An Anecdote

I saw their brow furrowed. I could clearly see the throbbing of a nerve at their temple. It clearly showed a lot of restraint had gone in their calm demeanor.

“Hello, ma’am.” I forced a smile. “I was called in today.”

“Yes, sir. Please sit down.” Head Mistress said pointing to the empty chairs beyond her big table.

I sat in the middle chair putting distance from the lady to my left who seemed visibly angry. Just ensuring that I am out of her reach in case she loses her cool and becomes physical.

“She is Mrs. Savithri your daughter’s History teacher.” Head Mistress said.

“Hello Ma’am” She gave a curt nod.

“Sir, I would come straight to the point. What have you been teaching your daughter?” asked Head Mistress.

“I’m not much of a good teacher…”

“Evidently!!” Said Mrs. Savithri sarcastically..

“Sir, What did you tell her last night?” asked Head Mistress quickly.

“I prefer telling her stories from the scripts or about great philosophers and their life experiences while we have dinner as that is the best family bonding time I get.”

“What was last night’s story ?”

“Last night I believe I shared an anecdote about Socrates”

“Care to share it with us.”

“Sure” I said enthusiastically without any clue where this is leading to.

“Once a student of Socrates came to him with an intent to share gossip about Socrates’s friend. Socrates knowing the intent of his student stopped him and asked him, “Are you absolutely sure that the information that you are going to share with me about my friend is true?”

“Not sure,” said the student.

“Is it good or bad?”

“Bad maybe” with suspicions as good or bad is relative to one hearing.

“Is it of any use to me in knowing this information?”

“Not sure,” said the student.

“So you are about to share a piece of bad information about my friend that you are sure if it's true and is of no use to me. I am not interested in knowing.” saying this Socrates walked away.”

“What is the moral that you taught your daughter through this?”

“That you need to avoid unnecessary information from being fed to you by asking these key questions”

“Do you know how your daughter is using this advice?”

“Let me explain that part” jumped in Mrs. Savithri.

“Yes please” I said feebly.

“Today just as I was about to start on History lesson about World War I, your daughter stood up. I asked her what it was.

“Ma’am, I have a couple of questions. Can I ask them?”

“Sure please go ahead ask them”

“Have you ever used the knowledge of World War I any point in life other than for teaching?”

I was amused. Said “No” truthfully.

“Is there any use in knowing about it than scoring marks in exams that you conduct”

I was surprised by now. Said “No.”

“Will this be in any way useful to me in my career as a doctor or an engineer?”

“No”

“Then, in that case, I don’t intend to waste my time listening to an academic feeding me information designed by a self-centered narcissistic scholar that I would never use in my life” saying this she walked out of the class.”

I was flabbergasted.