(Delivered during the Pinning Ceremony of Interns, Philippine Normal University, Taft Avenue, Manila. August 11, 2010)
For the past 18 years I have become three types of teacher: First, I was a Student Teacher; second, a Professional Teacher; and third, a Teacher of Professionals.
As a Student Teacher
I had pretty good grades in student teaching. In Education 7 (Preservice Practicum I – Student Teaching), I was given a grade of 90 by my Supervising Instructor, Ms. Pearlie Lucy Agnes Pascua of the Lab School. In Education 8 (Preservice Practicum II – Internship), Prof. Alido gave me 95. You may ask, did those grades give me any Latin Honors? No. But the experience helped me develop attributes which I still possess to this day.
No. 1 Attribute: Patience.
In Education 7, we were tasked to log ALL our activities every hour every day of our duties; breaks included. The logbook recorded time, activities, remarks and insights.
In the logbook, I chronicled everything – comments, criticisms, suggestions, petty observations, complaints, praises, fears, doubts, expectations, despair, plans and aspirations. In my logbook, I wrote about my SI, my co-student teachers, the students, the Lab School management, the classrooms, the restrooms, the library, the auxiliary service, the prayer rally for Ormoc victims, and believe it or not, even about former Senator Erap Estrada when he was invited to celebrate “Linggo Ng Mag-Anak” here at the College Auditorium, on December 5, 1991 between 10:40 and 11:30 AM. Sen. Estrada said that society’s well-being begins in the family. How do I still remember? I still have the logbook with me – now yellow, not because of Pres. Noynoy Aquino but because of its 18 years of existence.
Have patience with the details and you will conquer the devil.
The idea of putting everything in the logbook seemed trivial to me 18 years ago but when I returned to it and read it a few months ago, I was very happy I took it seriously and patiently. My grandchildren will love to read it. If I ever get to have grandchildren.
But patience has its limits. Take it too far and its cowardice. That’s according to an American convict I’d rather not name. So let’s seize the moment.
No. 2 Attribute: Carpe Diem
This is one of the many principles I learned from my favorite Doctor Venancio Mendiola of the College of Language and Linguistics. There seemed to be not enough time. There was always something that we needed to read to analyze and synthesize and critique. And there was no Internet. And how I thank God there was no Internet during my time in college! Without the Internet, we learned how to do real, hardcore research. The newly built and very posh PNU Library was too small for us. We would go to the DLSU Library then to the British Council then to the National Library to do our research all in one afternoon. No, we didn’t just photocopy, we actually read ALL of them because a single reference for one topic was an insult to our teachers. I’d rather die than let Dr. Mendiola know I failed read the thousand books he asked us to read. Sleep was a very rare commodity especially if you were a student teacher and a working student at the same time like I was. I seized every non-working, non-school waking hour to read and study. As if there was no tomorrow.
This attribute helped me make it through my internship. It is true, we cannot teach what we do not know; we cannot give what we do not have. And there are a million things we do not know and another million which we do not have. So every opportunity to learn counts. At Araullo High School where I took my internship, I had students who would ask questions totally unrelated to the topic. Brace yourself. They will test your superhuman powers. One would ask: “Is it true what my father said that the best language teacher for beginners is a talkative person with limited ideas? My father is a lawyer, you know.”
No. 3 Attribute: Love
“Work is love made visible,” according to Kahlil Gibran. This mantra gives a whole new meaning to the popular excuse of the underemployed which is “Love what you do, if you can’t do what you love.” But in our case and I assume, we are doing what we love. However, we cannot choose our Cooperating Teacher. We cannot choose the sections we will be assigned to handle. We cannot choose the students in those sections. But we can choose to love our students, our CT, our co-interns and our off-campus school.
Please, allow me to share with you excerpts from my Narrative Report which I have written as an intern 17 years ago.
“On November 13, the intern was introduced to the classes she was to handle. The students were not new to student-teachers. Thus, some were quite apprehensive. It was perhaps due to their past experiences with other student-teachers. But the intern was out to give marking impressions.
“The intern observed her Cooperating Teacher at work teaching literature and grammar. At both angles, Mrs. Milarita Jacquez was very proficient – unfolding concepts in a way that the intern’s former high school teachers of English never did. Mrs. Jacquez, later on stressed that accuracy is as important as fluency. That teacher should aim for the highest learning outcomes.
“Hard work, perspiration, inspiration, tears, new friends, joy, embarrassment, frustration, despair, pain and cheers conglomerated in this chapter of the Intern’s life.
“She did not expect that teaching was all glory for pain is a mutual enemy at any time. It gives a little light to the obscure idea of life. Yes, there were times when she asked herself why she was there in front of fifty or so strangers, making a fool of herself while those kids acted as if she did not exist. There were times she wanted to walk out of the classroom to never come back. There were times she longed for silence only. But most of the time she choked back all the words she wanted to say and just went on with what she was there for – to teach. Most of the time she just let things be. Most of the time.
“She learned to discipline herself: to work on her lesson plan instead of meeting her friends and watching “A Few Good Men” (translate that to the Twilight Saga of today); to study her lesson instead of watching TV, to check test papers instead of reading her favorite authors; to proofread formal themes instead of writing her own story; to smile when she wanted to frown; to watch her language; to watch her manners; to be like a teacher.
“However, there was one thing she could not learn and that was to go out of the classroom after 40 minutes and not feel guilty of a crime which was her failure to reach out to every one’s capabilities. A teacher, she realized, is not equipped with an extraordinary power to transfer learning like magic to everyone of the fifty or so students within 40 minutes. She has yet so much to learn.”
