WHEN I was in elementary, I was very afraid of my religion teacher (God bless her soul). She would always remind me of God’s wrath and judgment on his people. Despite that, I loved my religion teacher.
I can still exactly remember how she would ask us to recite verbatim the priest’s Sunday homily every Monday or Tuesday. We would stand individually in front of the class, and begin our recitation with the words “the homily yesterday was about...” For some reasons both practical and divinely symbolic – I was under her for three years.
Those years were like the interconnected Paschal mysteries of the Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection. Passion when I would prepare for the tests and recitations. It would be death, when I would flunk and get scolded because of the same. Resurrection when because of my teacher’s unending mercy and compassion I would pass the subject.
Students in her class learned to take religion seriously. She was that teacher who would force students to prepare for the deadliest battle. Because of her, I learned how to be resourceful. Honestly, there were times when my mother or auntie would not be able to bring me to Mass. Sometimes my family would arrive after the homily. But because of my religion teacher’s weekly requirement, I had to write a homily to report in class. Eventually, I was forced to do my own research. I bought Gospel reading guides and the local diocesan newspaper Lungsoranon. And because later in Grade 6 I became a sacristan, I had the chance to do research on the Sunday Gospel in the sacristy of the parish where I served.
My religion teacher must have left a deep and lasting impact on me. Today, I teach the subjects Introduction to World Religions. In the first five years of my teaching career, I taught Christian Life Formation. I did not follow my teacher’s style, but I have developed a conviction that religion is not just an ancillary subject. And it is not just because I teach religion. I do believe that in life, all things should be taken seriously.
More importantly, my teacher taught me a lot of important values and life skills. First, being resourceful is a must to survive. Looking back, there really was no way for her to verify if all that we recited were true. How could one teacher know all the homilies in our diocese? But I think those who focused on that missed the point. The lesson that she simply tried to teach was the importance of doing our duties. If one is tasked to accomplish something, everything (the good way of course) has to be done in order to do what has to be done.
Second, she taught me the importance of paying attention to details. As a former nun, she was so particular with small things. I even remember what, for me, was one impertinent question in one of her discussions: how many wounds did Jesus have during his crucifixion? Is this an important matter in my salvation, I thought? Of course, I still believe that that was not a necessary question to ask. Admittedly though, that question prompted greater curiosity. I also realized that I could not claim to know things that well, if I don’t even know most if not some of its details.
My religion teacher was one of the few teachers I deeply and greatly admire to this day in my life. There were many other good and better teachers in my high school days. I can say that I had some edifying professors in college and in graduate school. To them, I also express my deepest and sincerest gratitude.
Teachers are teachers not because of what they studied. I know for a fact that some teachers were not even trained to become one. I also know that some teachers got into the profession because of some accidental or unplanned reasons. But if “choice” is not just an act of the mind but also of the heart, then I believe that teachers become who they are because something within moved them to give their life to a higher cause. To quote Pascal, perhaps not exactly in the way he said it, “the heart has its reasons which reason does not know (or perhaps cannot understand).
In a country where teachers (generally) are underpaid and amidst the challenges of the twenty first century – truly, it is not easy to be a teacher. But so long as there are people who believe that life is beyond bread and butter without necessarily disregarding their importance – there will always be hope.
On Teachers’ Day, the greatest gift a student can give to a teacher is not a gift or a greeting, but at least the thought to someday, share a portion of his or her life to also teach others, whether formally inside the classroom or elsewhere... to pass on not only the teachings but also the love and hope of their teachers.