Respect: earn it to deserve it

The Department of Education urges students to say “[T]hank you to their teachers.” This is indeed a very heartwarming gesture to glorify the teaching profession but, in truth, we teachers believe that for us to deserve respect, we must earn it. We have to be singularly focused on our role.

It is easy to say “thank you.” But when a student’s “thank you” comes from the heart, it carries a message that he acknowledges his teacher’s pivotal role in inspiring and challenging him to use his God-given gifts to improve himself through hard work, blaze new trails and reach his star.

A teacher who merely serves as her students’ watchdog in the classroom does not deserve a “thank you.” She is in the wrong place, and she has no business being called a teacher. She must resign and go somewhere else.

To teach is a gift of love. Not anyone can be worthy of the privilege to be called a teacher. We must earn that privilege, with the help of Almighty God, to spread the truth and to be a light to our students and to be a model as well in perseverance, honesty and integrity in our effort to help our students achieve what they want to be.

—SALLY C. DATOC,

retired teacher,

92 Bignay, Quirino District,

Quezon City 1101