LAST Monday, the world celebrated our teachers. We took time to express our gratitude for their efforts in molding us mentally, physically, emotionally. As in everywhere and with most everyone, we remember the best of them.
Heidi Acabado, Miss Acabado, Ms. Zurriaga, Ms. Montemayor, Ms. Banaticla, Evangeline, Ms. Maxima Donio, Mr. Ricardo de Leon, Miss Jo Rosales, Mr. Francisco Macaranas, Sr. Maria Austin, Sr. John Eileen, Sr. Carmencita Gabriel, Sr. Therese, among others. These were teachers my classmates and I had in grade school: Maryknoll Convent School.
We learned how to write, read, spell, add, multiply, divide, subtract, under their eagle eyes. They taught us all about Jesus: his life and times, his example of how to live in a Christian manner. The manner included all of these aside from fair play in the playground, honesty about homework, the value of our parents' money... Of course, The Ten Commandments.
Thank you, each one of my grade school teachers, and forgive me if your name isn't in the preceding paragraph; you were where it mattered anyway: the classrooms.
In high school at the UB Science High, there were Mr. Villacrucis, Mr. Estoque, Ms. Rillera, Mrs. Espino, Mr. Rillorta, Mr. Tabligan, Ms. Aquino, Mr. Asuncion, Mrs. Ruff. By and large, they were college professors literally serving the cause of education by agreeing to teach high school teeners in a scholar section of the university.
Thank you, each of my high school teachers, and forgive me if your name isn't in the preceding paragraph; you were where it mattered anyway: The classrooms.
At the UP Diliman, I was in classes with essentially celebrity professors. Samuel Tan, Sylvia Ventura, Herminia Yap, Sylvia Ventura, Nick Tiongson, Tony Mabesa, Behn Cervantes, Freddie Guerrero, Amelia Lapena-Bonifacio, Rica Panganiban.
Thank you, each of my college teachers, and forgive me if your name isn't in
the preceding paragraph; you were where it mattered anyway: the classroom.
More, we learned from you all that the world is the classroom and that the classroom is the world.
Thank you, all ye post grad professors in the series of grad schools I had the good fortune to be in. Thank you, mentors about bigger things: Life and how to live it; love and how to give it and receive it; health and how to keep it; the world, the universe, black holes, even. Thank you for all lessons great and small, for the best of them, especially.
In this season of Covid, we especially thank you teachers for the tireless job of holding our children together with the certainty of an educational spirit that is itself a gift to your charges and the rest of us. May the heavens open and rain upon you all blessings due! Cheers!