Sunny’s mother noticed that he was not his normal self the moment he got off the school bus. Sunny was more talkative than a normal nine-year-old. Usually, he would narrate everything that happened in school or he would make up stories to amuse her. But today, he was silent.
“How was school today?” asked his mother.
His eyes welled up, as Sunny looked at her and he ran home. Once they got home, he took out his English C.W book. He swiftly turned the pages and showed the page with the day’s date. Sunny had scored a 0 on 10 in the dictation.
“What happened to Mrs. Simon? Why has she marked all the spellings wrong though they are correct?” mother frowned.
Suddenly, before Sunny could reply, it dawned; Sunny had written all the letters in uppercase. AGREE, SOUND, DREAM, HEARTLESS, GRATEFUL, CLEVER, CUNNING, RESPONSE, CROCODILE, MONKEY. Cursive handwriting was introduced as part of the English subject from this year. But neither the teacher nor his mother could alter Sunny’s way of writing. He was comfortable with what he wrote.
“Ma, will you come to the class tomorrow and meet the teacher?” Sunny pleaded. “See, all the words are correct, yet Miss marked them wrong,” he complained.
“But Sunny, it is supposed to be in cursive writing. The teacher must have told you too. Since you did not obey her, she has given you a zero. She will not change it to a 10, even if I meet her tomorrow.”
However, mother secretly planned to meet Sunny’s English teacher, the next day. At around 9 A.M., after Sunny had left for school, she headed to school.
Months laterSunny won the prize for best cursive writing in his class.
“You remember, Ma,” Sunny began, as they walked home. “The teacher gave me a zero on ten for the English dictation that day and I felt so bad. I felt more so as you refused to meet her the next day. From that day, whenever I wrote my English notes, I was a bit afraid that I would get a zero again if I did not write in cursive.”
“So, that encouraged you to write in cursive, right?” mother completed the sentence for Sunny and the boy nodded in agreement.
As Sunny ran ahead, she remembered what happened the day when she went to meet his English Teacher.
“How can a teacher discourage a young child by giving him a zero though all the words were spelt right? If you do not give me a proper reply, I will take this matter to the Principal,” mother had planned to tell the teacher.
But as she walked to the staffroom, it dawned on her that Mrs. Simon was a wonderful teacher and she would definitely have the best interests of the child in mind. So, she had turned back and not met the teacher.
As if echoing her thoughts, Sunny looked back and shouted, “Good thing you did not meet the teacher that day, Ma.”
