I heard the boisterous laughter and the cacophony of voices of the children as I neared my class IV.
It dropped to pin drop silence the moment I entered the class.After taking the attendance I started writing on the black board when a paper ball hit my back.
I turned round towards the class and asked "Who did it?"
None answered but I could see the suppressed glee in their eyes and muffled smiles on their faces.
"The whole class will stand till the guilty one confesses" I ordered
Five minutes passed .There was no sign of relenting from the kids. I glared at the defiant small kids.
An eight year old Sundar stood up and said "I did it, Miss.I am sorry. You can punish me"
As I went near him with the cane in hand, a girl adjacent to his row shrieked “No, he did not do"
"Why did you then confess to an act if you are not guilty?" I asked the boy
He kept silent. I prodded him gently to come out with the truth.
He turned to Sunita, who had come to his support and said" She is in acute pain due to a boil in her leg. As none confessed, I could not bear her suffering in pain anymore by standing"
I patted him on his shoulder overwhelmed by his chivalry and said Good boy, you have set an example. All of you are excused and can now sit down"
A meek voice from a sobbing Avinash was heard from the last bench " Excuse me, Miss.I do not wish Sundar to take blame for my wrongful act. I promise I will not do again."
I broke into laughter when the whole class joined me, in a moment of relief and shared understanding.
The world can be so simple and at peaceful , when people are filled with compassion, kindness and empathy in their hearts.
ReplyDeleteNice story
Chitra
Nice story..life was simpler and relationships were humane when teachers were compassionate but still had the right to punish erring students ..we have mostly lost that teacher-student relationship
ReplyDeleteNice story.🙏🙏
ReplyDeleteSimple lessons in moral values simply retold.
ReplyDeleteHeart warming story
ReplyDeleteSimple feel good story. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes and warm regards
Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy
Lovely story. Your attitude and response is great and brings cheer to the kids. Such an approach would surely mould the kids in a right way. Loved the unity amongst the kids.
ReplyDeleteKindness 😇 Beautiful story. Regards - Mahesh
ReplyDeleteA short and sweet piece .. children are naughty, sweet and full of love and kindness all put together. Understanding them is not easy… most of us are witness to similar mischief during our young years… it is fun as long as the kids don’t cross the line … Rama Sampath Kumar
ReplyDeleteLiked this beautiful story.
ReplyDeleteThis is excellent and remarkably productive!
ReplyDeleteNice and beautiful story!
ReplyDeleteA beautiful story, narrated well...The bond between the children and the teacher is very well narrated here! Hope this attitude continues in the school when the children are still small and remember the teachers and friends...Sandhya
ReplyDeleteEmpathy and sensitivity are the most vital qualities of a teacher !
ReplyDeleteNice story.ramakrishnan.a.
ReplyDeleteNice story Sir
ReplyDeleteThe innocence and camaraderie of childhood has been excellently captured here. So too the compassion.
ReplyDeleteMy latest post:
Linhope Spout Waterfall
Empathy is the hall mark of the story. P K Ramachandran
ReplyDeleteThere are only blacks and whites in small children. They haven't learnt the ways of the world yet. The fact that his friend is suffering, made the little boy willing to accept to doing the act even though he didn't, and the actual perpetrator Avinash accepted his guilt to save Sundar.. How I wish, adults too have this child like innocence.
ReplyDeleteTwo messages. Kindness does not have any boundaries and it is better to say the truth than live with guilt.
ReplyDeleteShort and sweet story. Kindness can spread like wildfire. (JJ)
ReplyDeleteGood story
ReplyDeleteLoved this story. It’s sweet. :)
ReplyDeleteActual situation on ground is very complex. The over burdened teacher has no proper understanding of values, fear of peer/superior views so to say.
ReplyDeleteKids are quite smart to gauge the situation and at times take advantage too, by the inaction of school management and either party to Parent- Teacher Assn particularly by the miscreant kid.
Only a debate/discussion with an appropriate group of Students,Parents ,Teachers,NGO specialist social scientists,can lead to an understanding in the location of incident. It may not be universally adopted or accepted.We have many such examples in real life,I am not competent enough and constrained to elabotrate in this forum.
The issues howsoever simple may be blown out of proportion by interested parties.
Jagadeesan