Source: newindianexpress.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CHENNAI: Standing in front of the class,\n dozens of impressionable faces look at her attentively. Regina \nMagdeline remembers her first day as a teacher clearly. It was in 2014 \nand she was talking to class 8-D in SBOA Schools and Junior College in \nAnna Nagar.\u201cI cannot describe the feeling. It was amazing,\u201d says the \n27-year-old. After completing her Bachelors in Education at Dr MGR \nEducational and Research Institute, Maduravoyal, her first job as an \nEnglish teacher was in her alma mater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her love for teaching English comes from\n the number of stories and interpretations that can be taken from one \ntext, and listening and telling these stories to her students makes the \ndemanding career so worth it.
\nShe was inspired to take up teaching by her English teacher, who became \nthe principal of SBOA when Regina began teaching. Life came a full \ncircle for Regina. \u201cShe was my favourite teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What she looked at and how she spoke \nwere two completely different things, and that was why I liked her so \nmuch. When I worked under her, she used to support me and help me a lot.\n She would make me teach the classes with slower students, just to train\n me properly,\u201d said Regina. After one and a half years of teaching at \nSBOA, Regina left the school for her sex reassignment surgery. She \nreturned to teaching, after her recovery, at a CBSE school in Peelamedu,\n Coimbatore. But this is where her troubles began.<\/ins><\/p>\n\n\n\n Starting fresh She did not explain her gender to \nyounger students, as she felt they were too young to understand. \u201cBut \nthey loved me. They used to ask for me and come running behind me, and \neven if I missed one day, they asked for me endlessly,\u201d she said, \nsmiling. She cleared the air with her older students quickly, and she \nsaw them accept her as their teacher very easily. \u201cI saw the way they \ntreated the transgender people who walked on the street. When they had \nspare change, they used to give it to them, and treated them very well. \nIt was very heartwarming,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Politics at play Now, left without a job, Regina has \nwritten to the Minister of Education, Tamil Nadu, with the assistance of\n Sahodaran, citing her plights and requesting for a job. She has been \nunemployed for a year and has to take care of her ailing mother without \nearning bread. \u201cI want my students to know that life is a race. They do \nnot have to run the fastest to win. They can take their own time, \nbecause everyone has their own journey,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: newindianexpress.com CHENNAI: Standing in front of the class, dozens of impressionable faces look at her attentively. Regina Magdeline remembers her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[432,430,431,433,429,434,166,428],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sex-reassignment","tag-anna-nagar","tag-bias","tag-regina-magdeline","tag-research-institute","tag-sboa","tag-sex-reassignment","tag-surgery","tag-transparent"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\u201cThey had asked me to teach class four. However, as I had worked with \nsenior students earlier, I had no experience with children. But they \nsaid that as I was a junior, I had to teach them. After a year of \nworking with children, I was promoted to teach classes nine, 10 and 11. \nHowever, one teacher who joined two months after me was given classes \n10, 11 and 12 before me,\u201d she said. This was discouraging to her, but \nshe decided to take it in her stride and continue teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nRegina started noticing favouritism among the teachers and some issues \nwithin the system. When she raised them, she came under fire from the \nhigher management. \u201cI think they did not like me much because of my \ngender. But I was also someone who had a mind and spoke \nstraightforwardly, and not everyone wants those kinds of people working \nunder them,\u201d said Regina. She soon quit her job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n