WHEN CLASSROOM DISCIPLINE AND EIM DON’T GO TOGETHER

RUSSEL L. MENDOZA

I have been teaching Electrical Installation and Maintenance in Senior High School for the past seven years since it piloted in 2016. I never really had the choice but to be their teacher since I was the only one in our school who handles their specialized subjects, unlike my co-teachers. They sometimes have the liberty of choosing what subjects to teach, and what sections or strands to teach them to, though I am not entirely blaming them. It seems that classroom discipline and EIM don’t go together. Only in EIM have they experienced learners “borrowing” art projects from other strands and “renaming” them as their own. Only in EIM have they encountered learners who spend more time loitering along the corridors rather than attending classes. And only in EIM have they come across learners who fearlessly violate school policies incessantly and repeatedly. My co-teachers would rather go on overload and take extra subjects rather than be a part of the EIM strand teaching force. Sometimes, I would like so much to join them as they whine in protest against the bunch, but oftentimes, I opt to try to understand where these learners have come from, maybe to make sense of the unacceptable behavior, but most of it is to make me feel appeased despite of the situation that these learners have put me in. Looking closely, EIM learners have come from difficult families, not that this gives them the reason to be the individuals whom they chose to be. In the onset, EIM students enrolled in the strand because they have not seen themselves as being a part of an academic strand, or maybe, they felt that they would not be able to cope with the requirements posed by STEM, ABM or HumSS. In addition, TVL strands, specifically EIM, were unconsciously treated with a sort of an inferiority from the rest. Furthermore, being composed of mostly men, along with identity crisis and puberty, EIM learners resort to misbehavior as their coping mechanism. At the end of the school year, however, when a significant number of them have dropped out due to various reasons, I stand tall on the stage in announcing the names of those who have successfully completed EIM during their graduation. Classroom discipline and EIM may no go together, but my love for these learners and my profession can look past that. So that at the End of School Year rites, these boys are given another opportunity to finally mature and step into the real world. I know that to be true now, you ask me why? My first batch, those who “borrowed” art projects from other strands and “renamed” them as their own, have now graduated from college, and most of whom took up Electrical Engineering.

-oOoThe author is Teacher III at Lubao National High School