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Errant students of Al Shahba School for boys, in Sharjah, need no longer fear the reprimand of the teacher nor the chances of a beating. Their teacher has come up with quite a clever way of teaching mischievous students a lesson.
Realising the futility of shouting or even beating children for their mistakes, social worker Yaqoub Alhamadi has come up with a novel method for behavioral correction. His modes of discipline are through spanners and nuts and bolts. The children as a result, engage in something that interests young minds a lot – cars.
Yaqoub Alhamadi decided to engage with pupils who broke the rules or did not turn up by making a simple deal: come to class, behave and you can spend time learning about the things you love most, cars and engines. Now why did our teachers not think of that before? We are sure most of us would have liked to tinker around with these interesting machines rather than getting our hides tanned.
“I started luring the kids to the idea of fixing cars. Almost every kid loves and hopes to be able to drive and own a car,” he said. “I hoped that I would get their full attention with this activity.”
Seems like Mr Alhamadi’s plan has worked to the T and he now runs classes teaching the basics of car mechanics and repair during the open activity lesson time, when pupils are given free time to read or play sports. They are more focused, quiet and, most importantly, keeping out of trouble, said Mr Alhamadi.
The teacher has been sharing his love and interest in cars with his pupils aged between 12-17. He has taught them how to differentiate between car models, check oil levels, how different parts of the car function and even the basic mechanical functions like changing a tyre. His students claim that all what he teaches has proved to be extremely handy for them.
Mr Alhamadi’s plans to also teach them how to buy and sell cars. He says, “I will teach them how to check if the car was repainted, or had a major accident. It might helpful to them in the future.” Now that’s what you call catching them young.
Sharjah, living in the shadow of its more opulent cousin Dubai also has a thriving car market and if children are taught at such a young age to take care of machines, then surely growing up their respect and value for the same will be channeled in the right direction.
We sure wouldn’t mind being taught such basics as a punishment. Would you?
Source: Thenational.ae
