After teaching 96 blocks and 3,368 students in 6 different colleges and universities, one would wonder, what really makes a student proud of his student.
Is it that they become superstars one time or they become big shots in the medium term and long run? Is it that they live their lives in the happiest dimensions? Is it that they live comfortable and lavish life?
A teacher sees the student from the barest minimum to what they would eventually become. Through 16 years of teaching, I have seen achievers and I have seen people who indulged themselves deeply into their family lives. Some burned out and resorted to easy careers and some reached their goals bearing sweat and tears.
I first taught in St. Paul College QC, home of the simple girls. Back then, St Paul did not have the fancy buildings and all giggly little girls whose age were not far from mine. On my first semester teaching there, I advised a thesis group made up of Ginnie Figueroa, Faye Espinas and Cacai Velasquez.
Ginnie was the smartest among the lot. To date, Ginnie would still rank among the smartest I have ever taught. She was way too smart and way beyond the league of her classmates. But she did not allow her intellectual capability go in the way of what she can do for herself and her classmates. We worked on a thesis called Project 1,000, St Paul QC's overall business strategy to achieve 1,000 new students.
On that first year, they got best thesis. I was so proud of them and have always thought that the 3 would make it big. Ginnie to become a corporate monster, Faye to become a model and eventually become someone big and Cacai to enter showbiz.
Surprisingly, Ginnie went deep into family life, Cacai vowed to get out of showbiz the moment she marries and Faye became a flight attendant. Ginnie called it way back when she was still going out with Max that she is not the corporate person and Cacai did quit showbiz when she got hitched. Faye is nowhere to be found.
At that point, I pondered what really will make a teacher proud. At the onset, frustration and questions prevailed over understanding. But as years passed, I begin to understand the various paths each take and it's implications.
A lot of my students eventually entered the marketing profession. Some are already in top management holding far better positions than me and some remain in middle management and some have families already and a lot are abroad.
So what really makes a teacher proud of his / her student?
Let me count the ways
1. THEY ARE HAPPY. It does not matter what they are doing at this particular time, whether they are top notch executives or plain housewives, as long as they live contented lives, the teacher becomes happy too.
2. They ACTUALIZED. They have exceeded their potentials, solved their previous problems and hurdled their biggest hurdle then. The biggest challenge for a teacher is to ensure that their students reach beyond their potentials. I had a student before who was a true blue webster dictionary defined cry baby. When she first presented her thesis during a mock deliberation, I drilled her with a barrage of questions and she howled and ran back to mom. (By the way, the mom was there) I signaled to the mom not to intervene because that would make her daughter weaker. Good thing the mother listened and did not intervene. Her daughter passed thesis with flying colors and I was a proud adviser.
Years after, I got the news that she is now a high ranking officer of a top bank in the country. Did not get to know though if she have a family now because she usually had this geeky look.
Would you believe that I was even invited to .... xmas dinners, new year celebrations, birthdays of the parents years (as in half a decade) after the sisters finished school?
Maybe being a high ranking bank officer may not be the best among the lot, but from where she came from, its a quantum leap.
3. Their SOULS remain - take a pill before you judge this entry it will sound profound. I have always believed that we have our inner most self that remains unless we decide to change it. The little boy and the little girl in us that formed our character when we were in college. The child in us that always remain to smile, laugh and have fun endlessly no matter how old we become.
I have been through a lot but when I am sitting beside my old buddy Jiggs, we remain like college students. Big time "lait" to everyone, calling each individual creative names that is not only funny but outright insulting. We would laugh our heads off every time we hear these stories.
Decades after La Salle, I remain the same basketball fanatic, lait king, love for sports writing, UAAP rats and our unending love for free food and "championship"
Some people lose that. They become something else even just years after college. They change thinking that their professional achievement warrants the right to alter themselves.
That saddens teachers. Because we know that one of the reasons for success is that child within that remained playful, faithful and grateful. Lose that child and you lose yourself.
Students from all walks of life always have different paths. The choices they made dictated their present.
In recent history, I can name a great number of students that I wish would just become somethings to some people and a lot of thing to themselves. They all have potentials to become big people someday. I might not see the fruition of their careers but when I die, the only comfort I would have is that they "made" it in their own little way and their own big worlds.