Those are excerpts from the Narrative Report, dated March 1993, which I submitted to Prof. Alido which she so generously marked 98.
Seventeen years ago, I wrote I have yet so much to learn. Seventeen years later today, I still say I have yet so much to learn. As teachers we are all forever students.
As a Professional Teacher
There is not much difference between a student teacher and a professional teacher except for the following:
1. A professional teacher is a degree graduate and has passed a licensure exam to teach.
2. A professional teacher has a boss who is paid to boss her around.
3. A professional teacher is paid to be bossed around.
Everything else is the same.
As professional teachers, you will realize that being intelligent and hard working will not necessarily make you the best teacher. Intelligence and hard work can make you department heads. But love and patience will make you the best teacher.
And of course, you do know that teaching will not make you rich, don’t you?
How many of you are here because teaching is your childhood dream? (Show of hands, please.)
How many of you are here because someone inspired you, (not coerced or forced, :D ) to become a teacher?
My sincerest appreciation to all those who raised their hands.
How many of you want to become Overseas Filipino Workers?
My sincerest thanks to those who did not raise their hands.
“It is a sorry day for those who cannot see any opportunities where they are but think they can do better somewhere else.” That’s Og Mandino speaking.
This country needs good teachers. Never mind the other things that we lack. People of old learned on the streets, at marketplaces, on mountainside. They didn’t have what we wish we had now – enough classrooms, restrooms, textbooks and computers. But they had great teachers and they survived and built cities and chartered golden years of history.
So, please, stay. And to quote Og Mandino once again, “The opportunity for a better life is available right where you are, right now.” How many of you have read Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist?
It is a story of a Spanish boy who had a dream of finding hidden treasures in another land. After the long journey and interesting characters and events that brought him new discoveries and wisdom along the way, he discovered, at the end of the journey, that the treasure he dreamed about somewhere else is, in fact, buried and hidden at his own backyard.
My question, therefore, is this. Do we have to travel the world to see that our islands are the most magnificent and our people the most beautiful?
When are we going to be color-sharp instead of color-blind and realize finally that the grass is also green in these tropical islands?
Like what every other Filipino did when Noynoy was proclaimed president-elect in the May 2010 elections, I wrote a letter to Noynoy. I posted it on my blog and I would like to share that letter with you.
Noynoy, Have You Ever Been In Love?
“This supersedes the last Dear Noynoy letter I wrote you.
“I admit the first letter spoke of fear and of doubt on my decision of voting for you. That if you screw up, I may not be able to believe in this democratic exercise again.
“I guess many of those who supported you are as apprehensive. But it is true what Kiko Pangilinan said that GMA leaving Malacanang is having half of the problem solved.
“I read a very good article recently about love of country. That advanced economies in the eastern world have this as foundation of all things in their respective country. I guess that's what you get being in a continent intoxicated with religion (India, to have been the first to be described as such). The Philippines is also intoxicated with religion, but unfortunately here, love of God doesn't always extend to love of countrymen.
“Noynoy, have you ever been in love? As in so in love you can walk on air or water? Celine Dione hits the bull’s eye singing: "Some place that you aint leaving. Somewhere you're gonna stay. When you finally found the meaning. Have you ever felt this way?" That is the kind of love this country needs. The kind of love that will make you stay despite.
“No, we cannot pay our debts with love. No, love alone cannot keep our people fed. No, we cannot move the economy with high stocks on love. No, love alone cannot educate the youth as they deserve.
“But love makes us compassionate. Love moves us to do good, not just to do right. No, I do not expect you to do the right things every time. I only expect you to do what is good for the majority all the time.”
As a Teacher of Professionals
In 2007, I was lucky to be named as Informatics Philippines' Employee of the Year from among hundreds of employees nationwide. In 2008, I was chosen as the Manager of the Year from among high-profile managers with impeccable education background and impressive work experience.
So, how does one become an Employee of the Year for two consecutive years? If you have been listening closely since the beginning of my speech, I’d like to note that everything I have shared with you was how. Always remember that patience, carpe diem and love are not nouns. They are action words.
As a senior executive, I manage close to a hundred people. If you think classroom management is difficult, I don’t have the words to describe people management. Employees have guaranteed pay every 15th and 30th of the month. They get paid whether or not they perform. They get paid whether or not they report to work, whether late or on time. And as Og Mandino observes, employees begin their daily work functions with reluctance, as late as they can and they end them with joy as early as they can.
Students, on the other hand, get graded based on performance. They don’t get guaranteed passing marks for effort alone. And students give you flowers on Teacher’s Day.
Where I work, intelligence comes cheap. It is credibility that gets high premium. Please, do remember that when you teach.
There are yearly conferences attended by representatives from the academe and business sectors to “bridge the gap” between what graduates learned in school and what the workplace really needs. Do you know what the usual complaints of the business sectors are?
It is the employees’ attitude towards work. No, not their skills or the lack of it. It is absenteeism and tardiness. It is the utter disregard for company rules and regulations. It is the intentional mediocrity at work. It is the lack of self-motivation. It is the guiltless abandonment of work in favor of another that gives higher pay or sign-up bonuses. Please, do remember that when you teach.
And finally --
Teaching requires and mandates patience. Patience makes women beautiful in middle age. Please, do remember that when you teach.
Teaching requires and mandates seizing all opportunities to learn so that we can teach only what we absolutely know and give absolutely what we have. Please, do remember that when you teach.
Teaching requires and mandates that we love selflessly and unequivocally our profession. Because work is not only love made visible. Work is God’s answer to everyone’s “Our Father’s.” Please, do remember that when you teach.
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