‘Teaching is a gift from God’
The STAR’s founding chairman, the late Betty Go Belmonte, used to write a column titled Pebbles. In it, she would share nuggets of wisdom and enlightenment, which, like pebbles thrown into a pond, would create countless ripples, reaching places near and far.
I believe teachers, like Tita Betty was to me, are like that. Each of us are like clear ponds and teachers toss — sometimes gently, sometimes with a bit more emphasis — pebbles into our minds.
Until one day, we become those pebbles, and the heavier in substance we become, the louder the splash we make and the more ripples we create in our ponds.
Teachers create ripples. The young impressionable minds they have molded and fashioned into a better version of the rough diamonds they once were, when thrown into the pond that is life, create ripples long after they have left the classroom.
Teachers are one of the very few professionals whose outputs never stop — even long after they have put down their chalk. Good teachers, through their students, never stop making ripples.
*** Teachers, who we honor on Oct. 5, World Teachers’ Day, don’t need to teach rocket science to change the world.
The other day, I was tidying up the kitchen on a day that Murphy’s Law was a decree — the dishwasher broke down just as the maid went on vacay. I found myself shelling shrimps and chopping up lettuce and cabbage for an Oriental Salad I was tossing to impress my husband and son. I suddenly remembered my high school cooking teacher Mrs. Del Carrion. “Clean as you work,” she would admonish her students. In other words, vegetable peelings, leftovers and all other clutter resulting from food preparation were disposed of as they were produced. Thus, there was no pileup (tambak) to be dealt with at the end of the process. I find myself thinking of Mrs. Carrion every time I’m in the kitchen without helpers.
I also put her admonition in good stead outside the kitchen — I never let things pile up to the point that just the sight of the task to be accomplished already intimidates me into inaction.
*** Other teachers at the Assumption Convent (where I graduated grade school and high school) who had the most profound effects on me were my Religion teachers.
Sister Anunciata (who also taught me English) has an optimism that comes from the pure stream of her faith. I grew up never writing about doom and gloom, and was pleasantly surprised when tycoon Fernando Zobel once complimented me, “You always write about positive topics!”
Another Religion teacher, Lirio Ongpin Mapa, showed how a brilliant, well-to-do woman can combine a happy marriage, eight children and a career. Thank you, Mrs. Mapa for being the epitome of the work-life balance:
“It’s fulfilling to see my students grow, observe them living the values we taught them, and hearing them say, ‘thank you...you made a difference in my life’,” says Mrs. Mapa, who joined the corporate world after over a decade of teaching.
Of the many teachers that I’ve had, few are as articulate and profound as another Religion teacher, Cory Villafania, who to this day, counsels her students, especially on matters of faith.
“Teacher Cory” has been an educator at the Assumption since 1972. All in all, she stayed in AC for 40 years.
“What did I like most about my teaching? It was the formative dimension of it, seeing the students transform from being selfish individuals into loving persons with a social conscience nurtured and propelled by the faith. I was fulfilled in forming ‘character for life, life for God’,” she says.
*** My colleague Büm Tenorio, award-winning columnist and assistant editor of this section, has a whirlwind of a schedule. Yet he extricates himself from the whirlwind on Sundays to conduct a free writing workshop in his hometown of Gulod in Cabuyao, Laguna.
“It gives me so much joy to share Writing with my students. The joy I feel is doubled every time I read their works. My Sunday Writing Class is my little contribution to my community. My students have become regular fixtures of my Sundays. I feel incomplete if I don’t attend my class. Many of them have become my friends, too. I also enjoy teaching them because they learn from me and I also learn from them,” says Büm. By the way, if you have an extra notebook or planner or diary that you have no use for, give it to Büm. His students use them for their writing exercises.
My husband’s niece Karlin Lareza Manalastas is a young wife and mother of two, the youngest of whom is still a baby. Yet she makes time to teach art in their church every Monday. Before she got married to Brandel
Manalastas, Linny taught art and English, which she chose over other job offers. For Linny, though teachers give much of themselves, they end up the privileged ones because of what they learn from their students.
“I love how, at the end of the day, we come with a lot of learning and lessons, but it is the students who make the lessons come alive. And it’s from them that we learn patience, kindness, spontaneity and generosity. I also love seeing how the learning lights up in a student’s mind; I love seeing a breakthrough. Teaching is a gift from God, you can give yourself so much and gain much back, too.”
*** I, too, was a teacher once. I taught Literature to high school students at the Assumption and many of my former students are movers and shakers. One, Grace Poe, almost became president of the Philippines. And what I loved most about teaching was being an instrument of everyday transformations — turning someone’s mind from a blank slate into a repository of knowledge. Making them love Shakespeare just as much as Nicholas Sparks.
Not all knowledge comes from the teacher — sometimes all the teacher has to do is to create a hunger for learning within the student and she will devour the knowledge available like it were French fries.
I loved inspiring my students just as my UP Journalism professor Luis Beltran inspired me to seize a subject and capture his essence in readable prose.
Most of all, I loved teaching my students, in little threads of stories I would insert in my lesson plans, tips on navigating life. Once, a student wrote me. “Miss Mayor (my maiden name), I learned from you that life is sometimes about giving up something for something you want more.”
True. A few hours’ sleep in exchange for high grades. A slice of chocolate cake for a svelte figure. A good portion of your savings for a new car. Love for career. Career for love. Giving up a bribe for one’s integrity. Sacrificing personal gain for country. Giving up your fears for your dreams.
Actually, I learned that from a teacher myself, even if I can’t remember her name right now. But what she taught me is making ripples still in the pond that is my life.