Sacrifices teachers make

“Miiiii — aaaa, Miiii —aaaaaa…” The vocal exercises remind me immediately of my Music subject with Ms. Molas in Grade 1! I didn’t know much about her, but I distinctly remember her short frame and her stringy hair held in a half pony, and small instrument that she used to set the right pitch in class.  She also made us use only two fingers for tapping the beats in a song. “Tap-tap tap-tap.”

There’s Miss Siongson from Prep B, an attractive lady who was always put together.  She’d gather the students at the atrium of our small prep building during school activities.

Ms. Apo, our reading teacher, looks strict, but she was the one who gave me my first voiceover assignment, Mr. Book.

In high school, our class moderator Ms. Soriano struck me like Julie Andrews, always enunciating her words and composed. Ms. Delena, our Physics teacher was feared because she seldom smiled in class, but I always had high respects for her. Miss Tammy, my English teacher. (She now works for this paper). I wish she had stayed on longer in teaching. It was in high school that I discovered my love for writing. Even after she left, we exchanged a number of letters. I thought she would become a nun. The students were also touched by the kindness of Mr. Pallarca. Miss Oyong was always soft-spoken even when she was mad.

In college, there’s Sir Speedy, our eccentric and intriguing Math teacher who would often wear dark shades to class! How can I ever forget Accounting, and Ma’am Rico. I should have dropped the class, or out of BA! Thanks to Mr. Benjie Sandoval our college secretary, and Mr. Rama.

Prof. Elvie Zamora is among my favorites, always well-prepared and organized. I enjoyed the term papers assigned by my Communications teacher, Prof. Stecconi. I had good grades in his class!

I will not forget the teacher who came to class with a bandage on her wrist, she said she tried to commit suicide.

I pray for the teachers who have passed on, like the cool Mr. Astrologio and Mr. Navales, my CAT teacher during my Model Platoon days. May they rest in peace.

Honestly, I never really gave much thought about the hard work of my teachers until I went back to school, in my coverage for Krusada.  It was a revealing experience looking at school and education, in their perspective.

Usually, I am seated at the first or second row, by the aisle. It was the best seat for taking down notes. I knew my classmates, but nothing about my teachers.

Ask me who was the teacher who had the greatest impact on you, and I would have some difficulty naming one. This is not out of the lack of respect for their commitment, but because school was more like clockwork, a routine that you had to fulfill in order to pass. We students had to fulfill the requirements that they assigned, answer graded recitations, pass quizzes and complete projects. There was hardly any discourse in elementary years. However, we were taught obedience and discipline and respect for authority.

To my shock in one of my coverages in a public school in Quezon City to encounter some students who were literally, over-the-top rowdy, making green gestures. At the other end is a student busy texting. The boy just ignored the desperate teacher when his attention was called. “Can’t you confiscate the phone?” I asked her. “I can’t” Ma’am desperate was just helpless. She couldn’t do anything because the child threatened to report her. In an instance, she caught a student stealing and reprimanded him. Then, the parent of the child threatened to report the teacher to the principal. To be fair, some students were diligent, but the rowdy ones disrupt the class. “Children nowadays are different from my generation,” says the teacher.

“I will never be a teacher,” I told myself when I saw how impossible some of the kids were. I don’t have the patience for unruly behavior. I might end up being the one reported in Bantay Bata 163.  But there is light. I refuse to accept that bad behavior is becoming more common in the young generation. In a private school in Pampanga, the students were respectful and disciplined. But there were also fewer students in class, between 25 to 40.  Common sense tells us that the fewer the students, the more attention will be due them. The rowdy boy belongs to a class of around 50 or more students, a nightmare for any teacher, and for the students who want to learn.

A public school student complained to me that the class was too noisy. To this girl, the class setting was not conducive to learning. It was difficult to discipline so many students, and painstaking to hear the lecture when the class was held in a school corridor, with only blackboard separating them from the next class. Even the principal agreed that the lack of school buildings and teachers were the imminent problems of the public school system.

The 2012 budget of the Department of Education increased 15 percent. The maximum that can be given to any government office, as mandated by law. More than P17B went to the school buildings, and repair of facilities. This figure will also include desks. Budget will also be allocated for P13,000 (for the next seven months), still a shortfall from the P90,000 to P100,000 shortage. An increase of P300 will also be added to the P700 chalk allowance of the teachers to P1,000/teacher a year. P1,000 is not enough according to the Alliance of Concerned Teachers.

No amount is ever enough to compensate for the sacrifice of our teachers. Miss Desperate had to leave her children with her in-laws, while she teaches.  “I’m a teacher, but I’m afraid that my own children won’t finish school,” she says.  She hopes that the children of teachers will have full scholarships in state colleges and universities. It’s a good suggestion to the ladies and gentlemen in Congress. A welcome development is the declaration of National Teacher’s Month from Sept. 5 to Oct. 5 by President Noynoy Aquino.

I’ve never had the chance to thank my teachers in The School of the Holy Spirit in BF Homes, Quezon City (1981 to 1989), my teachers in Angelicum School, also in Quezon CIty (1989 to 1993), and my professors at the University of the Philippines Diliman (1993 to 1999). Included are the years because they might not remember me anymore. Thank you to my professors in College of Social Work and Community Development and Asian Studies at UP (with special mention to Dr. Landa Jocano)

To my teachers,

I can’t believe how long it’s been, and writing this column made me realize how much of my life I owe to my teachers. I can’t lay a finger on it, what exactly of myself can I attribute to any one of you, but I am who I am because of your dedication and your patience.

Thank you very much.

By the way, ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs launched an instructional materials campaign for our public school teachers: Chalk Para Kay Teacher. We are inviting corporations and individuals to participate in this endeavor. Let this be our way of expressing our gratitude to our unsung heroes. Please let us know if you want to help. E-mail me at [email protected], or follow me on Twitter, @bernadette_ABS.