Lessons from the Learning
My brother Rod, a public high school teacher in Cabuyao, Laguna, once told me a story about a lady teacher who was desperate to find means to send her eldest daughter to college. Her salary was not enough to cover the education of her three children.
After the summer break, the teacher did not report for work anymore. She found her way to go to Italy to become a domestic helper. She loves to teach but she loves her family more. Her children are now all in college.
This moving story of love and sacrifice came to mind again when I watched The Learning, a documentary film by Ramona “Monina” Diaz. The Learning narrates the lives of four teachers — Dorotea Godinez, Rhea Espedido, Angel Lim and Grace Amper — who all left their respective schools and families in the Philippines to become public school teachers in Baltimore, Maryland. For them, their decision was a leap of faith underscored by their immense love for their loved ones. No amount of Science or Mathematics, the subjects they taught their students, could ever explain the wealth of their affection for their families.
The Learning shows that great love entails great sacrifices, too. The documentary impresses upon you that it’s always worth it to go the extra mile for your family. Even if it means, in the case of Dorotea, being bullied by her mostly African-American students; or becoming a total stranger, in the case of Grace, to her child when she returned home after almost a year of teaching in Baltimore.
It may not be the usual love story but The Learning remains a story of love. It talks about giving and loving without counting the cost even if, many times, it hurts. Take the case of Angel — who was turned into a resilient cash cow by her family. But she believes, too, in empowering her siblings through education. She helps them to be able to help themselves in the future. In the case of Rhea, her fortitude to survive life in Baltimore was put to the test when one day she received a call that her husband was in jail for drug pushing.
The personal lives of these four teachers become the political standpoint of the film as each story essays the social cost of immigration. Somewhere in the tapestry of each teacher’s tale is a weakened spirit emboldened by her desire to uplift the economic condition of her family. It is her desire to do better, to give more, to provide more for her loved ones that propel her to go the distance even if at times it seems easier to quit. As Dorotea succinctly puts it: “I have a choice between to cry and to be brave. I choose to be brave.” But later on, when she had enough of being bullied or being a referee between her two students fighting inside her class, she shed tears. She became braver.
It is perhaps this kind of courage that some people, under that situation, do not have. Take for example the case of the two Filipino teachers — though it was not included in Monina’s documentary film — who reportedly committed suicide in Baltimore. In a report in February 2008, GMA News Online quoted The Baltimore Sun: “Fe Bolado, 26, and Irenea Conato Apao, 41, died six months apart. On May 21, 2007, Bolado hanged herself with an extension cord after cutting her wrist; Apao died in an apparent overdose on antidepressants.” Bolado and Apao were also part of “Baltimore’s growing community of Philippine-sourced teachers hired to address the shortage of Math and Science educators.”
But The Learning is full of hope. It doesn’t sugarcoat the social cost of the immigrants’ decision to take a chance to work and live in a foreign land yet it delivers the message of love, sacrifice and hope in a manner that it is heard loud and clear.
The film is emotionally gripping that I unabashedly shed tears 18 times. Monina had a tight grip of the material that she helmed the film beautifully. Each movie frame is a window to a realization that the path to a greener pasture is not lined only with beautifully mown grass. The road to achieving one’s dream is always paved with challenges. And success is claimed by those who have the temerity and resolute will to achieve it.
With The Learning, Monina proves once again how good a storyteller she is. Monina, whose film Imelda, a full-length documentary about former First Lady Imelda Marcos, won the Excellence in Cinematography Award for documentary at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and the ABC News Videosource Award from the IDA, is The Learning’s producer, director, writer and co-editor. The Learning had private screenings at the Power Plant Mall in Rockwell last Tuesday as presented by The Assumption Convent San Lorenzo High School Batch 1979.
In a linear narrative mode, Monina tells the tales of Dorotea, Rhea, Angel and Grace like they are your neighbors. The unobtrusive camerawork lends the documentary not to be manipulative or calculating.
One wonders if Dorotea, Rhea, Angel and Grace underwent acting workshops first before they were filmed. But a person with a soulful story to tell does not need an acting workshop. The characters, well motivated by the director, were all natural in the film and their emotions were as real as the dilating pores on their faces.
The Learning will make you respect more your teachers. It will also make you realize how indomitable the Filipino spirit is. It will also teach you that in life, you have to take chances to be bold and you just have to trust that God will bless the work of your hands.
(For your new beginnings, please e-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.com or my.new.beginnings@gmail.com. You may want to follow me on Twitter @bum_tenorio. Have a blessed Sunday.)
