Hello everyone, trust you're keeping your head above the water and waves one has to overcome to succeed. Today is a very special day for me. The day I'll be meeting with some of my students, those I thought in the late 90’s. The world is such a beautiful place yet tiny though you may be visually overwhelmed by its wholesomeness.
This meeting wouldn't have been scheduled for today and neither did it cross my mind that I'll be meeting with some of the students I've thought in the past, I mean I started teaching from a very young age and some of the boys and girls I thought back then are now grandparents, some are married with kids that give me joy but to be honest I don't remember anyone of them. They are the ones who sometimes meet me in public places I do visit and make me try to remember them.
There are a lot of my students who I no longer remember even if they mention their names hoping I would recall.
The only ones I can still remember effortlessly to this day are the ones whom I harboured in my home. Back in 90’s you can surely tell that there were a lot of grown men, I mean some above the age of 18 who would be sitting in class with children of below 15 years. I think one of the reasons why the school system allowed it back then was that school education wasn't something everyone was familiar with. In fact in those days some classes were held for free, no one's collecting school fees and if they did it was not much compared to what's happening today.
Another remarkable thing is that in those days the school system wasn't even well organised as it is today in Nigeria. People are begged to go to school and get educated. I think it's still happening today in some regions though at a very low percentage especially in the north.
So because they were huge age differences in a class mixed up with people from different cultural backgrounds and beliefs, there were bullies.
When I'm talking about bullies, I'm talking about those who also are ready to confront their teachers without fear because sometimes there isn't much age differences between the teachers and some of the bullies in class or school.
Sometimes trying to punish the bullies can even lead to more serious problems to the teachers because they will plan their retaliation towards the teacher who punished them in front of the ones they believed to be older to, yet they won't just stop. It got to a time when some of these bullies in class started teaming up with other grown up students in school and some younger ones seeking the cover or in other words, protection of the grown adult students. This I believe led to the formation of different groups in some schools which also led to cultism and not all grown students were bad. In Fact there are many who were also good and well behaved. In those days teachers fear their students, besides some students don't really value school, some come to school just to escape from other things that may be awaiting them but if there must be a situation in school they will fight and make sure to cause serious damage and be ready to leave school after that.
In those days, I need not to worry about myself but I worried about other teachers whose approach to their students might lead to violence. The names of the students I could remember till date are the ones in my classes who I still teach today and those I helped keep their belongings in my quarters inside their school compound to avoid bullies in hostels taking away their valuables because I was living in the teachers quarters inside school in some of the places I thought back then.
So the meeting I will soon be attending today is to reconnect with some of my old students. This was made possible around last month when someone riding on an expensive looking SUV stopped by and called my name while on the road waiting for a ride to take me to school. The young man who called my name, I didn't know him but I looked and he was looking rich. That was my first observation.
He seemed very happy to see me and even introduced himself with some explanations. I was convinced he was one of my students. He said I never changed that I'm still looking young as ever. I asked him about his set, and he said 1993. I can't say I remembered much but he gave me a free ride to my school. He drove inside the school compound and was happy to even tell the school principal who was standing by and watching me step down of the vehicle that I was his teacher and that I taught him in school.
He said to me that if not for my teaching pattern then who wouldn't have achieved much in life, he said his worst subject in school back then which I usually teach, punish and correct him for, he late got into higher institution and saw how important it was and the knowledge he acquired helped him in his course of study. He said he has a hotel not too far away from my school and he also has some other establishments. He gave me his card and brought out a well raped bundle of money and gave to me. I was short of words, my principal saw it saw it all. The man promised to invite me to the get together party of all the 1993 sets, so I could meet many more of my students who will be happy to see me.
Truly I don't know what to say about this but it's good to be good to everyone, even the poor, little, great and small because you may not know who you will meet tomorrow and in the worst case you may have forgotten just like me.
To be honest, sometimes I see some of my old students who I remembered without hesitation who ended up becoming a bus driver and some who didn't look great but I don't reject them or stop them from meeting me. I only pray for God to remember them and make them happy like the rest.
Thank you for reading.
Image is mine
