"Dear Physics Teacher,
I would have loved to begin with befitting salutations, but those are not the words coming to mind right now. See, I have kept these words in my mind for a long while, and today, I want to let them out for the first time and hope I find closure of sorts.
When I saw you near that Total Filling Station at Mokola yesterday, I had conflicting emotions. Whether to greet you as every normal person does when they see their former teachers and introduce myself to you. Or to introduce myself and pay for what you were buying. But ours was not that type of relationship. Fact is, ours was not a relationship at all.
What we had was a mess. See, among those sea of faces that you taught Physics to between '00 and '02 was this skinny lad who had a lot of dreams. He wanted to be an astronaut. A computer whiz. A Mechatronics expert. A Nuclear Physicist. All of those were the reasons he chose to join a 'Science' class in SS One. He wanted to learn how he could change the world in many ways. He was the most eager of those faces. Ask the Math, Further Math and Chemistry teachers. Ask the SS Two students who stormed our SS One class one afternoon like a Nazi blitzkrieg, with "Who is Aiki?" the only question on their tongues. They were asking because for the first time ever a student scored 103%. In Chemistry. I was that student. I could score more in these science-based subjects if that would make me be what I wanted to be. See, the teachers for those subjects poured their souls into teaching us. They were hungry, underpaid, sometimes unpaid but they wanted to do the one thing they knew to do: teach us.
But not you, ma.
You would come and read P.N. Okeke to us in a tone that said we could all drown in the Pacific for all you cared. See, we do not like that end for ourselves, so we'd sleep. Every Physics class, your voice, reading the Physics text to us where you sat, was a sure unfailing lullaby for us. It would sing us to sleep. And you wouldn't say a thing. You didn't care.
I struggled under your tutelage to understand Physics but I could only understand the beginning of every topic. Take me two steps deeper and I was lost. I took extra lessons, bought Nelkon and Parker, the colourful Anyakoha, Awe, etc, but it didn't work. Maybe I began so late to self-learn. I wouldn't know. But I know having you read me Physics for three foundation years was unfortunate.
So, I could read to pass. All three times of GCE, WASSCE and NECO, I had B2. I could pass Physics so well, but I knew I didn't know it. At all.
When I saw you near that Total Filling Station at Mokola yesterday, I had conflicting emotions. Whether to greet you as every normal person does when they see their former teachers and introduce myself to you. Or to introduce myself and pay for what you were buying. But ours was not that type of relationship. Fact is, ours was not a relationship at all.
What we had was a mess. See, among those sea of faces that you taught Physics to between '00 and '02 was this skinny lad who had a lot of dreams. He wanted to be an astronaut. A computer whiz. A Mechatronics expert. A Nuclear Physicist. All of those were the reasons he chose to join a 'Science' class in SS One. He wanted to learn how he could change the world in many ways. He was the most eager of those faces. Ask the Math, Further Math and Chemistry teachers. Ask the SS Two students who stormed our SS One class one afternoon like a Nazi blitzkrieg, with "Who is Aiki?" the only question on their tongues. They were asking because for the first time ever a student scored 103%. In Chemistry. I was that student. I could score more in these science-based subjects if that would make me be what I wanted to be. See, the teachers for those subjects poured their souls into teaching us. They were hungry, underpaid, sometimes unpaid but they wanted to do the one thing they knew to do: teach us.
But not you, ma.
You would come and read P.N. Okeke to us in a tone that said we could all drown in the Pacific for all you cared. See, we do not like that end for ourselves, so we'd sleep. Every Physics class, your voice, reading the Physics text to us where you sat, was a sure unfailing lullaby for us. It would sing us to sleep. And you wouldn't say a thing. You didn't care.
I struggled under your tutelage to understand Physics but I could only understand the beginning of every topic. Take me two steps deeper and I was lost. I took extra lessons, bought Nelkon and Parker, the colourful Anyakoha, Awe, etc, but it didn't work. Maybe I began so late to self-learn. I wouldn't know. But I know having you read me Physics for three foundation years was unfortunate.
So, I could read to pass. All three times of GCE, WASSCE and NECO, I had B2. I could pass Physics so well, but I knew I didn't know it. At all.
I took a degree in Engineering. And sometimes I wish it was in something less Physic(al). Like Sociology. Or Economics. See, in Engineering, there are these courses that are at the very core: Strength of Materials, Heat and Thermodynamics, Mechanics, Design of Machine Elements, Fluid Mechanics, etc. Physics is the bedrock of these courses. For all the years I was taught, I struggled to really understand them. Those were agonizing years.
See, I have finished way back. God don win am for me. But, I think about my other mates and those who you taught and, God forbid, those who you will still teach. I can only wish them respite.
See, I have finished way back. God don win am for me. But, I think about my other mates and those who you taught and, God forbid, those who you will still teach. I can only wish them respite.
I have passed through the trials meeting you brought for me. I am done. I have no ill feelings towards you. What I have for you is advice. Just one. This: you were not cut out to be a teacher. No, not at all. So, get another life. And spare many from the agony having you as teacher brings.
Regards."
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