Gecko

Something that’s, WAY more important than grades, a lesson these students, taught their school teacher, translated…
After the rest of the summer, and nobody in the school to keep the grounds, the rats and other critters took over, every morn as I entered into the teachers’ office, I saw the fresh urines and feces on my desk. The students in my class rotated to cleaning up our offices this year, and, I’d asked the students responsible for keeping the grounds clean to put in the mousetraps; ever since, my ordinary life, became, unordinary, some living creatures knew how to dodge the traps, while others, didn’t, for instance, that gecko. 

illustration from the papers online…
One day, I’d found a group of students, gathered around the sink at cleaning time, as I was about to break up the crowd, I’d found, that there was, a tiny gecko, that’s, accidentally, walked into the mouse traps, all four of its limbs became, stuck, onto the sticky pad. The students asked their health and science teachers, and received the verdict of “you can’t save it!”, and so, they could only, let it struggle until it dies. But, this gecko was so alive, a week later, as the children squatted down to examine it, it was still, wiggling its, body, to fight off any and everything, and everybody who tried to invade its, space. And so, these little girls decided, to start their plans of rescue.
They’d first, used the soaping water from the dishes to loosen the stickiness of the wooden boards, then, they’d gently, used the straws, chopsticks, the paper strips, to slowly, helped the gecko back from the dead. That was, a not-yet-matured life, its, translucent skin, being pulled, and there’s, that chance of getting torn to pieces with the pulling and tugging, and yet, one of the girls who wanted to become a veterinarian, used about an hour’s time, patiently, finally, rescued the gecko, out of its, dire predicament, while everybody else acted as her, assistants.
I stood by, watching all of this, and, looked at how these children, who’d not excelled at the academics, how much they cared for the lives of living organisms, how they loved giving their time, and sudnely, I’d felt, that could this group of teenagers, also, feel like they’re, stuck, on a sticky board too, and, being pressured by the grades on their exams, as well as the anxieties of their parents’, they’d, slowly, lost that love for this world, slowly, lost their trusts, in their, adult counterparts? And so, as they’d, successfully saved the gecko, I’d, used my cell phone, took a shot, to remember this moment they had, worked so very hard for, also, as a reminder to myself.
Then what comes next? Should we, keep it? But how? In the end, the girls decided, to release it back to the muddy mounds, to allow fate to take over.
After two classes, I’d asked them, “Is the tiny gecko still alive?”, one of the girls told me, “no, it’d died, but, we all found a good spot, and buried it.”
I don’t know if this girl before me, will get to live out her dreams of becoming a veterinarian, only knew, that I shall, turn this rescue of theirs, into a story to tell on the parent-teacher conferneces, and what I wanted to share with the parents is, that in her kindness, she’d already, passed, with flying colors.
And so, this instructor realized, that there are, MORE important things than grades, and, hopefully, after she observed this rescue of this tiny gecko by the class, she will, change her way of teaching the students, instead of focusing on the grades they made on the exams, hopefully, she will, see into what they’d learned from the courses as being the most valuable part of the students’ schooling careers.