APPLICATION TO PRINCIPAL

                                                         APPLICATION TO PRINCIPAL

Checked the timetable for 2024–25. Yes, I had been given XE. What’s special about XE is that the classroom is very small and only about twenty students can be accommodated. Great, I thought. Fewer notebook checkings, fewer paper markings, and obviously more interaction with each child. 

More importantly ,if I had to give an adjective to the class ,I would call it a kind class. The character of each class is different just like each child.Throughout the year, I loved going to this class and could pick up the vibration of each child. Ishaan didn’t want to make a notebook. Harsheel was always getting his palm read by in house astrologer Utkarsh. Saksham took a lot of leaves as he had to look after his ailing grandfather. Hasika felt like an outcast, and Karan and Mansh ever so willing to fill my water bottle. Dhairya was asked to sing his favourite song in the last 5 minutes of the class in the last period Monday.

The session drew to a close. It was the last day in school and the clamour to go to the ground increased. I gave in, and the boys started playing cricket. The joy—almost the glee—of hitting the ball was palpable. I have always loved seeing the kids in the playground, in their uninhibited selves. Many times, the children who rarely make their presence felt in the classroom exude so much power and confidence on the field.

Karan, the charmer, was bowling when suddenly the ball hit a classroom window and the glass pane broke. It was Class III A, and the smaller kids were shrieking in terror. Panic-stricken, I rushed inside. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw that the broken glass had not hurt the little ones. The terrified children were safely moved out and the pieces were cleared.

I came out of the room and told the boys, “What would have happened if the ball had injured one of the kids?” They were crestfallen. I told them I would be writing a letter to the authorities taking full responsibility for the nearly averted mishap.

“It was not your fault,” they chorused.

Within a few minutes, they had quickly written a formal letter-the very format I had been teaching them all year. The letter was error-free; the layout was perfect (only the spelling of writing was incorrect).

I had been successful in teaching them letter writing, but more importantly, I had taught them to face the consequences of their actions.

Mission accomplished.

(P.S. Karan called at 6:30 the next morning to ask if I was okay, and so did Saksham at 10:00 a.m.)

I realised once again that if you give x love to a child, they give back x raised to the power of their heart.

BLESS YOU kind X E. You are missed and memories flooded back as this letter tumbled out of my school cupboard.

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