Thank you, teachers!

When I graduated from college, I saw myself as a world-changer. After four years as a student leader and being told constantly that I was a woman for others, who wouldn’t? There was fire in my belly and my mind was dizzy with dreams after a summer spent listening to Jason Mraz telling me to “make it all mine” and watching “Dead Poets Society,” the movie that showed me how to “seize the day!”

I decided to begin my adventure in the so-called real world by applying for the yearlong volunteer program of Jesuit Volunteers Philippines. To my surprise, I found out that I was to serve as a high school teacher of English and economics in the rural town of Norala in South Cotabato, Mindanao.

That year spent in a school in the middle of rice fields, while magical, was also excruciating. I wish I could tell a story of how I was a superstar in the classroom, inspiring students to be the best they could be. But I’d rather tell the story of the times I wanted to give up.

Teaching is so damned difficult. Once, when work became overwhelming, I devoted an entire class period to a spelling quiz because I had failed to prepare a lesson plan and I did not know what else to do. Then there was a time when I walked out of the class, spiteful and angry because I felt disrespected by students who had a short attention span. But don’t get me wrong, I did have my shining moments, like the time I organized a leadership training for students, or each time my advisory class won the “Cleanest Classhome Award.”

My point is, teachers are flawed, much like you and me. But the work of teaching is no passive feat. Harnessing that power of influencing young people, 50 pairs of eyes looking at you every day in every class, takes discipline. Cheesy as it may sound, I consider teachers to be everyday heroes. It is in observing my coteachers that I realized that heroism is not a one-time show of glory but a consistent and everyday grind.

I wish I could say that by the end of that school year I did become that world-changer with a life experience worthy of a film adaptation. But, to borrow a line from a Dave Matthews song, “making plans to change the world while the world changes us,” I was the one changed by the experience. How uncanny is it that when I returned to Manila, I would end up working for the National Teachers’ Month, a program cochaired by the Metrobank Foundation that champions teachers with the rest of the nation? Career serendipity makes sense when I connect the dots backward.

We are headed toward a technology-driven future, where children are glued to their tablets and millennials are attached to their phones. I myself am guilty of verifying every question in my mind on Google. (How to move on from heartbreak? How to poach an egg? Google has a number of tips.) Apps have made it possible to speed up learning and provide unparalleled convenience. While the movement is both terrifying and fascinating, I often contest if this will be the case inside the classroom. I wonder if in the future somebody will make an app that can save a class full of students from a supertyphoon, or an app that can go on for hours on end to moderate student rehearsals for the Sabayang Pagbigkas competition without running out of batteries.

The warmth that teachers bring to the classroom is irreplaceable. When I look at the teachers I work with now and talk to them, I want to tell them: “Hey, what you’ve been doing for 25 years, I experienced for only one year. I’m a fan, my heart is filled with so much respect for you, and you deserve to be called a hero.” But I stay quiet and let them tell their story anyway, just like the way I told you mine. When you get the chance to listen to teachers share their experiences, you will hear stories of courage overcoming fear, you will see galaxies unfolding before your eyes, and you will know of their students who went on to become soldiers, artists, policemen, and journalists.

You will quickly realize that teaching is anything but an ordinary job.

The National Teachers’ Month commences on Sept. 5 and culminates on the Unesco-mandated World Teachers’ Day, Oct. 5. We hold the record for having the longest celebration for teachers. For 30 days, anyone who has had a teacher is encouraged to express their gratitude in simple or grand ways. Go ahead and say “thank you” because it will mean the world to your teacher.

When you look back and see how far your perseverance took you because someone believed in you enough to know your name by heart and leave a helpful comment on your lengthy term paper, never forget that you have a teacher to thank for that.

Amor Lynn Macalalad ([email protected]) has been Metrobank Foundation’s coordinator for the National Teachers’ Month for the past three years. She says she dedicates this piece to her coteachers and friends in Notre Dame of Norala Inc.