On this in the article – ‘I have had classmates hang their head in resignation and discredit their own ability to write because they barely pass their compositions or essays – their writing is in fact linguistically sound and contains personal voice.’…
I’m so glad I had an English teacher in secondary four, who repeatedly told the class I was in, that my cursive handwritten essays took 4 to 5 readings to decipher for both word and meaning, nevertheless giving me A’s for them. At the end of one essay, he wrote, ‘It’s deep philosophy!’ It was the ‘spontaneous’ blooming of my creative and introspective phase, and he took precious time to appreciate it.
On our last Teacher’s Day, he playfully predicted our future. When it came to me, he said I’ll be a writer, which is what I am today (amidst other stuff). While I can imagine other teachers easily rubbishing my essays, I also find it hard to imagine how I would had taken it if they failed the same essays during those tumultuous growing up years. Phew! Thank you, Mr Dennis Augustin (of St. Patrick’s School)! (My Chinese teacher called me up instead, after reading a Chinese essay, and asked me if I was feeling alright!)