Is it that they become superstars one time or they become big shots in the medium term and long run? Is it that they live their lives in the happiest dimensions? Is it that they live comfortable and lavish life?
A teacher sees the student from the barest minimum to what they would eventually become. Through 16 years of teaching, I have seen achievers and I have seen people who indulged themselves deeply into their family lives. Some burned out and resorted to easy careers and some reached their goals bearing sweat and tears.
I first taught in St. Paul College QC, home of the simple girls. Back then, St Paul did not have the fancy buildings and all giggly little girls whose age were not far from mine. On my first semester teaching there, I advised a thesis group made up of Ginnie Figueroa, Faye Espinas and Cacai Velasquez.
Ginnie was the smartest among the lot. To date, Ginnie would still rank among the smartest I have ever taught. She was way too smart and way beyond the league of her classmates. But she did not allow her intellectual capability go in the way of what she can do for herself and her classmates. We worked on a thesis called Project 1,000, St Paul QC's overall business strategy to achieve 1,000 new students.
On that first year, they got best thesis. I was so proud of them and have always thought that the 3 would make it big. Ginnie to become a corporate monster, Faye to become a model and eventually become someone big and Cacai to enter showbiz.
Surprisingly, Ginnie went deep into family life, Cacai vowed to get out of showbiz the moment she marries and Faye became a flight attendant. Ginnie called it way back when she was still going out with Max that she is not the corporate person and Cacai did quit showbiz when she got hitched. Faye is nowhere to be found.
At that point, I pondered what really will make a teacher proud. At the onset, frustration and questions prevailed over understanding. But as years passed, I begin to understand the various paths each take and it's implications.
A lot of my students eventually entered the marketing profession. Some are already in top management holding far better positions than me and some remain in middle management and some have families already and a lot are abroad.
So what really makes a teacher proud of his / her student?
Let me count the ways
1. THEY ARE HAPPY. It does not matter what they are doing at this particular time, whether they are top notch executives or plain housewives, as long as they live contented lives, the teacher becomes happy too.
2. They ACTUALIZED. They have exceeded their potentials, solved their previous problems and hurdled their biggest hurdle then. The biggest challenge for a teacher is to ensure that their students reach beyond their potentials. I had a student before who was a true blue webster dictionary defined cry baby. When she first presented her thesis during a mock deliberation, I drilled her with a barrage of questions and she howled and ran back to mom. (By the way, the mom was there) I signaled to the mom not to intervene because that would make her daughter weaker. Good thing the mother listened and did not intervene. Her daughter passed thesis with flying colors and I was a proud adviser.
Years after, I got the news that she is now a high ranking officer of a top bank in the country. Did not get to know though if she have a family now because she usually had this geeky look.
Would you believe that I was even invited to .... xmas dinners, new year celebrations, birthdays of the parents years (as in half a decade) after the sisters finished school?
Maybe being a high ranking bank officer may not be the best among the lot, but from where she came from, its a quantum leap.
3. Their SOULS remain - take a pill before you judge this entry it will sound profound. I have always believed that we have our inner most self that remains unless we decide to change it. The little boy and the little girl in us that formed our character when we were in college. The child in us that always remain to smile, laugh and have fun endlessly no matter how old we become.
I have been through a lot but when I am sitting beside my old buddy Jiggs, we remain like college students. Big time "lait" to everyone, calling each individual creative names that is not only funny but outright insulting. We would laugh our heads off every time we hear these stories.
Decades after La Salle, I remain the same basketball fanatic, lait king, love for sports writing, UAAP rats and our unending love for free food and "championship"
Some people lose that. They become something else even just years after college. They change thinking that their professional achievement warrants the right to alter themselves.
That saddens teachers. Because we know that one of the reasons for success is that child within that remained playful, faithful and grateful. Lose that child and you lose yourself.
Students from all walks of life always have different paths. The choices they made dictated their present.
In recent history, I can name a great number of students that I wish would just become somethings to some people and a lot of thing to themselves. They all have potentials to become big people someday. I might not see the fruition of their careers but when I die, the only comfort I would have is that they "made" it in their own little way and their own big worlds.
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