What do you remember most from your first year at grade school? In as few words and lines as possible and without saying what the lesson is (as in explicitly announcing “from this experience I learned that…”), convey the scene, people, feelings, and learning that happened.
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Roundtable Conversation 
The teacher was handing out the basket of colour pencils while we were sitting around our midget tables. As soon as the basket was placed in the centre of the table, I reached for the colour blue, but the boy opposite me blurted, “You can’t use blue, it’s a boy’s colour”. I was appalled, and the question of why I did not fight for my right to use the colour (which certainly had no gender) haunted me for most of my childhood.
Syta Seth
My Soi Dao Education
My first grade is very unpalatable. I lived in an unknown rural area close to the border of Thailand and Cambodia called “Soi Dao.” I was frightened by school. I hated everything in school. I hated education. Angry teachers and mad classmates destroyed my life. After I had learned about time, I started to count every single eternal minute and wished for school to end. My parents were concerned a lot about my education. I didn’t do very well at school things. My rank was about the third from the bottom of the class. I hoped them to think I did not suit for school and keep me out of school.
“Now write on the board any words beginning with ‘T’!”
“Teacher!”
“Tear!”
“Go go go! Come on! Hurry up!”
“Teach!”
“Tell!”
“Hurry up!”
“They’re getting more words! Come on! We’re gonna lose at this rate!”
“Television!”
“Telephone!”
“Time’s up, kids. You’ve done such a great job!”
“I defy you to fight me!”, said one of my classmates.
“No, I hate violence.”
“But I always bully you. You need to fight back!”
“No!”
“Fight me!”
“No way!”
“I will say again. Fight!”
After he completed his sentence, my hands clenched and struck his arm so hard that he was about to wail.
“What are you doing! I am going to tell the teacher.”
“Hey! You asked me to fight you back, so I did what you asked. Next time I won’t let you bully me again.”