Speech of Mrs. Anu Aga
Chairperson, Thermax Industries Ltd.
 

Many people play a role educating a human being and the final outcome will depend on the influence of the outside world, how much is absorbed, digested on and assimilated by the individual. Family would play a dominant role in educating a child, but since I am addressing teachers, I will by and large restrict my talk to the difference a teacher can make in making or breaking a child. Let me narrate a story.

This is a story about a 5th Grade teacher, Anjali.

On the very first day of school she told her students that she loved all her students equally. Like most teachers, she thought that as a teacher she was expected to each and every students in the same manner and though her experience was different she believed she should say this to the children. She soon realised that there was this little boy, Raju, sitting in the front row -  unkempt, slumped and sleeping in most of her classes and she did not take to him. She actually took delight in marking his papers with red pen and putting a big F for failure at the top of his papers.

The school required each new teacher to go through the student’s past records and Anjali put off reading Raju’s life. When she finally reviewed it she was surprised to see the comments of the 1st Grade teacher: “Raju is a bright child with a ready laugh, he does his work neatly and has good manners and is a joy to be around.” The 2nd Grade teacher had remarked that he was an excellent student, very popular with all his classmates and that his mother had terminal illness and life at home was a struggle for him. The 3rd Grade teacher wrote that Raju’s mother’s death had been a big blow in his life, his father had no interest in him, and if some steps were not taken soon his home life would affect his future. The 4th Grade teacher’s comments were: “Raju is withdrawn and does not show interest in school. He has no friends and at times sleeps in class”.

Anjali was ashamed of herself. Her entire attitude towards Raju changed and she went out of her way to give him special attention and to show that she cared. There was a dramatic improvement in Raju’s behavior.

For the teacher’s birthday every student brought beautifully wrapped presents. Raju brought a shabbily wrapped gift, and Anjali opened it and used the perfume from the half-filled bottle, which he had gifted. In the evening Raju came and told her “you smell just like my mother used to”. When the children had gone home, Anjali wept and from that day she quit teaching Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.

Instead she began educating the children.

Eventually Raju became a famous doctor and at his wedding reception he whispered in Anjali’s cars, “Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for making me feel important and showing that I could make a difference”. To this Anjali whispered back, “Raju, you have it all wrong, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn’t know how to teach until I met you!”