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Doing Better

It was one of those days when I remembered my hometown and school in a random bout of nostalgia for childhood. It does not take much effort these days to see what remains of old memories. In this case, from what I could tell from pictures and videos that are abundantly available, the town has changed a great deal and so has the school and both happily for the better. The current principal of the school was fresh out of college teaching kindergarten when I graduated. She had fire in the belly and was clearly made for better things. She was closer to our age than the rest of the staff and was very stylish so it was no surprise that she had plenty of fans among the high-schoolers. It comes as no surprise that Mrs. C has put that school from a sleepy backwater in India on the national map and the kids have traveled the world winning various competitions and scholarships. 

The world is infinitely more connected now than it was in our time but Mrs. C deserves a ton of credit for availing what is on offer. It takes a charismatic and energetic person like her to move the needle this far. School for me had been a very pleasant experience and that was attributed to some teachers I had the privilege of learning from. They cared about making us better people and giving us a framework of values for life. Performance metrics on a larger scale were not as relevant so we did our thing unnoticed even by the rest of the town never mind anything beyond. Mrs. C has clearly evolved from the rookie kindergarten teacher and kept up with the times judging by the significant web presence of the school. This is one of those rare occasions when the reality of the here and now exceeds rose-tinted memories of a long time ago.

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