Goodbye, ICSE 2023

It is end-November, and for the umpteenth time I have just said goodbye to another batch of class ten pupils. Sometimes it seems I have been going on forever, and the stopping will be far more sudden and surprising than the going on…

This year’s batch, unlike the previous one, was good to teach, and judging by the final reminiscent essays some of them wrote, they enjoyed my classes. I hope they also learnt some useful things for keeps. To them I say, remember, ‘education is what remains with you after you have forgotten all that you have been taught.’ Wise saws like this one become more and more meaningful as you grow older – wait for a decade or two.

These days I don’t write goodbye posts any more, but if you are interested, you might look up To those who are about to become ex-students, and Bye-bye time again. As usual, most of those for whom I wrote those posts have long forgotten them, and probably even me, as most of you will within a few years. No matter. I have long accepted that that is what people are like, especially in this day and age, and at my age I don’t really care, though I keep being happily surprised by a few people every year who give solid evidence that I still remain strongly alive in their minds, many many years after they left. A few of you will be like that. Enough for me.

Good luck to all of you, those of you who appreciate the good wish and those who don’t alike. As Shakespeare said, may every one of you get exactly what you deserve, but may my good wishes help you along.

This is the first time EVER that three boys wanted to hug me before leaving, and I let them. I must be getting really old… but very happily old, God be thanked. I look back and vaguely remember all the mountainloads of mud that have been slung at me for years and years, and it feels good to have arrived where I am now.

Keep Sir’s parting shot with you. You will see how it will become more and more meaningful as the years pass. And remember: I forget all those who do, but if you choose to keep in touch, I reciprocate most gladly.

Especially for those who expressed the regret that they didn’t get to know Sir as well as they would have liked, there is always my book To My Daughter. It is part autobiography and part elaboration of all the really important things that I have tried to teach all along. You will find it on Amazon. My only request is, if you buy it, read it through till the last page with patience and attention.