Thursday, September 13, 2007 Speak out: Good Teachers By Ma. Angelica M. Lauronilla Lawaan Elementary School, Talisay City
MOST people don’t understand that everyone can be a teacher. You can be smart and brilliant, have multiple degrees and awards, but teaching takes more than that. It takes a firm grip, huge heart, patience, perseverance, charisma and creativity. More than anything else, it requires extraordinary ability to break down the difficult so it becomes easy.
Have you ever been in a class with one of these super intelligent professors who give seemingly scholarly lectures that no one can comprehend? Now, these are not the good teachers.
Good teachers make the difficult easy and make you see the point. They simplify and make you understand what it’s all about. They make things clearer. They don’t make things more confusing. Most times, those teachers who confuse us are actually confused themselves. They precisely can’t explain the lesson clearly to us.
I’ve had a lot of teachers in my life. I’ve had lousy ones and lackadaisical ones—teachers who tell you to make do and lower the bar by saying, “Submit to me a 10-page report on Monday, just make the margins large.”
But I’ve also had some truly brilliant and unforgettable teachers who irrevocably changed my life, made me think, invited me to ask questions, motivated me to learn more and brought out the best in me.
You hold great power in your hands—to motivate and inspire others, to be more that what they, on their own, believe they can be. But at the same time, you also hold the power to destroy and break the spirit of a young child. So use your power wisely with the grace of God.
The truth of the matter is that your students will never remember what you taught them. They won’t remember the names, the dates, the formulas and the equations. But they will remember the stories and the fun.
They won’t remember the lessons in class. But they will remember the lessons in life you taught them, that someone came along to listen to their ideas and that once in their lives, someone tried to make a difference.
Today many children live under difficult circumstances. Many grow up with single parents. Many grow up in troubled homes and with a lot of pain.
If a 12-year-old girl finds the courage to continue her study despite domestic problems at home, then one should muster the courage to be the best teacher to this brave kid.
