Can you see?

My math teacher, who solemnly held me for a true example of being the worst student in the class of 10^th, would meet the shock of his life if he was unfortunate to witness any one of my training sessions.

Only with trembling heart beats could I attend this teacher`s lessons.

“He is a bad example for all of you!”

He added fervently to my bench mate and a bright student in his standard:” if you continue to sit with him, you are going to spoil your life. Better escape!”

Self-esteem is the best asset any student can and should possess, I feel. I lost 50% of it in my math periods, but somehow balanced it with language and history classes.

I was a very introverted boy. Books were the best friends and continuous reading caused my vision to blur. Reading the chalk entries on black boards became an impossible task. Still I didn’t tell my family or friends about my problem. I couldn`t read the math equations and steps my teacher wrote on the board and naturally math lessons became living nightmares. All I could do was to copy my friend’s notebook. Whatever mistakes he made was mine too.

 My math teacher took a sadistic pleasure in tormenting me, especially in front of girls. He couldn’t identify the problem with my vision. He didn’t try to know why I was week in math; he didn’t give me a willing ear to listen to my problems in his subject.

This is the 15^th year of my life as a teacher. Almost all my classes I ask this question to my students:

“Can you see what I wrote on the board properly?”

"I looked, looked deep within...and I saw!!"