Interfering in education
Sound educational institutions remain a proven predictor of a nation’s success. Schools being brick and mortar structures, the medium to this predictor remains the teacher. Historian and educator Henry Adams asserted: “A great teacher affects eternity, no one can tell where his influence stops”.
Abbottabad, of the (once) pristine air and the (mowed down) chinar, poplar and pine trees is a hamlet tucked away between the hills. Renowned for its schools, the serenity it once exuded was blissful. One school that stood out was Burn Hall with an incorruptible policy of standard education.
The titanic shift in times can be gauged from the fact that the school was run by missionaries. Names like Reverends Nyzen, Scharder, Scanlon and Johnson are milestones in the lives of every old Hallian. Dressed in flowing white cassocks, red sashes round their waists, few could command the veneration and respect that these gentlemen did, so great was their dedication to those under their tutelage.
Each morning, students fell in line for the morning assembly. Reverend Scanlon, an imposing figure clad in his hallmark white, would say a prayer. Saying Amen in unison never made the pupils lesser Muslims. The national flag was raised and the boys and girls filed to their respective classes. An eagle with ‘Quo non ascendam’ (to what heights can I not rise), adorned the school badge. The faculty’s only focus was to realize this in the lives of each student.
Some might think of Burn........
© The News International
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