A Teacher Who've Changed My Life

A Teacher Who've Changed My Life

12-05-2018

There are not many teachers’ names I can remember. A few years ago, we had an informal gathering with our elementary school classmates and teachers. At the end of the dinner, an old male teacher came to me and said, “Hey! I don’t remember you. You must be a lucky kid who never got any spanking from me!” To be honest, this kind of teacher is definitely not worth remembering.

It was a hot and humid summer afternoon in the central part of Taiwan. After lunch, most kids acted like restless puppies and wanted to go out to the field to have fun. Miss Wang, a young teacher in her early 20s, came into our classroom for a routine math class. It certainly was not easy to get the attention of all the 4th graders at this hour, especially, in a classroom without any air conditioning or fan. As I recalled, Miss Wang was a very beautiful lady. Although she was young, she was mature and knew how to handle a class like this.

Solving math problems was always one of my favorite activities. Besides this, I loved art class and choir practice. She knew we had just recently learned a story about the greatest American inventor – Thomas A. Edison. Quietly, she wrote a math problem on the blackboard. Then she turned around and asked us to be quiet. She then challenged us by saying whoever could first solve this problem and get the right answer will be a Chinese Edison!

That certainly got my attention, since I wanted to be a great inventor like Edison long before we heard the story. I was always curious about new toys. My creations may have been a nuisance and a bit crazy to others. For example, my brother and I both received a brand new clock from Dad as a gift. I was so excited and woke up in the middle of the night. I was so eager to find out how it works that I could not resist quickly taking the alarm clock apart. But I failed to put it back together. Well, I did put it together but it stopped ticking. I sneaked into my brother’s bed room and borrowed his clock. This time, I wrote down every single step with detailed sketches. Before dawn I was very frustrated with two broken clocks. To make a long story short, I did not get any punishment from my parents, rather just a few strange remarks. This experience did not stop me from being curious. Later, more damage was done to my mother’s pots and pans when I created a rice washing machine and a few other devices.

In about 5 minutes, I raised my hand to give the answer. In the meantime, I was so afraid that I might have made a mistake and lose the title. In the past, I never did well in any test due to absent-mindedness. Sometimes, during a test I finished the front page and turned it in without even noticing that there were some more problems printed on the back, so I goofed! But, this time, I wanted the title so much that I double and triple checked the answer in my mind even while raising my hand. Indeed, there were many smarter kids in the class but I guess they did not care so much for that Edison title. Half an hour later, Miss Wang asked me to write down the answer step-by-step on the board. It was simple, only three steps and there was the answer! Yes, I got the answer right, but I solved it in a different way than she did and so saved about 5 steps. It took another 10 or so nervous minutes for her to agree that my approach was a better one and she finally announced that this kid will be our future Chinese Edison!


So many years later, maybe all the kids in the class including our teacher have already forgotten this episode, but it is an unforgettable moment in my life. It certainly has motivated me, whether consciously or unconsciously, with the life-long goal of wanting to be the greatest Chinese inventor. I looked around and today there are so many great inventors in world history whose inventions have collectively improved the quality of our lives. As a high-tech engineer with many years of accumulated experience in IBM, so far I have accumulated close to 600 issued patents (363 US and 221 foreign) plus 300 more pending. I am not sure that I can ever break Mr. Edison’s record. However I certainly enjoy my job a lot more than those who are just being regular engineers. I used to wonder, have I achieved my goal to become the Chinese Edison? Am I the most prolific inventor among all the Chinese descendants? But now, this is not important. One thing that I want to stress is - a good teacher one meets early in childhood can have significant impact on that person for the rest of his life.

Finally Miss Wong, no matter where you are, thank you for the seed that you planted in a young boy’s heart.