Teachers' Life in Quarantine

Dominic L. Catap

Now more than ever do I appreciate my profession as a teacher. I do not boast about my status because our advocacy remains to be a servant to our students -be it as a mentor, a counselor, or sometimes even as an insurance company. It is during this trying time of our history that our security and even stability as public school teachers is very evident as far as regularity in salary is concerned. I believe that our agency, the Department of Education, deserves a thumbs up for this.

However, there are some quarters who seem to give the wrong perception to us, teachers that we have taken a back seat in fighting against the pandemic virus.

Unlike other sectors I know, teachers have not received any “ayuda” from the government. More so, we are given the impression that we are exempted from any aid because we have monthly income. I do not complain on such perception but let me reiterate that teachers do not receive that much!

We are teachers. But we are also a parent, brother, child, first and foremost. We have our own families to take care of.

We are not members of the health team who are considered (and I salute them all!) the superheroes of the present situation. But we also perform our duties in the best way we know how.

In the previous months and in the coming months for sure, we teachers have been busying ourselves with webinars, modules and different paper works. Anytime soon, we shall go to the battlefield and catapult for the battlecry of DepEd.

This is not the time to be disunited. This is the time to support one another. We don't have to post whatever we give. The Bible teaches us that when we give, we must not let our left hand know what our right hand has done.

However, I do not question those who document their acts, especially if it is needed for proofs.

To each his own.

--oOo-

The author is ST III at Br. Andrew Gonzalez Technical High School