THANK YOU, MR TAYLOR….

I was born mature. I cannot remember a time when I did not know what I wanted or how I wanted it.  I had been told as a child that I was brilliant and could do anything. I believed. And I strut my stuff based on that understanding.

I joined my class at Federal Government College Jos at the beginning of the second term for reasons I have shared in another post. I do not have memories of him from that our first year or even the second. By our third year, I believe he came on my horizon but only because he seized novels from some students. Being a voracious reader at this time, I tried to evade him. I failed several times and finally challenged him once.

I asked why he was taking our novels and he said he wanted us to spend more time reading our texts. I explained to him that if I am allowed to read what I want, reading what I had to would be easy and so we struck a deal. I would read and write about what I had read and we would talk about it.

Forshure this arrangement could be misconstrued for a highly irregular relationship between a student and a teacher but it was probably helped along by the fact that I have very blurred lines where things like age, colour and all that is concerned. Succinctly put, I do not see it. I relate based on how I am interacted with. I have my dad to thank for that gift of a very open mind.

Anyway, Mr Taylor and I sat around reading and talking about my writing and discussing every single novel I read and very many which he provided. I would ask questions and he would attempt to answer and then I would pick holes in his answers and he would glare at me. He thought I was very audacious. Oh well!

When time came to decide on what to study, he was hugely disappointed that I chose to go the way of the Sciences as he hoped I would try the Humanities but this Veterinary thing was in the blood even back then.  He gave me some things that money could not buy and several bought with money.

He was my teacher and friend and I remember how we corresponded very many years after I had left school. I shared my experiences of the University with him in my letters and he mostly replied to say he was glad I had lost no part of my sparkle.

I remember a long-drawn out battle we had about my handwriting. I thought it was grand but he disagreed and many times, rather than give a perfect score for an assignment, he would take some marks out for my writing. And the battle we had over CAPITAL letters…sigh! It was not funny at the time but evokes such a smile now.

While in the US in 2012, one of our seniors posted about Mr Taylor on the Federal Government College, Jos Facebook page with a number for him and I immediately called. I was not disappointed as soon as I spoke, he called my name. We had a discussion and through it all, I was tensely watching my tenses and enunciation. Such is the man’s influence.

He is tall, slightly built and you could even say thin. From the last photos I saw, he has not changed much. I am very thankful to him as a teacher and friend and wish teachers of his ilk for our teeming masses of reading-challenged youths of today-for reasons of ability to understand beyond the written word to read contextually and to differentiate between the forms of writing that exist. I have ranted at different times about how the deficiency in the reading culture affects our ability to understand scenarios and I have seen consequences play out time and again.

Educating young people must not be about conditioning their minds but opening it to the possibilities. Mr Taylor, thank you for opening mine to the possibilities that exist and while I try to do same for so many who cross my path as I teach, I am appalled at the conditioning that has already gone ahead and wonder where their Mr Taylor failed.

I am most thankful mine didn't…..

Happy Teachers' day 2014......