The forty (five)-year-old schoolboy
Sir, parang gupit ng anak ninyo rin ba?” asked the barber. (Sir, should I cut your hair like I did with your son?)I told him not to overdo it but, in hindsight, also confusingly added something about wanting it short because of the hot weather. He proceeded to shave a small portion of my hair above my ear and asked once more, “Sir, ganyang kaikli?” (Sir, is this length okay?)
Thinking he was just going to give me a shorter-than-usual “Businessman” cut, I absentmindedly nodded and promptly got lost reading a magazine. All of a sudden, buzzing sounds filled the air and I felt the temperature at the top of my head go down by several degrees. I looked up and the reflection in the mirror smirked, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has no hair anymore?”
Sigh. He gave me my son’s favorite cut which is called in barbershop parlance as a “Number 1” or an extra-short “Schoolboy” cut. My son is tickled pink and tells everyone that I now look like him instead of the other way around. Well, I suppose it’s but appropriate. For just like my son, my semestral break will be ending soon and I’ll be going back to school, too. That’s because I am a 45-year-old virgi... (ahem), I mean a forty-five-year-old schoolboy.
As a member of his school’s board of trustees, I decided to show my solidarity with the teachers by taking the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET). And so, I enrolled in the Certificate in Professional Education course of St. Joseph’s College Quezon City, whose program is one of the few certified by the CHED as a Center of Training. I actually started last summer and if all goes according to plan, I’ll take the LET this coming April.
At first, it all felt surreal. On my first day of school, my wife and kids dropped me off at the gate complete with water bottle and baon (snacks). I cringed as I found myself whistling Sharon Cuneta’s old hit, High School Life. Oops, wrong decade! It did not matter that I shifted to John Mayer’s more contemporary No Such Thing. I was still twice the age of some of my classmates (who called me kuya) and even older than one of my teachers.
Midlife crisis aside though, going back to school has unexpectedly been quite illuminating. Though I actually did well during my university days, I didn’t really take my studies seriously then. I cut a lot of classes and basically just went through the motions. I thought that it was going to be the same thing again but instead, I’ve found a much greater appreciation for education in general and for teachers in particular.
It has been said that the history of education reflects human history itself — of how society throughout the centuries has tried to define and produce the “ideal” man. The Spartans trained their youth to become the ultimate warriors. The Athenians aimed to produce the “completely developed man” who was beautiful in mind as he was beautiful in body. The Romans exalted the vir bonus — the good citizen, the good soldier, the good worker — who was also a master of rhetoric.
With the rise of Christianity and Islam during the Medieval Ages, moral and spiritual regeneration became a central aim of education. But as man continued to make tremendous advances in science and technology, knowledge became power, and by the late Middle Ages, the ideal was the “professor.” This rather materialistic view has essentially survived up to today. Nevertheless, ever since the renaissance period, man has also tried to recapture the spirit of the ancient Greek and Roman cultures. As a result, various modern educational philosophies have arisen since then as part of man’s endless search for wisdom. It’s a breathtaking journey from the time of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; to Cicero and Quintilian; to Jesus and Mohammad; to later educational philosophers like Aquinas, Locke, Rousseau, Dewey, Steiner, Montessori, Piaget, Bruner, and Bloom.
Yet, despite this rich heritage, a lot of the popular discussions about education today have been seemingly reduced to how it can get someone a job. It’s as if we are all just worker bees and that education’s only aim is to maximize the production of honey. While I do not deny that it is an important practical aspect of education, I sometimes worry that despite millions of years of evolution, we are reverting back to pre-historic times when all that mattered was learning how to hunt.
In loco parentis is the Latin term that refers to the legal (and moral) responsibility given to teachers over the students in school. It translates in English to “in the place of a parent.” It so eloquently affirms the importance of teachers and why teaching is called “the noble profession.” But despite the crucial role of teachers in the development of our children, teachers are largely underappreciated by society. Underpaid and overworked, especially those in public schools, this led to a mass exodus of teachers abroad several years ago, with many of them becoming household helpers instead.
While I look at the teachers in my children’s school today with great respect, when I was a college student, I generally viewed most of my professors with indifference. I recognized their authority and expertise but only in a covertly rebellious sort of way. I thought that we students tolerated them because we needed to get a grade in the same manner that we assumed that they humored us primarily because they needed to get a salary. As with my attitude towards education then, it did not really sink in that they might have nobler reasons. From a psychological standpoint, it’s a totally different set of baggage, too — they were my teachers (and not my children’s teachers who are supposed to be better because they are non-traditional). And now that I was more experienced and already adorned with a sprinkling of white hair, I was afraid that I would feel even more distant and nonchalant towards my new professors.
Yet, I suppose age sometimes humbles more than it raises one’s pride. One of the reasons why I left the corporate world despite its financial rewards was that I got tired of it. Yet, here were professionals like Dr. Ronito Orias, Dr. Jesusa Ballesteros, and Prof. Nelia Prieto who, despite the hardships of their vocation, have soldiered on. They served in the public school system for years. And though they have already attained their doctorates and masters degrees, they still genuinely consider themselves as “life-long” learners. Most of all, they have not lost their passion for teaching. Dr. Orias intimated that real teachers simply realize and accept one day that there is nothing else that they want to do.
I’ve realized that good teachers are good teachers, regardless of their backgrounds, regardless of whether they’re traditional or non-traditional, and regardless of which school they graduated from or teach in. All good teachers are, as that anonymous quotation goes, “... like a candle — it consumes itself to light the way for others.”
And so, despite my current lack of hair, I’m content with the way I look. There are many types of hairstyles to fit how we view ourselves at the various stages of life. There’s the “Ivy League,” the “Caesar,” the “Pompadour,” the “Businessman,” the “Layered,” the “Convertible,” and so on and so forth. As for now though, I am happy with my “Schoolboy” cut — happy to have the chance to be a better student the second time around.
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