“NEWS TRANSFORMATION: A MISSON”

Post date: Sep 1, 2017 7:43:23 AM

Sammy Y. Sabello

T-II, City of Balanga National High School

“The teacher is the heart of the educational system,” according to Sidney Hook. As educators, we would beautify our classroom and prepare our lessons to keep our students’ attention hoping that at the end of the day, there is knowledge that they could take home.

It is never easy to live the life of a teacher. You often would prepare everything you have to do in the classroom and preparations seem to take forever. Imagine the amount of preparations that you have to do for a one-hour class. Writing the learning plan means putting into practice the curriculum, looking for the right materials, studying and mastering the content, and keeping in mind the needs of your students. After class, you even take home papers to check. Months will pass and you have to convene with parents to report the progress of each student. In between, you also follow up on students having difficulties coping with the academics. People watching you would ask, ‘Aren’t you feeling tired?”.

Of course we do. Physically, we do, but spiritually, we do not – we cannot and must not. How can we be spiritually down when we know the next generation relies on us.

A lot of times, we feel so down for there are those looking down on us. It was a fault of the past that teachers have lost the respect of some. How many times has your blood pressure risen hearing comments like “Teacher ka lang naman.” or “Kung hindi mo alam kung saan ka magaling, magteacher ka na lang.”But despite these comments, we would swallow our pride and continue shaping the future through our students.

The future lies in the hands of humanity, they say. Yet, the QUALITY of that future is in the hands of the teachers for it is we who lead them into thinking what is important. Therefore, what we value as teachers encompasses the way we facilitate our classes. When we worry so much about all the competencies that they have to master, do we also worry about what we make of them as stewards of humanity? It is difficult to say who among us are missing this point but I hope that most, if not all, will understand how much importance we should all be giving to it.

What we have now is the result of the failures of the past and it is a great responsibility of teachers to correct and save our future. I say, we worry more of teaching our students the competencies for the goodness of the society they are living in rather than just making them look at it as a way to equip themselves to be on top. Let us lead them into looking for ways to improve the lives of others and accept people’s differences. Let us be good role models by exercising utmost humanity, gratefulness, and kindness. Let us show our students that we believe in what they can do and that they are our partners in changing this world for the better. As Roger Moore once said, “Teach love, generosity, good manners and some of that will drift from the classroom to the home and who knows, the children will be educating the parents.”

Teaching will never be an easy profession and it will always be the hardest. You will always be under the microscope. Expect that for you are not just anybody. Exercise your conscience at all times. Care to love your students and the good things you do to others no matter how tough the situation can be. In your battlefield, anything can happen…anything can emerge but it is you who can make things happen.

Teachers as the heart of the educational system must keep in mind that they are holding a very important and difficult role because the future depends on them. However, they must keep in mind that educating is not just about teaching the competencies, it must also aim to teach the students to care for the world. That when they care for other, the competencies they know shall totally and finally serve its purpose.