Killer Math Teacher

I was going to post a link to my wedding pics as those of you who've known me later in this blogosphere probably haven't seen them yet. Karen has asked me to show my wedding pics, but I'm afraid it'll have to wait 'coz photobucket's undergoing maintenance right now. But I promise you, Karen, that I'll show you my wedding pics, OK? HE HE HE HE HE...

Now let me talk about my killer Math teacher in High School. Since Trin also went to the same High School (a couple of years my senior, though), I bet she knew the guy, as well he he he...He's been VERY famous in my school.

I've never been too good at Math, though I've never really been bad at it, either. My High School was considered one of the best in Bandung. Every year on our senior year, we have to go through a National Exam. The national exam comprises of several subjects, one of which is Math. My High School had held the highest mean score in this national Math exam, so my killer teacher wanted us to get good scores for the exam.

The year before I became a senior at that school, the mean score was 79, so that killer teacher wanted us to get at least 80 for EVERY test that he gave us. If we got a lower score than that, then we would have to stay at school after everybody went home to do some exercises. He would appoint his star kids to help us do the exercises after school. Sometimes the punishment was to write down our test 5 times to make sure that we'd remember the right answers. I managed to get good grades most of the time, but there were a few times when I had to do the punishment. YIKES!!!!

He was always single and skinny. He had perfect teeth 'coz he brought a toothbrush to school. He'd brush his teeth after lunch (I caught him do that once). He also demanded the kids to sit up straight during his classes and not to slouch on our chairs. He also demanded us to be quiet, otherwise he might throw the eraser or anything toward the student who talked a lot. He also demanded enough supply of chalk of different colours 'coz he loved writing notes on the blackboard with different colours of chalk. Though skinny, his voice was SO booming. Whenever he got angry and yelled at us, his voice could be heard over three classrooms!!!!!

Back in those days, the class organizers would appoint which kids had duties on which days (the girls had to prepare the chalk for the teachers and get the table cloth for the teacher's desk and the flowers, whereas the boys would have to take turns cleaning up the blackboard right after the teacher finished writing something all over it). So whoever had duties on the days he had his lessons would have to be PREPARED!!! If one of the boys in charge to clean the blackboard didn't come up right away to clean it, he would get mad. He'd also get mad if the girls in charge didn't prepare enough chalk of different colours for him.

The girls had to go to this office to get the chalk. The problem was that the guy in charge of giving the chalk was VERY stingy. He wouldn't allow us to bring as many chalks as we wanted to, so we always had to fight with him to get more chalk he he he he...Crazy indeed!!! ;-D

Anyway, our fave day was on his birthday. We knew he was single and he LOVED pets, so on his birthday, the students would always bought him rabbits or turtles or cute yellow chicks and we'd throw a little party. Why? Because only on that day he'd loosen up and joke with us and forget about lessons and exams. Only on that day we could all HAVE FUN with him without feeling any pressure. We'd bring balloons and a cake, as well he he he he...Yeah, so festive!!!

One bad thing about him was that back then, usually he would ask the boys to go to his place after school as punishment for getting bad grades. However, sometimes he'd ask the students to post something for him or escort him somewhere instead of making them do exercises. This made the male students upset and angry. Thus during my last year in High School, the boys finally couldn't take it anymore and they reported him to our headmaster. So for the last few weeks before our national exam, the teacher was suspended from teaching us. What happened during his lessons, then? We all had fun playing games with one another ha ha ha ha ha...

Then right before national exam started, our killer Math teacher came into our classroom along with our headmaster and apologized formally in front of us. He shook all our hands and it was such a touching moment. I saw some of the male students' eyes got wet because of that. All's well that ends well, I guess.

I remember one funny incident, though. When he was still teaching, the girl that sat next to me (who became one of my closest friends) was VERY GOOD at Math. My Math teacher appointed her to be one of the kids who helped other students do exercises after school as punishment for getting bad grades in his tests. One time my Math teacher told me to solve something on the blackboard. You see, in our school, we had to go up two steps (on a kind of stairs) in order to write something on the blackboard 'coz the blackboard was hung high on the wall. I knew I couldn't solve that particular Math problem, so I was SO afraid when I stepped on the stairs. Before I knew it, I thought there was some kind of small earthquake 'coz the stairs kept on moving. But then I realized that my legs were SHAKING so badly and since the stairs weren't too level on the ground, then it shook along with my legs, can you believe it? Funnily, the teacher didn't scold me like he used to do when he realized I couldn't solve it. Maybe he understood how scared I was by seeing my legs so that he just let me go that one time he he he he...

Ahhhh...memoriessss...I'm SO glad I only had one killer teacher in my entire life. No more, please he he he he...

Post Note: I got a VERY good Math score on my national exam that year. I think that year we managed to beat the previous year's mean Math score. ;-D