"Those who can't, Teach"

The below snippet is adapted from Haresh Sharma's "Those who can't, Teach". As the hard copy has been returned to the public library already, I'm typing this snippet out from memory.

"Mrs Lim, I'm back."

"You are...?"

"Ah Teck, remember? The 4N1 student, best friend with Jackson."

"Ah Teck, yes, Ah Teck. Twenty years already, so long ago. Are you looking for me? If you're looking for Mr Chen, he's teaching one class now. Should be back soon."

"No, no, I'm looking for you. Want to tell you something. Remember how you told me that everything would work out in the end, that my problems would go away?"

"Ahh, yes. You see, everything went well. Here you are -"

"No, no, I just wanted to tell you that I'm delivering pizzas now. Very poor and hard to find another job. Nothing went well. But it's okay. I still want to thank you."

*

Teachers must be encouraging. They must tell students that they'll go on to experience successes if they would just study hard and work intelligently. They are bound by their professional ethics to repeat such 'words of wisdom' to different cohorts, year after year.

Yet, most would grow and end up as the average people. After all, the 'average' is defined by the bulk, by the majority.

Perhaps some would eventually taste success that they've dreamed of, success that their teachers spoke of.

Some, not all.

A poignant play that Singaporeans, especially
teachers, would relate to. Please read it!
Source credit: Epigrams