What can bring more joy to a teacher than his students not only comprehending what he teaches but also aptly demonstrating the understanding?
My dad, a retired professor of English, was once teaching a group of literature students John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. He had a regaling moment in carrying Milton to students. It was a post-lunch session and the students were understandably soporific. He explained Pandemonium which was capital of Hell raised by Satan’s men and used for their congregation and address.
“When there is total chaos, mayhem or hellish atmosphere, we can use the word pandemonium to describe it,” he said. Alas! The students sported a deadpan look and no amount of elucidation or imagery stirred them despite his best efforts. Finally he gave up and decided to take up the topic afresh in a morning session.
Next morning, he left the staff room and proceeded to the same class with explaining Pandemonium as the main agenda. On the way, he had to pass through a new college block that was under construction with brick walls erected on all sides. After a cursory glance at the new block, he was shocked beyond words. He realised that what he saw could lead to a spark in the college campus. On the brick wall was written with chalk in bold letters, “Pandemonium under construction”. The writing was not seen the previous day and it was clear that it was the handiwork of dad’s students.
While the student’s branding an upcoming college block as “hell” embarrassed him no end, as a teacher he was delighted that his efforts in explaining Pandemonium’s significance had paid dividends. The students with their impish sense of humour had had the last laugh.
Dad marched to the class with contentment but not before summoning the college attendant to erase the devilish comment. When the attendant assured him, “Sir, you can go to the class and I’ll take care of pandemonium,” dad was not inclined to move an inch unless the writing on the wall was undone, for, the attendant had become famous in the college for creating pandemonium during an examination.
It was statistics exam and the students needed Clarke’s table, a book that contains a host of data and is a sort of a ready reckoner for complex calculations. Exam rules permitted the use of Clarke’s table and a copy to each student.
One of the examinees stood up and asked for Clarke’s table. The invigilator called up the attendant and asked him to bring Clarke’s table from office. The book still hadn’t come nearly half an hour later. Then all of a sudden, four attendants were seen carrying a huge wooden table and bringing it inside the exam hall. They had mistaken Clarke’s table for the table of the college clerk. Of course, in today’s tech-savvy age, the use of Clarke’s table would be as laborious as physically lifting a clerk’s table.