A Touching Story..Must Read

(This story had been sent  me by a friend through email)

As she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children an untruth. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. However, that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.  Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he did not play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. In addition, Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.  At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise.  Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners... he is a joy to be around.."  His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle."  His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best, but his father doesn't show much interest, and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken."  Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and he sometimes sleeps in class."  By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one-quarter full of perfume . But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on he r wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to."  After the children left, she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "teacher's pets.."  A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.  Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in life.  Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he had ever had in his whole life.  Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer.... The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.  The story does not end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he had met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit at the wedding in the place that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. Moreover, she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together.  They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."  Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."  (For those who don't know, Teddy Stoddard is the Dr. at Iowa Methodist in Des Moines that has the Stoddard Cancer Wing.)

The Political Parties MUST reorganize themselves

A political party could be thought of as an organisation consisting of management experts that competes with others to secure the job of managing the country for a certain period of time. Management of a country is a gigantic task, requiring a well equipped and well knit team well versed in various disciplines of national life. Each member of the team should have  They should be  think the single most important reason democracy could not take roots in our motherland is that our 'political parties' exist in and around a single personality, a super hero loved and revered by the followers. The moment that super hero is picked up and put in a cage by organized and well disciplined brute forces acting in blatent violation of every rule of law, the popular following of the hero acts numb and spell bound and fails to put up resistence. This happens because there is almost complete lack of an institutional framework to harness the popular sentiment into a strong and formiddable force to counter and confront the well organized rogue forces.

For God's sake our leaders should realize that they are national asset, but also that they are made of mortal flesh. They need to immortalize and perpetuate their leadership through institutionalizing their talent. Their party should be present in every block of every town and every village in the shape of a basic democratic entity. And these primaries should be a part of the overall heirarchy of the party at national level. Future leadership should grow along the organizational ladder of this organization. In my view, Sharif brothers have the capability to create such an orgaization. The only question is do they really want to live and act within the confines of an organizational net work. This is a big question and answer seems to be evasive.

Take Care of the Child!

Family is the basic unit of any society. Family consists of parents (and grand parents) and children. The family owns resources, big or small, and parents manage those resources. Parents  make efforts to increase their wealth. They wish that their children get healthy food in sufficient quantities. They want their children to remain healthy and strong. Above all,  parents want that their children get a good education so that they become responsible future members of the family. If parents succeed in their efforts, the children will grow up to become active and useful citizens of the family. Thus the children will make positive contribution to family wealth. Even more importantly their educational acquirements and practical skills will take the family's overall consciousness level to a new height. If this process of family building is sustained through next generations, its members will achieve higher and higher levels of excellence and future will be bright.

Assuming that one child out of four of this family gets spoiled and becomes a liability for the family. How this spoiled member will affect the future well being of the family? Will this result in a proportional, say 25%, reduction in  total well being? Let us consider this question in some detail.

If human beings were machines then breakdown of one machine out of  four would result in 25% loss in production. That is simple arithmetic. Unfortunately human beings possess senses and feelings. And these senses and feelings act like viruses. We cannot remain unaffected by the presence of a non performing or malfunctioning  person in our midst. His presence will have a drag down effect on all others close to him. It will result in more than proportionate reduction in well being of present generation and its effects would likely continue to poison next generations too. In the extreme case when such a person becomes inclined towards crime, the cost to the family would be enormous.

This simple narrative helps explain why we as a nation are going down. Nation being just a collection of family units suffers much more damage by a neglect of its children's education  and training than does the family. Vast majority of our children get little education, if at all. As community our perspective about effects of  illiteracy is extremely narrow and misguided. We think, selfishly, that if our children are getting good education why we should worry about street roaming children of the neighbors!

We forget about the viral effect of the presence of uneducated and ill treated members in our society. Have you ever thought about why Western nations run vaccination programs against diseases like plague, TB, cholera, malaria, HIV, hepatitis in Third World countries. Well one reason, apart from pure compassion,  they do so is to protect themselves. They are wise enough to know that any outbreak of any of the dread diseases is ultimately going to affect every corner of the world.

Illiteracy and bad education is more malicious than any of the germs and viruses responsible for the spread of disease. For, effects of illiteracy will not only infiltrate the entire social fabric of the present, it will continue to confound through generations. Believe it, if we feel satisfied that our children are receiving all the care they need, even though the children next door, or the children growing up in the far away tribal belt for that matter, are deprived of the bare basic necessities (education included) of life, our satisfaction is short sighted and short lived. That multitude of today's neglected children will in time create hell for the entire society, including our well cared for darling children. Some of this is already happening today.

So, like Westerners, we must move, if not out of pure compassion for the less fortunate, then for the safety and future prosperity of our own offspring, and make sure that all children around us are given meaningful and appropriate education to any level each of them deserves. We need mass immunization against illiteracy so the seat of germination of agents of disruption is made sterile.