I STILL cannot describe how people react when they ask what I teach. Most of them have curious expression because, really, they do not know what EsP means or what it stands for. EsP stands for Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao. Before the implementation of the K to 12, the term of the subject was Edukasyon sa Pagpapahalaga. For most people, there are usually two queries directed to a teacher; what is the job and what is the subject he/she teaches? For EsP teachers like us, there seems to be a third question, what is EsP?
Depending on the one who asks, I sometimes reply that I teach Values Education just to cut short the inquiry. The term is misleading in a sense. Values Education is the mother term of the subject but EsP should be the proper one because the curriculum is aligned to this concept.
Then I realized, once people learned that I teach EsP subject, the impression for me is "I belong to the most behaved group of teachers in the school, sometimes like a saint" Other would ask if I did plan to become a priest or whether I was a former seminarian. It should be true because one way to teach the subject is to model good behavior to the students. But the point here is, this point of view on the subject is limited.
The subject for many is not all clear. People who ask may have the sensitivity of not inquiring more but I feel they are not satisfied with my reply when I tell them I teach EsP because the term does not sound familiar. So, my answer usually goes like this, "I teach EsP, it is Values Education." When I mention Values Education, the questioning usually stops, but again one can somehow understand if the other person is satisfied with the arespond or not and in my experience, telling them about teaching the subject does not usually content them. It's like they wanted to ask what I teach in teaching EsP?
There are subjects we call major subjects such as Science, Mathematics, and English (which is no longer the case in the new curriculum since all subjects are categorized as major subjects), they would surmise that a science teacher teaches about volcanoes, animals, matters, and all. Math is about numbers and English about words and stories. On the other hand, people think that EsP is repetition of what parents advise children at home.
Sadly, this situation does not only take place outside the school setting. Many teachers are not fully aware of what we teach in the department. My co-teachers in the department would wonder when other teachers in the school comment about not passing a student as if students would automatically pass the subject. In fairness, everybody does not think the same way. But a lot think that the only way a student should not pass the subject is when he is the son or daughter of the devil. Well I know one EsP teacher who has been smirked upon because there were lots of students in one section who did not pass. The sentiment was, "are the students really that bad?" But if you are a teacher of the subject or teacher aware of the subject matter, you will understand that EsP is not totally behavioral, it is also an academic subject where concepts are taught and learned. We have the assessment parts same with the other subjects. These include written assessment, performance, and the quarterly exam.
In my experience, one problem why a lot of people do not have full grasp or understanding of the subject is they keep changing the subject's name and curriculum. For me it implies that the curriculum developers cannot decide on the content of the subject. Aside from this, the time allotment is far shorter than the others. Marginalization of the subject is true with the other subjects, it is the same too, for me, with the subject I teach.