Class 9 prefect came running to the staff room at around 3 PM. “Sir, sir…”, She was running out of breath. I beckoned her into my chamber, asked her to pause and catch her breath.
Class 9 with 70 students was unique. The majority of them had started their schooling the very first year the school had opened and had joined the upper kindergarten. They had internalized the school culture very well and had never posed any major disciplinary issues.
“Sir… Somebody has stuck chewing gum to the class wall”, she blurted out. I was able to gather what had got her so worked up.
“Any idea who it could be?”, I asked her back once she felt relieved at having offloaded the weight off her mind.
“No Sir, I did ask a few classmates. None of them have seen anybody do it and nobody suspects anybody in particular”
“OK, you go back to class, I will be there in a few minutes”, I told her and sent her away. Rocking back and forth on my chair, I weighed my options.
One was to severely reprimand the class and hope to smoke out the culprit. The
The other was to investigate in the background for a couple of days to hopefully weed out the culprit. This would be based on the assumption that somebody would have definitely seen the act in progress or would have been hand in glove with the errant student. This was the wait and watch approach.
Undecided, I got up from my chair and walked to the class. Along the way, I glanced at the wall of Class 9. Clearly visible from even a distance, the chewing gum stood out like a mole on the whitewashed wall. As a teacher, I could feel my anger rising.
I had always advocated the school to be a ‘No Chewing gum zone’. Having a reputation for pulling up students severely even for possession of chewing gum, I was at loss on the right approach to take, in this latest transgression.
The carpet bombing approach would leave a lot of students in mental agony, not to mention missed classes by teachers and also the possibility that the real culprit might escape unscathed.
The second ‘wait and watch’ approach was fraught with the risk of no breakthrough after several days of effort.
Suddenly, I had a brainwave. Tread the middle path. No carpet bombing and no long drawn investigation. I decided on a careful surgical strike.
I walked into the class. “A student of this class has stuck chewing gum to the wall of your classroom. I do not know who it is at this moment. However, I am sure, it is one amongst you.”
I paused for the message to sink in and continued, “I want the person responsible for this thoughtless act to stand up, walk out of the class, scrape the chewing gum from the wall, wash your hands and come back”.
I again paused for a couple of seconds. “If the culprit owns up and executes my instructions in the next two minutes, I will not take any action on the student. However, if none of you owns up, I will launch an investigation. I need not remind you of how relentless the hunt can turn out to be”
5 seconds passed. Students glanced to the left and right. 10 seconds passed. Suddenly, Robin, a student from second row stood up, walked out of the class without a word. 69 pairs of eyes watched him in astonishment. The moment he stepped out of the class, everybody heaved a sigh of relief.
Success! The surgical strike has been a success beyond measure. It had worked. The trick of bearing upon the conscience of the culprit the possible damage from a
The student who had in a moment of madness stuck the gum, had been roiling away on what his senseless action would end up costing him. He was relieved at being given a chance to come clean without being hung out to dry.
The period ended. The student waited till the class was empty. He walked up to me and said, “Sorry”. Tears had welled up in his eyes.
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