高中英语教学：A lesson for life.docx

PAGE 1 A lesson for life One morning Sanggat, an eight-year-old pupil of mine, knocked on my door. He was here to help me sweep my quarters. He noticed some thick books neatly arranged on my reading table. Curiously he asked, “Sir, what books are these?” I told him that those were books that I needed to study for an important exam so that I might go to university someday. He frowned because in a remote area where we were, even a bicycle was unheard of. I tried to explain university to him with the help of pictures that looked like a university campus. At that time, Sarawak did not have a university and the nearest one was in Peninsular Malaysia. He was surprised, “But, sir, you are a teacher. Why study?” So we sat down and I told him all about this thing called Education and gave him a pep talk about his chances of becoming someone great in the future. He took one of my books the thickest one in his hands and upon opening it exclaimed, “Now, the words are so tiny and there are millions of them. How can you possibly finish reading it?” I explained to him the importance of learning to read well and to make the best out of the lessons that he was learning at school, and that teachers like me, were specially sent to teach special children like him so that someday they could read great books like the one he was holding. He left my room. When the other pupils learned that Sanggat always volunteered to sweep my room, they wanted to do the same and soon it became an almost daily ritual which ended up with me buying more brooms to maximize participation. And Sanggat would never fail to show them my books, each time adding a little commentary of his own about them in the Iban language. I did not realize the impact my words had on him until the day I slipped into the river and broke my neck. I was to be paralyzed from my shoulders downward for the rest of my life. I was carried into a speedboat and transported back to civilization. As I lay motionless and exhausted, I notice