悪夢
昨夜は変な夢を見た。学校の夢である。
その日は５０分の英単語のテストであったが、時間がきて、テスト用紙を回収しようとしたら、学生服を着た生徒が顏もなく黙っているだけだ。机がなく、誰もテスト用紙を持っていない。
テスト用紙を持っていないことを見て、生徒たちはテストをボイコットしたと思った。生徒は黙っているだけで、反応はないが、明らかにテストをボイコットしたのだ。
そこへ、二時間目のクラスの優秀な生徒が来たから、「おまえのクラスもテストをボイコットするのか」と聞いたら、彼は「そのようです」と言った。
二時間目のチャイムが鳴り、単語のテスト用紙がないまま、とにかく教室に行った。行きながら、学校でのテストの重要性を生徒に説いてきかせなくてはならないと思った。ここで目が覚めた。
退職してから１５年たつのになんという嫌な夢を見たことか。
A Bad Dreaｍ
I saw a weird dream last night. It was related to my teaching job which I quit a long time ago.
In the dream, I was giving a 50-minute
English vocabulary test that day. When the time was up, I was about to collect
the papers. However, I was shocked to see that none of the students had the test
papers. The students in black school uniforms kept silent. There were no desks,
either. I only saw a bunch of 40 or so black students.
Seeing that they had no test papers, I
thought they went on strike of boycotting the examination. They responded
nothing to my inquiry.
One of the good-natured students of the next classroom happened to come to me. I said to him, “Is your class going to go on strike, too?”
“I think so,” he said.
The chime for the next class rang. I went to
the next class without any preparation. What should I do in the next class?” I
wondered. “I can’t give them the vocabulary test.”
I thought
I had to persuade them to take examinations at school, but how? I was in trouble.
At
that instant, I woke up.
It is
almost 15 years since I retired my teaching job. Yet, bad dreams persistently haunt
me.
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