Blog

by Hla Min

Updated : May 2025

Brother Clementian : Lifelong Teacher

He was loved by his former students. When he passed away, the cortege left from SPHS (St. Paul’s High School) to the Tamwe Christian Cemetery. When the cars arrived at the Cemetery for the Burial Service, many cars were still leaving SPHS.

His younger brother had a couple of Doctorates, but his teaching was not valued as highly as that of Brother Clementian, who did not have a Doctorate.

He was a Brother Director (e.g at St. Peter’s High School in Mandalay). He retired from being a Brother Director but he did not retire from his love of teaching.

It was customary for Brother Director and Sub-Director to go round and inspect the classes. He would not allow them to come near his class.

He did not know or care if a student is a son of the Prime Minister, Minister or a high ranking official. He treats every student fairly.

He taught High School Maths. He had several texts and reference books. He would teach a topic and ask one or more students to go onto the blackboard to show what they have learned and to solve selected problems. He reminded students not to impose restrictions. For example, if he asked a student to draw a triangle, it should be an arbitrary one (not restricted as an isosceles or equilateral) and it could/should be labeled differently from the one used in his example.

Sad to hear that some present day students do not get marks if they deviate from Rote Learning.

Every student would have two exercise books, so that he can collect and grade the homework. Every week, he would give a test of three questions to be answered in one hour. This training prepared many students to complete six questions in the Matriculation exam much earlier than the allotted three hours and score Distinctions.

He acknowledges that some students (e.g. Min Oo) are gifted and have learned beyond High School Maths.

Many remember his smile, and a few remember the strong finger that he used for poking at badly behaving students.

Dr. Thane Oke Kyaw Myint (SPHS60) wrote :

I have forgotten the name of the maths textbook. It was a govt prescribed one. There was another book to used in college. Brother Clementian finished was the first book but blithely went in with the book for Inter A during our matrix class. It made the questions in additional maths easier for us because of this.

There was only one person who could beat Brother. Often when a maths problem has been solved by himself, Myo Myint (your brother in law) would shout that he could work out the solution using less number of steps. And he was always correct. Do Si at the end of his working out each tine, he would turn to Myo Myint and asked “Can you do better?” which Myo Myint often could.

Dr. Nyan Taw (SPHS63) wrote :

Brother Clementian taught us mathematics in high school. Seem we were the last lucky group (A&B) he taught before he retired. Min Oo was in A whereas I was in B class. The best maths teacher ever !!!

U Than Win (SPHS63, RIT69er) wrote :

Whenever I find “Sequence Geometry “in the old stock of books I always remember our great Maths teacher. We love and revered but sometime we feel somewhat frightened whenever we lack preparation. The most remembered word in this geometry book is QED (which is to be proved) because he always stare at us and stressed the word whenever the problem is solved.

Gone, gone
But still in our heart.