"Teacher how is it that the north and south poles of magnet attract each other. Isn’t it strange" Faiza asked another silly question after I explained each and everything clearly

"No, no. Every thing or incident has a logical reason, and I have told you the reason several times. Ok students always remember that like poles of magnet repel each other and unlike poles……." All of a sudden a strange sound from the attached washroom of the classroom surprised me as well as the students.

"Girls, it’s nothing but the wind." I posed that I did not hear anything so that students might not divert their attention from the lecture. "I was telling you people that unlike poles……." Again we heard that sound. "My dear students may be it’s a mouse crossing the floor." I tried to comfort students as well as myself with these suppositions. "So, a single piece of magnet consists of two unlike poles, as……."

I felt that someone had jumped out of the wash room window. I went near the class room window and found Sana walking stealthily towards library’s was terribly shocked. For a moment, I couldn’t decide what to do. I confusedly looked at the students in the class. They were all busy doing their work trying to attach two magnets together. None of them had seen Sana except me

"Why did she hide herself in the washroom in my period? Why did she jump from washroom window?"

I thought of number of possibilities which might have led her to bunk the class. Meanwhile the bell rang and the students went out of the class.

"She tried to deceive me, I work so hard so that these students can learn Physics easily and what they are doing with me, I always appreciate her, help her,revise topics and solve difficult numerical during my free time, I never refuse her, and now she doesn’t want to learn Physics, she did so with me, how dared she do so….." I was trembling with anger. I rushed to the vice principal’s office to complain him about what she did but as I reached the door of office, a voice echoed around me:-

It was the voice of Prof. Omer Saleem who delivered us a lecture in the university about how to handle different situations which a teacher is likely to face in his class. I helplessly looked at the close door of office and went back.

Sana Khan was a very intelligent student. She always secured highest marks in exams. She would actively participate in co curricular activities. There is an attached washroom in every class in our school .That day, Sara hid herself in the washroom in my period and later she jumped out of washroom window. This sort of strange behavior was unexpected from such a good student of mine. I was so angry that I wanted to scold her severely before the whole class so that other students might not dare to do such a thing. But Sir Omer Saleem’s voice was echoing in my mind again and again.

"Emotional torture is worse than the physical torture"

I thought that scolding her will make her more careless, aggressive and bold. It will give her emotional torture. At first; I decided to pretend before Sana that I have not seen her bunking the class. I thought that with the passage of time, she would attain the level of maturity and would understand what is wrong and what is right. But then again, I remembered my genius teacher Prof. Omer’s words who said: "Teachers are spiritual parents of their students. If the students do something wrong, it’s the responsibility of teachers to discuss with the students, the reason of their unusual behavior. Teacher shouldn’t act as an authority. He should act as a counselor. He should develop understanding with his students."

I acted upon sir Omer’s advice. In fifth period, when I was alone in the staffroom, I called Sana and discussed the whole thing with her in a very polite manner. She couldn’t speak for a few moments.

Blood ran to her cheeks. I assured her that I wouldn’t disclose anything before school administration.

"Teacher I……I, I really didn’t want to deceive you. I did all this to escape the test. I wasn’t prepared.’ a drop of tear rolled down her cheeks and fell on the floor.

"What! Test! But I didn’t take test from the students today. I taught them the new lesson and you missed that. But don’t worry, I’ll repeat it tomorrow in my break time for you, you can come". I said.

Then I told her the disadvantages of bunking class and insisted her to talk to me if she ever had any problem. Her face glowed with pleasure and she promised that she would never break the rules of school again.

The next day, I wrote a numerical as a surprised test on the white board "A car covers a distance of 400 m in 20 seconds. What will be its average speed?" Sana Khan was the first to solve it. She was doing her work with full concentration.

The incident narrated above had a very positive and long lasting effect on my mind. I, who always believed that errors and mistakes should be put to an end by snubbing the students, have started believing that a teacher can improve his students’ behavior by adopting friendly attitude towards them.