Saturday 15 May 2010

A dedication to all my teachers

I have previously noted the joy I experienced when re-connecting with old friends on Facebook. Many of these long-lost friends are those I knew during my days at boarding school in Kuantan. Most of them I have not met since we left school in 1979. We were 17-years old then, and now, some of us are making the effort to meet up again to strengthen the bond in friendship first cemented 31 years ago.

On three different occasions over the past three months or so, I met up with my MRSM Kuantan friends over dinner or tea, in what we call mini-gatherings or reunions. The most recent of these was held last Saturday at a friend's restaurant in Shah Alam. Twenty-three of the MCE'79 batch turned up, made up of 7 ladies and 16 guys. Also present was our English teacher Mr Peter Ng and our librarian Puan Faizah.

I had first thought to post a story about the friends I met during those gatherings but upon meeting Mr Peter again last week, I decided it is time I write something about my teachers, in particular, the ones who taught me English at MRSM.

We have a peculiar, if somewhat unique way of addressing our English teachers. In normal convention, when we call someone by their name, the `Mr' would be attached to the surname, and not the firstname. For instance, we would address Tom Jones as Mr Jones (and not Mr Tom). But not at MRSM Kuantan... our English teachers like Peter Ng, Stephen Ambrose, Michael Tan and Kamini Devi are addressed as Mr Peter, Mr Stephen, Mr Michael and Miss Kamini. This way, we feel closer to our teachers because we reduce the air of formality while still maintaining a measure of respect. It may not be technically correct but I agree with it wholeheartedly.

Mr Peter once headed the English Department at MRSM Kuantan. When we re-connected on Facebook, I was quite surprised that he took the time to read this blog of mine. I was doubly pleased when he said that he liked what he read... what can be more encouraging than getting praise from your old English teacher?

The other English teacher who I remember particularly well is Miss Kamini... because of her height. At six-foot plus, she was easily the tallest lady teacher we had in the whole of MRSM Kuantan. It's a pity I do not have a photograph of her because my memories of how she look is starting to fade away. A few friends have uploaded old photos of our time at school and some are pics of us with our teachers, but so far, there isn't one that includes Miss Kamini.

Apart from the academic side of teaching, the teachers at MRSM were also our homeroom advisors. A homeroom is a smaller group of students from different classes... a sort of small family of brothers and sisters with the advisor acting like a parent or big brother / big sister. That is why we feel very close to our teachers... and we know that some of our teachers are very close to us too. This can be clearly seen from the keen participation of our former teachers in many of the reunion events held by the various batches. Photographs of these gatherings are published in the FB profiles of friends and from these I can recall my cikgu-cikgu from yesteryears :- Cikgu Ramli (1st Principal), Cikgu Sharif (2nd Principal), Cikgu Idham (Geografi), Cikgu Fadhil Onn (Geografi), Cikgu Zamri (Chemistry), Ustaz Yusof (Pendidikan Agama), Cikgu Rahim (Physics) and of course, Cikgu Peter. There are certainly many more of my former teachers... some I am told, have already departed. My al-Fatihah and prayers untuk cikgu-cikgu yang telah pergi.

How do we do justice to the valuable knowledge and guidance that our teachers have imparted on us? My answer to this is, by trying to be the best person that we can be. This does not mean that we have to be successful professionals or rich entrepreneurs but simply being an honest and dedicated individual who pass on the noble values we have learned to our children and fellow human beings. The measure of this is when our old teacher whom we have not met for more than 30 years, comes to us and say, `I'm proud of you all!'. That, to me, is saying a lot.

Happy Teacher's Day to all my teachers, wherever you may be. You are the best teachers there are because you teach from your hearts and not merely from the books. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Teacher's Day greetings too are due to my K79 friends who have taken up this noble profession : Suzyanna Mokhtar, Zulika Abdullah, Siti Zaleha Md Said, Fauziah Abdul Ghani, Rohana Mustapha, Dr Adriana Ismail, Dr Khairanum Subari and Prof Shahrin Mohd. My apologies if I may have missed out anybody.
 
 Then : The English Department staff at MRSM Kuantan, late 70s. Mr Peter on leftmost of the group. Pic borrowed from K79 friend Norila Yahya's FB album.


 Now :  Mr Peter (left) with one of his students, Norhisham Kassim, an airline pilot with MAS.

15 comments:

BanjarRakai said...

