The Cooling Stream

Walking through the alley bringing along some books, I slowly move toward the classroom block.

The school bell has just rung.

I am having a double lesson with my students.

I am in a hurry.

But many students are still loitering along the corridors.... taking their sweet time before entering their classroom.

A group of more than 10 students from another classroom is walking in the opposite direction... in group of three or four, talking and laughing among themselves.......

They walk pass me without a word.

Then I look up and turn my head around.......

Not many students turned their heads to the teachers with a nodding respect or a smile...

Even fewer greet the teachers 'Good Morning' or "Good day".

I sigh.... So do many other teachers.

The school has changed so much.

The society is also the same.

The world that I know has really changed....

I don't recognize most of it any more.

Gone are the days when we stop and bow our heads with respect to our teachers or elders.

Gone are the days when we desire to go near our teachers or elders to share our thoughts, ideas, feelings, observation or experience.

The generation gap....

The knowledge gap....

The expectation gap....

The achievement gap....

The empathy gap....

All of a sudden I realize they are so different.

They are aliens and strangers to me....

They are people from another culture, background and world....

Now they depend on their own and create their future....

Now they fight on their own and hope for the best.....

They only listen to their teachers and elders when they have to....

And teaching has become just a routine of completing a lesson, a chapter, a course, or a study....

No further comments....

No personal questions....

No interfering....

Just leave us alone.

Quietly and tactfully teachers and elders excavate the mine and refine the ore.

These are good generation of people.

They are pure gold.

But the searing pain from a distant call....

Just leave us alone....

It hurts, really hurts..... to the core.