Teachers

Let me begin today by saying this one sentence: I have all the respect in the world for teachers.

When I was young, I figured that all schoolteachers were out to get me, but as I grew older I realized that the majority of the educators I came into contact with were dedicated to their craft and wanted to see me succeed in life. Still, there are a few that I still somewhat believe may be spawns of Lucifer Diablo Satan, himself. One in particular, though: Mr.Kangethe.

Mr.Kangethe taught algebra mathematics at my high school. He was 6'5" tall, skinny, and looked just like moses wetangula(kenyan minister), only with an Adolph Hitler moustache. You could not ask the man a question in his class, or he would make a smart ass comment and attempt to embarass you. If you passed one of his tests, he'd give it back to you, bitter that he failed in his attempt to crush your spirit and future aspirations. If you failed one of his test, he'd hand it back smiling, then say something along the lines of "Good luck in life."

To put it nicely, the guy was an asshole. It was evident that he did not have any real desire to be teaching, and whatever it was in his life that made him miserable, he took it out on his students. Me and my friends used to talk near the back steps to his classroom, and every morning as Mr. Kangethe walked up them to get to his classroom, I hoped and prayed that he's trip and break his leg or something so we'd have a substitute for a few weeks. I know that was cold, but shit. If you had Mr. Kangethe's class, you would understand.

I also had a professor in university, Mr. Brady. I'm not sure if he's a Dr. or not, but since this is my blog...The hell with his title. I'm just calling his punk ass "Brady" today. Brady is a war vet, and to say he has issues is putting it mildly. He'd talk about MSI SCANS, then go up to someone working on a project and be like "You know what you should do to that X-RAY? You should piss on it. Let the urine soak in and give it some character. It has no character right now. So go on and piss on it."

I've seen him throw chairs like A crazy guy. I've seen him scream like a lil bitch in a horror movie. I've seen him leave notes on his office door that read "There is no class today. I am home recovering and taking my glorious drugs. Oh how I love them." You know the funny thing? Despite all this, I still somewhat respect Brady, because at least he actually does want to see the students do well, as misguided and emotionally unstable as he is. Kangethe was just mean for the hell of it. To this day, that't the only teacher I'd still greet with a "F*ck you" if I saw him in the street when i go back to nairobi. Maybe I should let it go...Nah. F*ck that.

I don't want to stray away from the original topic too far, though. I do have love and respect for those who choose to become educators. Teachers deserve more money than they get, and in this day and age, they have a lot more to deal with as far as the students are concerned. I know I'd be tempted to whup a kid's ass if I taught high school age kids.

I keep hearing about this story where a student is accusing his principal of putting his hands on him after he threw a water bottle at the principal in anger. Let me just say this to anybody thinking about throwing a damn water bottle at me: Man, woman, child or animal, if you have enough nerve to THROW A WATER BOTTLE at me, then you should be prepared to deal with some retaliation. Cause I'm retaliating. I might just throw the bottle back or shake the fuck outta you...Or I may choke slam you through a table or hang you out a window by your ankles like the shia's did to saddam. Either way, if you hit me with a water bottle, expect unpleasant consequenses.

So yeah, if I were the principal and someone I disciplined had the nerve to actually hit me with a water bottle, that would probably be my last day as principal. The headlines would read "School Principal Puts Student In Judo Hold, Drags Him Through Hallway, Takes His Lunch Money and makes him kneel walk for 2hours." I might lose my job, but you can best believe that student would never hit another teacher with a water bottle again after getting embarassed and whupped like that. Isn't that was teaching is about? Education for life.

So when I read stories like the one I just spoke of, it makes me appreciate the good teachers like mrs. Runji my swahili teacher. In 28 years of teaching, She claims to have never had a student in any of her classes that she would describe as "bad." They all seem to listen to her and respect what she says, despite her 5'2" petite sized frame. She will even see students years later as grown adults, and their eyes will light up as they come over to greet her and tell her how much they loved being in her class.i myself have made a promise to go see her as as soon as i arrive back in kenya.i would really love to see her since she used call me "headmaster wa marasta" (headmaster of rasta's) and the she used to say "feisal u need some divine help i don't think human's can understand you".It's amazing, to be quite honest looking back i really needed help.Imagine sneaking out of school to buy marijuana to sell to my schoolmates at 16 most people had given up on me....once caught in the middle of the night carrying 70kilo maize flour which i stole from the school kitchen trying to go selll it outside.....damn!wallahi that was crazy!.....i have lots of stories about my high school dayz it just need's another blog....damn this blog brought back lots of memory!!!