SHOWING COMPASSION FOR CLASSMATE

One of the girls in my class is suffering from a nerve disorder.  I am not too sure of the medical name as it sounded really bombastic.  But what I know is the girl has problems moving around.  Initially, she said that she couldn't keep her balance and kept falling and then it got worse.  She started having trouble walking.  She was actually on medical leave for 2 months whereby she went for tests at the hospital in Kuala Lumpur. The doctors took some tissue samples from her and the results would be out at the end of June.

Aiyoh!  The girl will be sitting for her SPM examination in November and here she is facing problems of another kind.  She returned to school last week and had to use a wheelchair.  When in the college grounds, she moves around with a walking stick assisted by a friend (see above picture).  To compound matters, her class is on the third floor.  Mind you, she has to use a lot of effort to move up one step, what more 3 flights of stairs to the third floor.  The teachers who teach her class have been making use of the canteen, the Science lab, the screening room and the library to carry out their lessons with her class.

I had a talk with the assistant director and asked if the girl's classroom could be relocated to one at the ground floor.  He was agreeable and found an available classroom in the other block.  

So, it was operation move class today for my students.  I used my English Language period to do the moving as the students had sports practice in the afternoon.  After all, the extra classes would be starting next week and I could easily replace the lessons then.  Anyway, I feel that the two periods that my students and I had sacrificed to do the moving is actually a lesson in itself.  It taught the boys and girls to be more considerate and compassionate to another human being.  

 Here you can see three of the boys with brooms and feather dusters, sweeping and dusting their new classroom on the ground floor.

 The girls wiped the glass shutters of the windows.

 A few of the Year One college students helped to mop the floor.

 Two of the girls carrying chairs from their old classroom on the 3rd floor of one block to the ground floor of the next block.

 Here you can see the boys lifting a table to their new class.

 The boys carried the plastic chairs from their former classroom.

After the sweeping, dusting, moping, moving and arranging, the students said prayers to bless their new classroom.  The classroom had been left vacant for more than half a year and there might be spirits dwelling there, so the special prayers were said to remove their presence.