Unsung Hero

The whistling of whistle echoes my ears every day. Some pay attention and some are not. Who are they? Not the pedestrians because I am not on the street. Not the trainees because neither I am in a training camp. They are the children, the pupils of the first grade. Who whistles them? No other than the first grade teacher, their teacher. This is the scenario of almost all first graders of public schools in my country. The teacher uses whistle to catch the attention of her pupils. Why is that so? Because the ratio of teacher and pupils in each class is a minimum of one is to forty and a maximum of one is to sixty. You cannot imagine the effort and the patience of the teacher handling the class of forty to sixty children. To think that first graders are just six years in age, their attention span is too short. Some have background in pre-school and some don't have. Most of the children are with problems. They are emotionally, financially ill. Most of the time, public school teachers are not just giving their hearts, dedication and knowledge but also spending their own pocket for these children. There are times that the teacher can hardly penetrate the pupils because some of them seem floating on the air. How will the teacher make her pupils read if some of them have empty stomach? How can a teacher's transfer her knowledge if some of her pupils' mind occupied with problems at their early age? This is a big challenge of a public school teacher. A big mission. Can she make it? Yes, she can. Is she a superwoman? No, she is not. She can make it, not because she's a superwoman, but because it is her vocation. Nothing can compare the joy of a first grade teacher if she ables to make her pupils read even in a single syllable. She is a hero who has not been recognized, the unsung hero of our society.