The Sassy Teacher Writes

This time around I’m going to be talking about something that needs to be addressed and attended to, with immediate effect. It’s something that’s slowly killing many, if not physically (sometimes) then mentally and just because it’s not us or someone related to us, we don’t see the seriousness of the matter. The last thing you’d want is, to get up and close with the slow killer. When I use the word, ‘slow killer’; what comes to your mind?    Cancer? AIDS? Any other such life threatening disease?  But, that’s not what I’m writing about today. I’m here to talk about something that’s cancerous in the real sense of the word. It affects your entire body, eats you up, unlike the real cancer.  I’m talking about  Depression.    I’ve seen it very closely in my life. I know what it does to you. It sucks the life out of us. It transforms you into this person, you can barely recognize. Heck, I am going to come out acknowledge that I have ...

I recall an interesting conversation I had a few months ago, on board the train, with an Italian teacher. We talked about the challenges that him and I faced in the classrooms. Amidst the imprudent reliance on the internet, extensive video gaming, excessive use of smartphones in classroom; there was one thing that left me aghast and speechless.  He mentioned that one of his student was in a juvenile rehabilitation centre, for attempted murder. I was shocked, beyond my wits. What follows, will both amuse and disturb you. The kid and his girlfriend were spending the night together. At that tender age, you're overwhelmed with a myriad of emotions. You feel excitement, nervousness, trying to seek intimacy. Too young, too silly to know what and how. To avoid being shamed by friends and family, you seek the help of the internet for guidance.  This was exactly what the kid did. Little knowing about the world of fetishes that exist on the internet, he thought that was the ...