Remembering My Apprenticeship

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The eight months of apprenticeship at Dechen Pelri Community Primary school has been rather triumphant for me. It was the thorniest experience in my days but at the same instance it was a great experience that I know I will never forget. I had learned to learn and teach but learned more from my students than what I taught to them.

As I gaze back at my apprentice teaching, I just feel humiliated and disgraced. I have wasted quite a lot of government’s money and my precious time just to blight a number of brilliant students of Dechen Pelri. And at this point I feel like saying sorry to my dear students. I had used a very traditional method of teaching which brought lots of confusion and suspicion to my students.

I feel so awful for Thinley Dorji of class IV for closing my eyes upon him throughout my apprenticeship. He is a mentally disadvantaged little boy and I thought that there won’t be alternative special way to educate him. I just let him to carry out whatsoever he likes. But at this moment I apprehended that I had done a grave mistake. I have left him alone behind and now I am concerned as to who will lend a hand for him to come up. Now I have learned that there is a modus operandi for each category of child to educate them.

I have controlled my students by demanding them to fold their little cute arms and to maintain a complete silence during my teaching. I in no way inquired for their views in my entire teaching, which at this time I feel is too odd; and a rather outdated teacher. I have just clogged the views of children which they fetched from home to share among their little classmates. I on no account had a notion that at times the child is creative, resourceful and artistic.  I had just obstructed my students from beautiful days ahead.    

To be forthright, I have utterly failed in the field of Measurement and Evaluation. I haven’t reserved any evidence of the continuous assessment; I haven’t set any criteria for marking a child’s progress but rather done a miscarriage of judgment. I have done a foul play with my smart little students.

Today, after 3 years of intensive training, I comprehended all those sorry state of affairs. At the moment not just from my lips but from the inner part of my heart, I would like to plead sorry for suchlike erroneous deeds I’ve done for Dechen Pelri community. Never the less, here I would like to express gratitude to the Principal, teachers, students and parents of Dechen Pelri for lending their hand for making my days of apprentice beautiful and memorable.

If I could acquire an alternative to serve another time, I’ll give my word to be the driving force for the youth of Dechen Pelri.