Salamat Ma'am, salamat Sir

 It’s the first time I did it but when I tried counting and writing the names of my teachers since day one of my educational journey, I came up with an astonishing figure of 92. That figure, of course, includes my mother, who was my first teacher at Antipolo Day Care Center, seven teachers at Daanlungsod Elementary School, eight at Medellin National Science and Technology School and the rest are all from my present alma mater, University of San Carlos.

The figure is almost unbelievable. Imagine brushing elbows with 92 of the world’s most influential people. Wait, influential? That does not really apply to all of these 92. I know that a handful are worthy of the greeting, and then a good number are “kind of” worthy of the greeting and there are some who are totally unworthy of the greeting. Yes, teachers’ day provides us enough reason to greet those who best exemplified the qualities of being a good teacher in our lives and just like any congratulatory message, it is said to those who only so deserve it.

But how does a teacher know he is good, by the way? I believe this question can best be answered by the student himself. As for me, I don’t look at the surface. I don’t necessarily consider the best teachers are those who bombard us with knowledge, knowledge and more knowledge each time of the day. Admittedly, that will be helpful somewhere down the road but it will not suffice surely, bare as it is. At the end of the day, somehow the theories we learn in school through a teacher may slip, even be completely forgotten, but when a teacher inspires us and brings out the best in us, that’s priceless.

That’s why when it comes to teachers and teachers’ day, there is no way I pass the moment without remembering William Ward’s quote. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” And so please allow me to honor the following teachers who just never told the theories, or explained the hard, or demonstrated what seemed abstract but rather gave me a motivation so much so that forgetting them deserves a corporal punishment:

Ma’am Zeny, my mother. She taught me everything about counting from one to 10, singing “I have two hands” or the alphabet song, writing my name and pretty much the basics of most basic. I remember how I found myself one day being baffled with how I should address her. Should I call her “Ma’am” like the rest of my kindermates would (something that felt awkward for a four-year old preschooler), or “Nanay”, like we called her at home? Soon, I decided to address her “Ma’am” whenever she came by and I was with my kindermates, and to call her “Nanay” in non-academic transactions like “’Nay, recess na.”

Mrs. Amelita Pillano. No way will I ever forget the way she would compass her blackboard stick. To me, the stick epitomized her zeal to educate. And her voice that reverberated through the grade 6 classrooms (when she taught grade 1) did not command fear at all but more motivation to learn. Everything about reading, I owe to this teacher and her stick and her big voice.

Mrs. Edlyn Bueno. She was my Journalism and computer mentor in high school but perhaps her most profound contribution was for showing her students that teachers are also human beings, that they’re not just grade-makers or exam-administrators. She made us feel the human side of a teacher by cracking jokes (God, she’s a master), giving us good company but not losing grip to her commitment to quality education. More than anything else, she was one of my first teachers of the lifelong value of that little thing called humility.

Daghang salamat, Ma’am. Daghang salamat, Sir. Happy World Teachers’ Day!