A TALE OF PASSION
To all teachers around the world my salute to
your enduring desires to lift our youths who crave for true education!
Teachers are bound to witness each and every
fault of our students but never did we ridicule their shortcomings. We are made
to show them what it is to live life and how to live it without any regret.
Inside the four cornered room where we spend half of our lives is also where we
realize our purpose in this world.
Teachers are said to be the best actress and
actors ever performing. We set aside our personal issues, issues that are
actually killing us inside. But there is no room for any private concern because
as teachers as much as possible we don’t let our emotions interfere in the
process of our students endeavor for learning. We try to keep it and act as if
everything is alright. When one of our students cries right before our eyes, we
don’t cry! Perhaps it’s something naïve for a human soul not be affected by
such penetrating emotion. But in reality, we want to cry, cry harder than our
students, but we don’t because we want to show them and let them feel that they
can make it, that they can do it, and that they can overcome whatever trials
they are going through. You hear different stories from your students; stories
that will make you laugh and make you cry; stories that you never heard before.
We try to put ourselves inside our students’ shoes and do something great out
of it, we understand them. On the latter, we try to draw a simple and candid
smile on our students’ faces to get rid of the bitterness they are feeling at
the moment. We speak out of inspiring words to uplift them and to allow them to
move forward. Our words simply touch their souls and bring them to a wider
perspective of life. They say “every teacher guides students to a righteous
path”, a path that will lead them to a better decision, and a decision that
will completely change them, not just as a student but as an individual. We try
to emphasize that every decision they make is something they should not regret,
because good or bad it will make them grow.
There
comes a time when we want to shout and yell, tell our students how hard it is
to be talking in front and yet get no attention at all. Despite the frustrating
feeling we try to motivate them to listen and pay attention. We strive harder
when we perceive our students are not learning at all. The feeling of
frustration knocks us off when our students didn’t passed our exams, thus it
means we became less effective teachers. From then on, we look for another ways
to fill what was empty, we look for strategies to help our students learn even
better and incorporate it in our teaching methods. Sometimes inside our mind we
ask “am I not performing well?” Giving up is never the solution of course,
there could be another way to solve it, we just need to look into our students
and find out what’s missing and we will try to look for that missing piece and
get our self out of the maze that trapped us.
Indeed, teaching profession is never that
easy. It takes determination and passion to make it out of this business alive.
But there is one thing that makes teaching profession the best among all the
other professions in the entire world, it is when we change one single soul and
take him to a life he never thought would be real. We meet different people
from different walks of life, from different culture, students of diverse
personalities and attitudes. In a four cornered room there dwells poles apart
people predisposed to discriminating each other, but we try to build love,
friendship and unity in order to pursue one particular goal and that is learning.
Perhaps, a normal classroom would have numbers of students our hands could
hardly count. From those students under your supervision, one of them will come
back to you one day; you’ll be surprised of how he changed. You will be even
stunned as he comes close to you and embraces you very tight and whisper to
your ear the words of gratefulness. Slowly you sit down together cherishing the
past, bringing back the old memories and you will laugh hard and a simple
“thank you ma’am/sir” will make you cry. Those words are truly enough to prove
that you really are a teacher and you made what you promised to become, a
teacher who will transform one’s life to a life they never had imagined before.
The story of a teacher is merely about love.
We love our students no matter what they are, no matter how hardheaded they are
during your class; we love every single and little thing about them. We love
them not just because they are simply our students but because they deserve it
like all other human being. From this simple effort that we do, we get
something bigger, something priceless; it’s the happiness that we see in our
students’ eyes and soul, it’s the trophy that will never fade and will always
linger.
This paper I believe is not enough to
describe how great it is to be a teacher, but I am very much hopeful that those
teachers who have read this will continue their mission in providing quality
education to our youth, and for those who want to become a teacher I hope I had
inspired you to become one of us.
Thank you for reading and HAPPY WORLD
TEACHER’S DAY ma’am and sir!
DENDEN A. ANDANG
TEACHER
