Good teachers explain, great teachers inspire

Teaching is a profession of ironies. It is most demanding yet least rewarded, most noble yet least recognized. Zenobius, as early as the 1st century B.C., quipped that a person is either dead or teaching school. Yet effective teachers overcome such psychological burdens.

Take for instance Amelia Castañeda of Sto. Cristo Elementary School in Tarlac City. For Amelia, teaching Math and Science is not just a matter of memorizing numbers and parts of the body. It is also instilling the value of excellence. She thus spends much of her time after classes to train pupils for quiz competitions and fellow-teachers for better mentoring.

Menia Alvidera of Manuel Roxas Memorial School-South in Roxas City, too, does not only teach general elementary subjects. Years ago she volunteered as guidance counselor and Girl Scout master. For her, formation comes within and outside the four walls of the classroom, to make future leaders out of simple children.

Amelia and Menia are two of ten effective teachers honored by Metrobank Foundation this year. The awards consist of the presidential gold medallion and P200,000 cash. Metrobank has been conducting the search for outstanding mentors for 21 years now, somehow refuting the lament of Jacques Barzun that "teaching is not a lost art, the regard for it is a lost tradition."

Julia Capulong of Padre Mariano Gomez Elementary School in Sta. Cruz, Manila, was chosen for her extraordinary vocation. She spends her mornings training blind children in Reading, Math and Science in Braille, so that they can cope with normal afternoon classes. Julia has been at it for 32 years, training colleagues as well to give equal fighting chance to blind pupils, whom she estimates to number at least two million nationwide.

Vilma Cabrera has had no time to raise a family, unlike her friends in Ilagan, Isabela. Married to a factory supervisor – and to her profession – she views her teaching of English not just as a language skill but a way to impart critical thinking early in life. The Metrobank award has not afforded her a much-needed vacation; because of it, she was tapped to be principal of another city school.

To teach is to learn, goes a Japanese proverb. Janet Amurao of Marikina Science High School, Marikina City, does not just walk into class to teach that dreaded subject of Chemistry. She reads up a lot in order to devise experiments, including magic tricks using everyday materials like table salt or tap water, to make the lessons interesting. Three of her former students e-mailed congratulations for her Metrobank trophy; they are now successful chemists in America and Europe.

For Elnora Ordedor, teaching English at the Dapa National High School, Siargao Island, Surigao del Sur, is not an end but a means to further learning. She thus designs her lectures to be occasions for new knowledge in other fields. Off hours, she leads other English mentors in conferences to improve instruction methods and materials.

A scholar of the Department of Science and Technology, Maylani Galicia received numerous offers to teach in Manila after graduating cum laude from education school. She chose instead to teach Math at the Ligao National High School, Ligao City, where she says students in the province need her more. A measure of her success is her sending of new scholars to the big city for education training.

Diana Aure once taught at the University of the Philippines-Visayas, where she often was cited as among the best professors. Twelve years ago she decided to move her Math education specialization to the U.P. High School in Iloilo City because she felt a strong calling for pre-college teaching. There, she has designed new modules to teach sciences.

Poet and essayist William Arthur Ward said: "A mediocre teacher tells. A good teacher explains. A superior teacher demonstrates. A great teacher inspires." Dr. Rafael Bundoc bears the burden of inspiring freshmen at the U.P. College of Medicine in Manila. Teaching Human Anatomy, he is among the first professors they encounter. So he must design lectures in a way that prepares students to surmount the rigors of medical school with a strong will to succeed. Bundoc is one of very few "all-around" doctors. He not only teaches and holds clinics as orthopedist, but also innovates and invents techniques and tools for bone surgery.

Dr. Manuel Belino, who holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, teaches technology at De La Salle University in Manila, But the "Doctor" of Philosophy is in a totally different field: ethics. Still, he adroitly melds both fields of specialization to instill in students the values of common good, honesty, integrity, meritocracy, excellence and service. Manny had wanted to retire soon from university professorial duties to teach in a remote barrio school. He won’t be able to do that; with the award, De La Salle has requested him to establish the country’s first center for teaching of professional ethics.

Philippine education is said to be in crisis, particularly in public schools. But interviewing these ten outstanding teachers makes the heart beat faster and the mind say there’s great hope for the country yet. They also remind us of author James Hilton, who said: "If I had a child who wanted to be a teacher, I would bid him Godspeed as if he were going to war. For indeed the war against prejudice, greed and ignorance is eternal, and those who dedicate themselves to it give their lives no less because they may live to see some fraction of the battle won."

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