Remembering My Teachers
The teacher I most fondly remember at Noru-Moru is Mr. Mureithi, a handsome and charismatic young man who taught us Science in Standard Four way back in 1997. He enjoyed taking us out in the fields during our Science lessons held before lunch. And you know what? At the end of the lessons in the field and just before lunch break, he would gather us together and release us one by one for lunch by asking us questions. He would, for instance, ask us, "What is chlorophyll?" And the first pupil to answer the question right would be released for lunch.
Fortunately for me - and I thank God for this - I was among the brightest pupils in my class, so I was always among the first to be released. I wonder what used to happen to my dim-witted classmates.
At Kunoni Educational Centre where I finished my primary school career in 2001, I was lucky to be taught by a more dedicated lot of teachers who honed us for the KCPE exams. Among them was Mr. Oketch who taught us Mathematics and Science. He had a passion for the subjects that used to shine through in his lessons. And he regularly digressed from academic stuff to regale us with stories from his life. We all enjoyed his stories.
At Starehe Boys' Centre where I had my high school as well as college education, I was fortunate to be taught by devoted teachers, most of whom I remember to this day. I would have loved to tell you about them all but in the interest of time, let me just mention two. Only two.
The first is John Mwaura (JM) who taught us Swahili from Form 1 till Form 3. JM who was creative at devising novel ways of driving Swahili lessons home. At one time in Form 2, he had each one of us tell the whole class something we had learnt in the subject that would be of interest to others.
But what I remember most about JM were the class sessions he used to call Chemsha Bongo during which he would split us into two groups. He would take turn asking each group questions which carried some points. At the end of the Chemsha Bongo session, we would tally the points and the group with the highest points would be declared the winner. I however have to confess that for whatever reasons, I can't recall whether I was ever in the winning or losing group.
The second teacher at Starehe Boys' Centre I will mention today here is Mr. Martin Moore who I have already told you about in the caption of the photo above. He had a habit of beginning his lessons with interesting fun facts that broadened our knowledge beyond what was required in the curriculum.
Some of my classmates in 2F remember Mr. Moore for the extra marks he used to award for well-answered questions. If at the end of term a student happened to score more marks than required, Mr. Moore would truncate his score to 100%. Oh, how I miss those good old days!
And finally at JKUAT where I matriculated to pursue a BSc. degree in Electronics & Computer Engineering in 2007, the lecturer I most fondly remember is Prof. Paul Njoroge who taught us Communication Skills in our first semester at the university. We were quite a large class of more than 200 students but I captured Prof. Njoroge's attention when I gave him Tony Buzan's The Speed Reading Book. After that, we became good friends.
And guess what! Prof. Njoroge in turn ended up lending me four books, two of which I never returned. The books were John Marks' Science and the Making of the Modern World, the biographies of Nelson Mandela and Joseph P. Kennedy (patriarch of the legendary Kennedy family) as well as the autobiography of Bill Clinton.
Yes, that was me remembering some of my teachers. As I finish my story, let me share with you the following observation by the great inspirational figure and educationalist William Arthur Ward: "The mediocre teacher tells, the good teacher explains, the superior teacher demonstrates, the greater teacher inspires." Adieu!
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