I am an accidental teacher.
My mother was an elementary school teacher in the barrio. I saw her hardships in teaching and that made me decide that I will never become a teacher. She had to wake up very early in the morning to prepare the things I need before she goes to her 30 minute trip to get to the small school where she teaches. She was a multi-grade level teacher—Grades 1 and 2 in the morning and Grades 3 and 4 in the afternoon (and they only have 1 classroom). Most of the time, she has to take home work from school, so I have to make my assignments and projects on my own (I was only in elementary then). She also spends some of her meager salary buying teaching materials and classroom decoration to make her classroom inviting to the children in the barrio so that they will attend their classes. I also have other relatives who were also teachers and they suffered the same fate—that’s why when I was a child I dreamt of becoming a doctor, not a teacher.
When I went to college my interest changed; I decided to take up Psychology because I really love to interact to different individuals with different behaviors and personalities. Unfortunately, due to unavoidable circumstances, I was not able to finish this course; instead, I was thrown by the unmanageable current of fate to the course I really did not plan to take up—Teaching.
At first, it was hard for me to accept that I will become a teacher. Now that I am already here in this profession, I realized why my mother was so loved and respected, not only by her students but also by the community.
I cannot imagine myself anymore doing another job. I cannot stand sitting the whole day in front of the computer doing clerical job or balancing money which I do not own. I cannot bear to be surrounded by sick people (I realized that I am not meant to be a doctor when my child was confined at the hospital). I also cannot stand the whole day doing the same thing over and over again.
I have learned to love my job. Teaching is combination of many other professions. We are sometimes clerks and secretaries when we prepare reports and exams. We are sometimes salesmen when we try to “sell” our lessons to our students. We are the managers of our class. We are psychologists and counselors to our students who are emotionally distressed because of peer pressure, love problems, school stress, or even family matters. We are doctors and nurses when our students do not feel well. We are policemen and judges when our students fight. We are even interior designers when we decorate our classrooms so that it will be conducive for learning. We even become janitors, helpers, and yayas. But the most important job we do for our students is to be their parents; even though they are not lovable at times we still treat them as our own children.
Teaching indeed is the noblest profession. It is the mother of all the other professions.
This article was published in a regional newspaper in the Cordillera Administrative Region in the Philippines. The author is a teacher in the biggest public secondary school in the Region.
Learn with me... 