Assalamualaikum,

Wah.. Cikgu Zamri and Mr. Stephen dah mengajar di MRSM Kuantan dari zaman abang ye.. Time saya (K91), mereka masih ada lagi di sana.

Happy belated Teacher's Day.

Anonymous said...

Salam,
Saya K90, Cikgu Wong Kok Meng pun masih mengajar disamping Cikgu Zamri dan Mr Stephen. Apa khabar Mr Stephen Ambrose ye? Cikgu Wong & Cikgu Zamri ada juga kami jumpa masa gathering...

Fadhil said...

Wahai kulaan Banjar Rakai,

Kamu K91 ye... dan Cikgu Zamri dan Mr Stephen masih mengajar time tu? Wah, lama tu...

Belum belated lagi la BR... hari guru officially esok 16 May.

Fadhil said...

Salam Anon 22:04,

Another Kuatagh... welcome to this blog. Menurut Mr Peter, Mr Stephen masih mengajar somewhere in Kulim, tapi takde exact details.

Saya kenal Cikgu Wong tapi tak belajar dlm kelas dia. It's good to note that our teachers have gone to your gatherings too.

Cikgu Zamri ada jemput kami kenduri kahwin anak dia minggu lepas tapi clash dengan K79 gathering. Tapi dari gambar dlm FB kawan yg lain, saya nampak ramai x-students dia datang. That's how well we respect and value our teachers.

Kalau boleh identify yourself, lagi baik. All Kuatagh are brothers and sisters.

Tommy Yewfigure said...

Hear hear Oldstock, TQ to all the teachers for shaping our lives & guide us to the right path. I like to take this opportunity to apologize to all those teachers that I terrorized & made lives difficult for them over the years, but had never given up on me despite all that. Sorry Sir/Madam and many Cheers! From Tommy ‘I never let u down’ Yew.

P/S – Hey Oldstock, how come your Cikgu Peter can keep long hair then? Hahaha check out his body hugging one size too small shirt, not tugged in & those groovy baggy bell bots :))

Nurie said...

Somehow, English teachers are always favourites among students. I guess becoz english teachers are usually more sporting :-)

Another heart warming post from you...baca post you ni teringat pulak zaman mrsm ku...

Anonymous said...

Salam Mr Oldstock,

It is really wonderful that you managed to track down some of your old teachers. It is always a nice affirmation for teachers when their ex-students look them up and it does make all the years of educating and nagging and scolding all the worthwhile *laughs*

Last year, I tracked an old teacher of mine, Mrs Abry, to this Nursing Home in Kent. She could still recognised me altho' her speech was slurred (she was semi-paralysed from a stroke). She and I laughed and cried so much that afternoon. Unfortunately, it was also the last time 'coz a week later, she went up to teach in that Great School in Heaven. :)

Fadhil said...

Tommy,

Bell bots pants were the rage those days lah... I'm sure you have a pair or two yourself, hehehe..

And not to mention platform shoes :-)

Fadhil said...

Noor,

English teachers were always my favourites, dari zaman sekolah rendah lagi. But my other favourite teacher was Mr Khoo, who taught us Modern Maths... he made it so intereseting.

Cerita la sikit zaman you kat MRSM Beseri tu... :-)

Fadhil said...

Andrea,

Sometimes it amazes me that some of our teachers can remember us, because there must've been hundreds of students under their care.

I'm still hoping to come across some of my primary school teachers... if they are still around, that is.

hazeleyed lady said...

Ass-Salam
So your are from MRSM Kuantan eh?
i've been there some time in the 70's.
We are family in a way ...MRSMers
I was in MRSM Seremban 73-77.

Fadhil said...

Salam Puan Hazel,

You must be from the pioneer batch of MRSM Seremban. In that case, you may know of my late friend whom I wrote about last month. He was your junior by two years.

Now you and I have something in common :-)

Francis said...

Do you have the contact number of Stephen Ambrose ? He was my teacher too.

Fadhil said...

Dear Francis, as luck would have it, Mr Stephen was recently discovered and joined our whatsapp group. It may not be appropriate to reveal his number here so I'd like to suggest another approach. If you can email me at fadhil.isma@gmail.com giving some details of yourself (including phone no), I'll forward it to him. Hopefully he'll contact you in return. Thanks.

Helmi said...

This is Helmi from K88. I remember Mr. Stephen Ambrose as our Counselor back then when I was a first former in 1984. I thought Cikgu Norliya passed away succumbing to cancer?