LESSONS FROM MA’AM LORNS
No other teacher, through all my years of schooling, made a significant impact on me quite like Ms. Lorna CruzRodriguez (nee Baetiong).
My penchant for anything and everything that has to do with English communication, and perhaps, a number of ways I live today were largely the influence of this woman, whom my former classmates and I fondly call “Ma’am Lorns.”
I first met the humble yet brilliant educator — who may be a plain teacher to some, but is definitely a good friend to many — in June 1996, the beginning of my third year in Rizal High School, the largest secondary school in the world then.
That was a time when I, together with my contemporaries, was faced with mounting dilemma and issues — personal and communal — that teenagers have to deal with. That was a time when I was starting to fine-tune things — my plans, my goals, my interests — in life. That was a time when the bubble of my inclination in journalistic writing, so to speak, was about to burst. In those crucial periods, Ma’am Lorns was there.
UNFORGETTABLE LECTURES
Barely a month into that school year, the class seemed to be jolted by an extremely strong temblor when we realized that aside from sets upon sets of quadratic equations and advanced trigonometric problems we needed to solve, we also had to go through more “nosebleed” classes via more profound English mechanics (read: intensive grammar) plus literature!
It was through Ma’am Lorns that we further delved into the world of complicated verb tenses. With her ample explanation and illustration, we had better understood about the perfect, progressive and the perfect progressive tenses, aside from their simple conjugation; we also had finally realized that the expression “had had” is simply “had” plus the past participle of “have,” and that it is in the past perfect tense!
She introduced us to alliteration, assonance, litotes, transferred epithets and other not-so-commonly used figures of speech. She also brought us to the world of Catherine and Newt through their love story, Long Walk To Forever. She likewise led the way to the School
of the Future (a demo she had conducted before foreign educators who visited our school then), tagging along William Wordsworth and The Solitary Reaper as our companion in the journey.
And, boy — she did all of those without having to intimidate us.
And then, my own realization: “Hmmm… I think I’m loving English!” I was kind of like this “suitor” who became more mature, took my interest more seriously and appreciated the language and subject a lot better than before.
Thanks to Ma’am Lorns, she made me see English in a different, more enjoyable light that today, I always say, “English? I’ll be more than glad to help you!” or “Give me anything but Math and numbers” (that, needless to say, pertains to my bias for English).
BEYOND IMPARTING KNOWLEDGE
But more than knowing those seemingly crazy English grammar rules, vocabulary and literature by heart and applying them to the hilt, it was some of life’s hard lessons that were inculcated in my mind through Ma’am Lorns’s words of wisdom. And unlike classroom lessons that tend to, somehow, be relegated to the backburner, morals about the real world, if taught effortlessly and practically, are the ones that truly linger – just as how Ma’am Lorns had done to us, to me.
Ma’am Lorns’s teaching career, which started at RHS in 1989, is not without thorns, rocks and ruts along the path. I had seen her making subtle inauspicious encounters with some insecure co-teachers, some of whom were even our own teachers in other subjects. I had heard nasty comments about her, especially concerning her peer-like approach to dealing with her students. I had witnessed how her colleagues envied her expertise in her field and her approachability to her learners.
Even, we, her advisory class then, made her cry one time because of our rowdy acts and childish behaviors. But the mature educator prevailed and embraced all those challenges, as she believed that they would further bring out the best in her.
Thus, notwithstanding every intrigue, issue and non-issue that had and would
come her way, Ma’am Lorns went on her merry manner of teaching, which was, by far, more important for her than those mostly nonsensical matters. That made her a model person worthy not only of a pat on the back but also of that hard-to-earn respect.
I remember her giving me a mediumsized T-shirt as a present for my 15th birthday. With the gift came a simple letterlike message dated Sept. 15, 1996, and which I’ve kept in my “memorabilia folder” through the years.
An excerpt reads:
“Just keep on striving… Develop your craft and learn to deal with different kinds of people… What important things to be done are those that are suited to your capabilities… adjustments are to be considered. Do not let your emotion overcome your intellect. You have to use your mind for your sake and use emotion and heart for others. Much better, have them both equally.”
Those meaningful lines never fail to empower me every time I reread that message.
Being the onion-skinned in class in those uneasy, restless middle teenage years of mine, Ma’am Lorns would tease me as Mr. Sensitive — the pikon one who would take criticisms too seriously too often — every now and then. Thanks to that natal note, I was able to cast off that not-so-good trait and knew how to brush trivial things off.
INSPIRATION
No other teacher through all my years of schooling made a significant impact on me quite like Ma’am Lorns.
She has become a figure that I look up to not only for her mastery of the English subject but for her ability to face life’s small and big trials, as well. She was, she is, and she will always be an influential mentor to me. She is a major figure – however simple and just-one-of-us she may be – that gave me valuable guidance and 101s to tread the career path that I had chosen.
Twenty-three years later, Ma’am Lorns continues to be at the best of her craft. At present, she is the principal of Nagpayong High School in Pasig City, rightfully becoming so after many years of teaching English to students who are eager for words and are very much willing to invest their time to learn a lot about something that a number of people also actually dread.
By now, she must have known so well that aside from pursuing my passion in print journalism, I was inspired by her to follow her footsteps, too — for four years now, I’ve been imparting my knowledge and expertise to young ones as a journalism teacher.