G.U.R.U. !?!

Was thinking of what happened in my Year 2 and 3 class this morning. I was teaching them about the parts of a house. Was so excitedly talking about living room, bathroom, dining room, bedroom and the kitchen. My question to the kids , "How many rooms do you have in your house--i mean bedroom?" One witty boy answered, there are two bedrooms but we don't have attached bathroom like you do in Penang! (of course, he answered in Malay). That did not strike anything in me, but the other answer did.. That was "Sir, I don't have any rooms in my house. Our living room is the kitchen, the bedroom, and that is where we study and play. And, we don't have a bathroom. Our bathroom is near the well water."

I was really taken aback by that particular answer. I was quiet for a while, but feeling of guilt rushed up to my mind and I was very emotional then. But I gained my conscious again, and I made the lesson understandable by showing them some pictures and asked them to draw what they want their own houses to look like in the future.

Those kids took that back home, hopefully they will come up with something interesting to surprise me. Well, friends, as a teacher, I have more to explore and even more to discover.

Back in the quarters, I was sharing that incident with Cikgu Malik. He said those kids in the school, many of them have not even been to Kudat. Whatmore KK or Peninsula. He also shared something with me. He said the villagers relied on the teachers most of the time. He said that even their IC registration has to be done by the teachers because many parents were Philipinos.

Then he told me on what I wrote on the title of this entry-- Guna Untuk Rakyat Umum (G.U.R.U.)

Nak agree atau tak, it's your business!