‘I remember being sized up by Class 10 boys’

For the time being, Meera Issacs will continue overseeing the new International Baccalaureate building of Cathedral and John Connon School, and thereafter serve as advisor. Pic/Bipin Kokate

On a weekday morning, when we phone Meera Issacs, principal of Fort's Cathedral and John Connon School, requesting for an interview, she laughs it off. "I don't know what new I have to say," she coos.

Her decision to hang her boots after 44 glorious years has generated tremendous interest over the past week. After all, the journey from a rookie substitute teacher to housemistress to vice principal and finally to position of top boss of the 146-year-old educational institution, is a portfolio that not many can lay claim to.

Issacs relents. Only to reveal that along with being a teacher, she's also a raconteur. And, "being a dinosaur" means you never quite run out of stories to tell.

Edited excerpts from the interview.

You wanted to be a journalist, but took up teaching at your mother's insistence. Things would have been different had you not. Is this something you think about?
I do, at times. It was mainly writing that I was interested in. That's what my father did, too. I deified him; he died quite tragically in an air crash while heading to an assignment. He wasn't even supposed to be there; he was filling in for someone. I was five years old.

Isaacs (seated second from right) as the Wilson House headmistress. She joined as a substitute teacher in 1977 and rose up the ranks

What was the education system like in the city at the time?
I studied at Queen Mary School in Grant Road and it was a wonderful place run by missionaries. The student cohort was multi-religious, multi-lingual and from varying economic and social strata, but our differences did not merit a thought. My childhood was fairly idyllic in the sense that we didn't have the kind of pressure that kids today face. They are running all the time; from school to tuitions to squash. Yes, they are all very driven and ambitious. We were care-free. We would climb trees and play games that have now disappeared.

We also worshipped our teachers. I remember Mrs Minchin in particular because she was like Scarlett O'Hara, the heroine of Gone with the Wind, in a flowy buckrum dress with a tiny waist. She used to play the piano and inspired me to take it up. My mother even bought me one and hired a tutor. But I was absolutely hopeless!

What do you make of the IB school trend and Indian children flocking to foreign universities?
This [children geared to go abroad] was something I saw only after I joined Cathedral in 1977. I remember one particular division where every single child took admission at a foreign university. It was a widening of my own horizons, of what life could offer. I remember when I was a student, a Rotary Club had offered me a scholarship to go abroad, but my mother refused. I resent it now, but that was the world view then.

You came up with a rule that every child would have to travel by school bus. You also stopped lunchtime meal deliveries. How did you deal with the reactions?
Most people have a different idea of what Cathedral is all about. A friend of mine told me that when she had visited the school to enquire about admissions, she saw a table being laid out for a child. A maid was serving the food. She said, ‘My god, that's not what I want for my child!' I told her that I had been in the school long enough and I had never seen such a thing. This was merely a perception, and far from true.

I was in touch with the police commissioner at the time and the traffic situation outside the school had become a matter of concern, with cars arriving with drivers carrying lunch tiffin, blocking the road. It was ridiculous. There are a bunch of schools in the vicinity and we couldn't let the whole of this Fort neighbourhood come to a standstill during lunchtime because of our children.

So, we thought why not have a lunch system in school. And if you don't want what the school canteen offers, carry a lunchbox from home, just like what we did in our days. And we survived fine. What I mean is, you need to be grounded. That's what school is all about: you learn to cope so that when you go out into the world, you are a strong, resilient human being. Eventually everybody accepted it [the decision] and fell in line.

A lot of your students have gone to become immensely successful. That must make you proud.
I remember Fareed Zakaria [journalist, author and host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS] as exceptionally bright. There was also theatre actor Rajit Kapur and Geeta Anand [dean of the UC Berkleley Graduate School of Journalism]. And then there are all these CEOs at various companies.

Tell us about transition from teacher to principal.
Cathedral was my first exposure to a co-ed school. And boys are a different kettle of fish... they are scary! I remember being sized up by the Std 10 class. Fortunately, all that passed and I have a nice rapport with the kids.

Even becoming a vice principal wasn't that big a change because the buck doesn't stop with you. It does when you are the principal. There's a distance that needs to be established immediately [between you and the rest] because the responsibility is much larger. Moreover, I had to keep the legacy [of the school] alive. The question was, how do I enhance it? All of that takes a lot of planning and organisational skills. It changes the equation. You love your kids, but it's not that open, easy rapport anymore.

What's it like to let go of what you love doing?
I would love to visit my own children and grandchildren. And then, I want to travel the world because it's a huge education. I've led a comfortable life and so, one has to give back in whatever way one can. So, I would also like to focus on helping underprivileged children. Education is power. There's a school for the kids of daily wage earners in Madurai and I'm on the school board. I get all my friends to help with the funding. There are a lot of like-minded people who are willing to help out. There's a lot more I want to do. I hope I can.