CHENNAI: Be it not being able to get away with mischief at school or having to share their mother with numerous other children, we get three Chennaiites to share what it is like to have a teacher as a parent. They bare their hearts, at the cost of letting out secrets that could get them a scolding at home!
Strict and sensitive
Shivani Muralidharan about her mother Akila, former principal of a city school
Amma was a strict teacher not only at school but home too! ‘Hey, don’t do that!’ and ‘Hey, come here I said!’ used to be her two signature phrases. Discipline, punctuality, manners and all the other synonyms of the word ‘strict’ haunted us even after school. Hence, my brother and I used to often run to our grandparents’ place and watch television there.
Being a teacher’s daughter, even a yawn during class hours was seen as a sin by some teachers and it would reach amma’s ears as swift as an arrow. So there was not much room for being as mischievous as other students. But yes, I’ve been caught bunking class, copying, incomplete homework, eating in classroom and more. Having as much as a conversation with a boy was the most difficult. I was often warned by teachers not to talk to boys and yet I found the love of my life from the same school.
There are many things I learned from ma’am (amma) — hard work and the ability to multitask. She also used to help all the aaya ammas at school, be it for their health needs or their grandchildren’s education. I’ve learned the importance of being sensitive to others’ needs from her.
She has inspired me to become a teacher. I am doing my Post Graduation in Dentistry now, after which I would like to do a part-time job as a lecturer at a dental institution. I guess it is in the genes.
My mother, your teacher
Aishwarya Viswanathan about her mother Geetha, a Montessori teacher
I am a single child, and my mother loves children. Unfortunately for me, children also take an immediate liking to my mother.
Growing up, that was difficult to see because I am very possessive about her affection. So I made my jealousy very obvious, and her response was to pamper me even more. Her traits as a teacher and mother are more or less the same. When I whine or complain about something silly, she intentionally starts treating me like the children in her class. She will say in her sing-song voice — “Finger on your lips,” or “Stop frowning. Have a smile on your face.”
My mother has taught me what patience looks like. No matter what, she comes back home every day with stories of every child in the class. Someday, I hope to have half the patience she has so that I can come back after a long day of work, content and happy.
Thanks to my mother, I know many unnecessary nursery rhymes because she chooses to perform them for me. And I find myself singing them in the most
bizarre situations.
Now at the age of 24, I don’t get jealous anymore, once in a while I correct her when she refers to her schoolchildren as “my kids”.
Corrections and perfection
Mithran Amarendran about his mother Laila, a retired English teacher
If only my mother had been any different in school and at home! To our good or bad luck, since she has never been able to break away from the teacher she is, she’s only left us sitting here trying to think how we were any different from her students.
One trait which has always stood out for which we pull her leg, till date, is her elocution and speed of speech. In all her conversations, she talks like she is teaching a class — oh-so-slowly, thinking her target audience is a classroom filled with children, and hence ensuring every word is well-articulated so the receiver comprehends it.
I remember vividly the time that she was my class teacher. Till it lasted, it was always impossible for me to digest. It somehow never sank in. I still remember that the first few days of her taking attendance, she’d call out my name and I would answer, ‘Yes, Maa.’ After that, she just went on to skip calling out my name because she knew I was there and didn’t want to have the whole class giggle every single time that happened.
Being mischievous is something that I could never get away with because I got reported back to my mother. I always had to deal with the consequences and no leeway was granted to me. I never got away with mischief but never stopped being mischievous either.
To my mother, every student that she has taught has always been one of her own. This allowed her to care for them, their success, as she would do so for her children, and that is a trait I think all of us should adopt in our lives too.
Even now, when someone mispronounces a word, as much as I try to stop myself, I inadvertently end up correcting them. This is something that I don’t think will be vanquished and I can only blame my wonderful English teacher, my mother, for this amazing gift that will continue being a part of me, as long as I live.