Differential equations, Indian teacher, Reliable, 'Nero'

 

Differential Equations 

"I was one of those who was taught by her.. but never learned.. I failed Maths twice but she never made me feel stupid".. the woman, also an educator, recalled about Damayanti Kissoon née Persaud who died in December 2022.

 Damayanti Kissoon was mother to my brother and me. 

Her notes are written in the neat handwriting of so many of her generation who first wrote with fountain pens. No scratches as they 'took their time' to write. The beautiful handwriting, steady, is also on the recipes for fruit cake and oatmeal cookies and the other things she used to bake.

Differential equations, Markov chains, motion in a vertical circle, complex numbers, matrix calculations taught over five decades to students first at Bishops' High School, then Berbice High School, St Roses , Queens College and then at home when the Government could not provide a sustainable livelihood to teachers.  

The education started at primary school in Kitty, then Tutorial High School then to Bishops' High School and Queens University in Canada. 

A student from 1984 said Mrs Kissoon was "a great maths teacher who showered me with benevolent patience. She also taught me how to really appreciate the subject. "

One student from 1986 said "I remember her as a nice lady who helped a lot of people.... she had a good sense of humour." while another from the 1990s said "she was a nice lady and strict.. no joking round and making Math fun"

I was one of her students and I have forgotten the things written in the notes even though I had passed the exams and taught them for a year before University. 

Indian teacher

One student from Bishops' in the 1960s who described herself as "a young Indian girl from the "country,"" that  she  was a teacher of interest to me in a school which was trying to adapt to the social and political( dare I say?) realities of that time. From a Mollie Harris, British educational establishment to a guyanese one, your mother and her sister were the only Indian teachers there and that I could look up to" 

My mother was in the generation of women of Indian origins who started to go to 'high school' instead of 'getting married' and who went on to University.  Having to navigate  breaking boundaries, while also maintaining traditions.

The women who were Hindu and Muslim had to also navigate being seen as 'backward' still because of colonial era Christian prejudices continued in the public education system in subtle ways even as Burnham advocated multiculturalism. 

Reliable

 " I didn't think of your mother in terms of ageing or ailing: she was always there, a steady, quiet, reliable presence - at St Roses." wrote a teaching colleague who was a target for the oppressors in the 1980s Government. St Roses under the leadership of Sister Hazel Campayne was a wonderful working environment until the PNC decided to destroy the environment and to disrespect Sister Hazel and the teachers who were committed to being professional and to ensuring Guyana was an equal place. 

The transfer letter to Queens College was not requested. Years after she resigned from teaching, there was a phone call one evening from an education officer asking if she would 'go back'.  Many of her colleagues left the profession, or left Guyana.

As I type this blog, a young black woman and a young coolie man have shared their stories where their places of work are toxic and where the Government has no respect for their professionalism.  Another young professional shared her frustrations at being unable to implement any of the systems she was supposedly hired to design.

Guyana's brain drain is not only about 'better wages and salaries'.

 Nero

"Was a sugar case?" the burn man - the manager - at the cremation site asked us.. We wondered how he knew and he said 'from de bones'.. and then he looked in the direction of the skull and asked 'did she have a brain problem?" We did not get to ask him more because there were other families with the milk and white cotton to attend to ashes on the pyre.

Ageing we thought would bring some 'normal' amount of challenges to memory and cognitive ability. One of her former teaching colleagues developed Alzheimer's.

While the body had no pains and the diabetes was under control even as the mobility decreased, the brain that  solved crosswords, puzzles, the completed Sudoku grids, the correct answers to the TV game show questions seemed to indicate that 'things were normal for the age' and that it was okay even as the brain could not deal with the differential equations,  Markov chains, probability problems, etc.

The geriatrician explained what other doctors had not, the day before she died, that 'dementia' manifests in different ways, with different causes and hence different treatments and management options.  This was new knowledge for us.

The dementia had progressed rapidly. The last crossword was solved at the beginning of September. In October in the hospital , I attempted one crossword clue which could have the answer 'NERO" 

She said 'yes' and explained from the clue why that was the answer. 

I started to ask another clue, to try to stimulate those cortices of the brain which solved problems.

She said in her teacher's voice  "Go sit down and do it yourself"