he was sent to a missionary school in Sabah. The school is quite small and is located quite far away from town. He did not want to leave an environment that he got used to but he has no choice. He needed a job and so he went. He went to the school for the first time and the school turned out not the way he had thought before. Unlike my school, the school turned out to be quite a mess. The school was in a bad condition. The students were mostly poor Sabahan ethnic people such as Kadazan. They were actually quite indiscipline. Some of them had bad attitude and they didn’t respect the teachers. Some even had long hairs. They were very weak in their academic. That is why he said the school was a mess at that time.

Although the school was in a mess, he taught BM to the students and did his job well. Soon, he was elected as the discipline teacher for that school. From that time, he was quite busy and had spent hours caning students everyday. The discipline improved and the academic results of the school improved. Soon he was treated like a ‘hero’ and got lots of compliments from the school. Because of that, his confidence was much higher and he has more self-esteem/ego in him.

One day, he heard of a very indiscipline afternoon session student from a teacher. The afternoon session starts at 12.30pm but the boy only arrived at 2.30pm. When the teachers asked him to give a reason why he was late, he refused to give a reason. This repeats everyday and most of the teachers got fed up about it. And he had a bad habit. He always put his hands on his waist. Even if the teachers called him to put his hands down, he refused. The teacher didn’t interfere into this case because he was the morning session discipline teacher and he will just let the afternoon session discipline teacher handle the case.

But one day, he decided to stay back in school and take a look at the student. So, he waited and waited and waited and waited….. but even when the time was 2.30pm, the boy didn’t arrived. At 3.00pm, he finally had shown his face at the school. Surprisingly, the boy that the teachers feared the most, was a just a Form 1 boy. The boy just walked pass the teacher as if nothing happened. Soon, the teacher knew that it was time to confront the boy. The students came out of their classes to watch the incident. He asked the boy why he came late to school. The boy, as usual, refused to answer. At that time, the boy was still putting his hands on his waist. So, the teacher called to put his hands down. The boy refused to do so. Because of that, the teacher got angry. He furiously picked his cane and caned the boy on his hand.


The boy let go of his hands because of the pain and something happened. The boy’s pants fell off. The size of the pants was actually too large for him. All the other students around the school laughed at the boy. The teacher didn’t know what to do next. He felt guilty of caning the boy. If he didn’t take action on the boy so fast, that incident will not happen. At that moment, tears came out of the teacher’s eyes. In his adult life, there wasn’t a moment where he cried so hardly. He asked the boy why he told him earlier. It was clearly that the boy was ashamed and afraid to tell the teacher.

Actually, the boy came from a very poor family and they live quite far away from the school. The reason why he was always late to school was because he had to wait for his elder brother (Form 3) who studies in the same school to come back home. His family can’t really afford to buy another pair of pants for the boy. Instead of getting another one, he had to share the school pants with his brother. It took an hour for his brother to get back home. And after changing, the boy had to walk for another hour to get to the school. That’s why he was always late to school.

Some of you might laugh at this boy. But I think there’s nothing funny about him. The people that laugh didn’t really get the real meaning of the story. This true story actually reminds me of how fortunate I am. I'm given everything I needed. I'm showered with love and care.