TEACHER: A MODEL OF THE COMMUNITY

BABY AILEEN M. ROMERO

A teacher with character shows that uprightness is a valued possession. Teachers with character serve as role models for telling the truth, respecting others, accepting and fulfilling responsibilities, playing fair, earning and returning trust, and living a moral life. They should model the importance of engaging in a lifelong quest to do the harder right, rather than the easier wrong.

Teachers with character teach their students that individuals make ethically principled decisions through the moral-reasoning process. They can help their students know what their values are, believe in these values as an essential part of who they are, and live their life in alignment with these values. Teachers can play a vital role in helping students learn and apply a moral-reasoning process.

Lessons learned inside the classroom and through teacher-student interactions outside of the classroom should be based on virtues. Integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility should depict teachers in their relationships with students. Teachers with character deal honorably with students in a truthful way, foster communal faith and reverence with and among students, treat others dutifully by believing in the intrinsic self-worth of every person, and perform their accountabilities in morally responsible ways. Humanity is best served when teachers teach and model, and students develop, character and moral virtues.

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The author is SST III at Pampanga High School