What was the best compliment you’ve received?
Grade 12 saw me attempt a paper in Economics. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and micro and macroeconomics were just a few topics we covered and I assumed those were the only topics we would have that year. However, a month after the mid-term examinations, our lecturer, thrilled with how we’d performed decided to add to our repertoire and we were told to present a Viva on a topic of our choice. The choice of topic was provided because we were exceptional students, and no one was exempted. This made us wonder why we bothered to perform well! We had three months to prepare for this presentation and could use any kind of teaching aid, the only condition was that we should have the required information to be able to answer any questions after.
At a loss on what I should shortlist, I enquired with the family, my oldest sibling who was working with the SEBI in those days, told me to present a paper on SEBI and sent me reams of papers as ‘information’. I had more than 300 sheets of information which I had to condense into a 10-page assignment. It was material that would put you to sleep in the first line, and I had to go through thousands of lines to understand and then condense. I had no clue about the information I had been given. I kept working on it, every attempt a big fight, and the urge to sleep was so great. Eventually, after 2 weeks of consistent effort, I was able to create a 25-page presentation. Unsure if I had the correct information, I handed this over to the other sibling to review. One look and I was told, it was all over the place and there was no clarity on what I was talking about. “Start again!”, was all I was told. Irritated and drowsy, I hit the papers again. I perused the sheets patiently, combed through them, removed some papers, shuffled some more, edited some and added a few graphs and submitted them to the sibling again after 5 days. She glanced through them, and 15 minutes later, handed them back to me with a, “Better, but you have to look through it again, to be sure this is really what you want to talk about.”
I was flummoxed. I did not want to do this presentation at all. If left to my devices, I had every intention of submitting the forward as my presentation without even going through the rest of the information. But, since I had given it to the other sibling, I had to follow up, rather sibling followed up. I dilly-dallied, wasted more time, and went through it all again. Combed through the documents, and scanned every bit of information I had discarded as being unimportant, to see if there was something else I had missed, something that I could include that would make things better. The deadline was fast approaching, I had already spent 7 odd weeks getting here, I had a few days for submission and I was not sure if it was sufficient. Most of my presentation was handwritten and the graphs had been recreated from the printout I had been sent. I was exhausted and I informed my sibling that I did not have the time to rework the presentation, so she had to evaluate it to see if it was acceptable. She looked at it briefly and handed it back to me with a, “Looks fine!”. This review made me even more nervous, I was to submit the presentation the following day and had absolutely no time to rework any of the information I had.
Submission included the viva, and initially, I had planned on creating transparencies and practicing it like Dad used to do as a medical representative. I wanted to know my presentation inside-out so I was not looking down at the paper while I presented, but made eye contact. However working, reworking, and re-reworking the information had left me no time to polish the presentation. I went to class to find that my classmates had come with colored charts and enlarged graphs and images and presentations that were so pretty looking and all I had was a big file folder with the information and the actual presentation that I would submit for evaluation. The cover page, with my name written in colored ink and the lemon yellow file-folder I had filed my case-study in was the only colourful part of my entire presentation. I was nervous, as I had not practiced and I did not know if I knew the material well enough to make eye contact while I presented. It did not help matters when a close friend decided to base her viva on the ONGC. Her presentation was beautiful, relevant and topical. SEBI was topical, but I had no idea if my presentation was relevant or even interesting. When it was time for me to present, I got on stage and started. I had summarised the entire information to 10 points and each of those points had been elaborated on in the papers, but, the board only listed the 10 points on why the SEBI was needed and what it was doing. I finished with 10 minutes to spare and was nervous I had not been clear. But when the audience was invited to ask for clarifications, there were no questions. And this made me even more nervous because I had been informed that my Viva score would be based on the kind of questions that would be asked as well. Surprised at the reaction, my lecturer came to the podium to see if she could get the audience to react. She asked a couple of questions based on what I had listed out and the audience was able to answer proving to her that the topic had been understood and had been clear enough to not require additional clarifications. I had hit the jackpot! Smiling at me she said, “You should get into teaching, you’ve explained your material so well!”
When she handed my presentation back, I noticed that it had been evaluated by the HOD of the Economics Department. At some point over the following week, the HOD made it a point to visit the class to tell the top 5 presenters to consider taking up Economics in the undergraduate course as well, as we had made boring information seem that much more interesting. Being told in grade 12 that I was a good teacher was high praise. This was merely a repeat of a similar comment my Sociology professor had made around that time. While I had written off the first comment, as being a fluke, I was forced to acknowledge that there may have been some truth to it, when the Viva was done. And as tempted as I am to take credit for that Viva or presentation, it’s all thanks to the sibling for forcing me to work on the information again and again and again. Constantly working on it is what ensured that I was proficient enough to be crystal clear while presenting it.
I have since completed a course in ECCEd to provide me with the required certification to teach kindergarten. And trust me when I tell you, no matter what you do, if you have the opportunity to stand in front of a class of 4-6-year-olds and can have them follow your commands, with no bribes, then that praise of ‘You are a good teacher” is an affirmation.
Just a little more 