Master Teacher

These past few days, I have had the honor and the joy of spending time with a true Master Teacher--Mr Ananda.

In just about every measure, Ananda has accomplished ten times what I have accomplished. He has supervised 150 Extended Essays with a grade of A; me, not yet 15. I have about 30 ex-students as Facebook friends; after a few days he had 300.

"Wow! Ananda, that's a lot" I told him.

"Hee - hee, Mick," he chuckled. "I have been teaching for 40 years. Some of my ex-students are retired now! When I first started teaching in Ethiopia, the students were older than I was! The school was so cold, and the boys and girls cuddled together, two to a blanket, and told me: sir, please don't look this way during the lesson!"

From Ethiopia, he went on to teach in Sudan--and then, 8 more countries.

Since I first met him, he has been a mentor, a teacher, and a big brother to me.

Now he is retiring as the Curriculum Director at a very prestigious school. They have an IB average of 38.5.

"Wow, Ananda! How do you do it?"

"Mick, the key to teaching these very good students that we have in international schools, is to rid the students, and the teachers, of all unnecessary work. Give them the freedom to be creative."

Those are very wise words.