Shooting for Brownie Points

Slightly belated but hopefully not too late! Happy Teachers' Day to all the wonderful educators out there. I have personally come across several wonderful teachers in my life, but one certainly stood out from the rest.

Miss Jeyanthi. She was not only my class teacher at Form 2, but also my Maths and Science teacher during my lower secondary years. She was quite the character... exceptionally 'garang' with a heart of gold. Despite her stern demeanor, her teaching ways were really effective. Jangan berangan la tak buat her subject homework. A fond memory of her was how the entire class would all freak out whenever she walked into class and started drawing lines on the board. Yes. Lines. Those lines were meant to separate each row of desks into a team. She would then read out a Maths question and each team will send a representative to race to the blackboard to solve the question. Points would be given to the team rep that finishes first. It was so stressful, because if you got it wrong, your entire team would be penalized!

Since she was extremely superb at teaching, my mum sought her out for tuition classes. So that was how me and a couple of friends started going to her house twice weekly for tuition. My mum would drop me off in the morning, and after tuition we would all walk to the bus stop to take the bus to school. 

After graduating from high school, I lost all contact with her. I met her briefly twice after that - once when I found out that my cousin was attending her tuition classes (I sneaked in at the end of her class and surprisingly she still remembered me!) and the next time was at the BBGS 2009 Gala Reunion in Pavilion (the first time our alumni gathered at the location where our alma mater used to stand).

Anyway, back to the original intent of the post! Every year I would make baked goods as presents for Teachers' Day, with a matching personalized message to boot. (Other than last year, as Aiden's teachers were both vegetarian so I bought Crabtree and Evelyn teabags with the message "Thank You For Being a Tea-rrific Teacher!") So this year, I made Congo Bars... but struggled to find a suitable message. I found a particularly good one for cookies (Thanks For Making Me One Smart Cookie) but by then the Congo Bars were already in the oven. I contemplated using one for Brownies (Shooting for Brownie Points) but decided against it cos it was more suited for Valentines Day... shooting Cupid, geddit? So in the end, I decided to be boring and just use a generic one I found off the internet.

Sorry Ian, no school yet for you so you just have to watch and learn.

Aiden didn't know the names of all his teachers (!!!) so Mummy jugak yang kena pegi find out.

Cute mini Congo Bars nestled in individual wrappers.

Thank you teachers, for your dedication, enthusiasm, and hard work in shaping these young minds into the future leaders of tomorrow.

Food for thought: "Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions..."