The Teacher as a Hero

The teacher as a hero LESSONS PLANNED from the teachers pen (The Philippine Star) Updated October 01, 2009 T here argon heroes and heroes, national and local. Some of them are born, others are made. Many are still living while many others have long been gone. It is to the latter(prenominal) that monuments and museums were built to keep alive their memory in our hearts and mind. Public buildings, parks and plazas, streets and a fewer provinces have been named after them. Important dates and events are usually marked red in the calendar to prompt us of their birth or death anniversary.During the celebration of these events, program speakers take turns extolling to high heavens any(prenominal) good they had done for the rural area. Sad enough the hero who is apparently taken for granted and thitherfore vague is the poor teacher. Not having a pedigreed name, she has no influence, no power. She is regarded as belonging to the marginalized sector of society. inapt people look down on her with contempt reading, Shes just now a teacher. After all, opposed OFWs, teachers do not contribute to the national economy.What many do not seem to realize is that a teacher is truly a hero in her own way. For a teacher is not only about her lesson plans, her teaching methods, strategies and techniques. A teacher is also about her personal character, her values and her attitude. And more importantly a teacher is also about her missionary croak which entails a great deal of pass on on her part and her family. Indeed, the pro-bono services that she renders involve numerous risks to life and limb.We have heard of teachers who were kidnapped for ransom, forced into uniting under pain of bodily harm, physically abused and the unfortunate, even beheaded. I remember a male teacher who reprimanded a student for provoking trouble in class. That afternoon the huffy father with nurture in his eyes sought the teacher in school and mercilessly hacked him to death. I had a relativ e who was summoned to the Comelec office in Manila and made to explain her inadvertence to affix her signature on a pair of election forms.The financially distressed teacher was forced to take a long-term loanword which she used to pay for her transportation removede, board and lodging while in Manila. In the meantime her family had to be sparing and frugal in order to tide them over until such period that the loan was fully paid. While other government employees are off after five, the teacher spends long hours of work at home writing lesson plans, checking test papers or preparing visual aids and similar teaching devices.Compared to those who work in the comfort of their office, thousands of our teachers go on long hours of journey to their far-flung stations over pitchers mound and dale, many times in harsh weather condition. It is no wonder that many of these teachers become remote long before their age or they get pitifully sick before retirement from the service. And withal their take-home pay is a mere pittance. Any increase in their starvation salary comes far apart and in trickles because this is dependent upon the members of Congress who remember the teachers only on election time.Come whitethorn of next year teachers will again be called upon to man the electoral ramparts of our democracy. They will be there to help safeguard the sanctity of the ballot, armed only with the nobility and integrity of their profession. Whatever people say to the contrary, the teacher as a hero is ready to lay down her life for the sake of country sans a loud flourish of trumpets. I salute our teachers as heroes, living or dead ANTONIO A. MORAN of Camalig, Albay is a retired general education supervisor of the Department of Education.