Teacher, teacher

I wish I could meet one of my high school teachers today so that I could treat him or her to dinner. It's World Teacher's Day and our mentors deserve more than a pat on their shoulders. We should hug them tight and with our face masks on, heartily say “thank you.”

I can recall Mrs. Dolores Bito, my English teacher whose analysis of literary works I could hardly grapple with. There's Ms. Tom, who reports in mini skirt that got us boys curious and winking. Sir Dizon Mayos, ever tough and fearsome, gave us negative grades in physics while Ms. Fermin tantalized us no end in her chemistry class.

You, too, must rekindle those memories you had with your teachers. Text them if they are still around or send them emoticons if they are your connect on facebook. It's not a matter of simply greeting them. But it's more of recognizing their role in molding who you are today.

Lawyers defend the oppressed. Businessmen earn profits. Politicians craft laws and policies. Engineers build infrastructure and farmers trade their crops with gusto. Still, teachers are top most. Being a teacher is not an easy task, yet very fulfilling. Our teachers taught us to behave properly. Our teachers taught us the skills to survive. And our teachers taught us to obey the laws and become productive citizens in this republic.

But have we? I doubt. There are those of us who pull the trigger for power. There are those of us who pull the leg of another. There are those of us who take advantage of what we know -- to get richer, to skirt the law or to avoid getting accountable. For sure, our teachers would squirm for that’'s not what they meant us to be.

This Recloser is a teacher himself. We taught history and economics for six years at Saint Louis Girls High School. We taught political science for five years at BCF, now UC. Then we dabbled in law, first at the UB College of Law and then at the CCDC College of Law. Now, we are at BSU College of Public Administration and Governance handling public policy analysis for graduate students. That's why we know how the stuff teachers are made of.

Lesson plans. Course syllabus. Class records. Grades. DepEd forms and the rest. Then the teacher has to face his or her class, now mostly through virtual means going by today's modified learning schemes. They have to teach, be it at the discomfort of their monthly periods or a bad hair day due to a spat or two with the wife or hubby the night before.

Make no mistake about it. This country will not survive without our teachers. Sometimes they feel relegated after we graduate. And we just see them during class reunions. That&'s why some of them say “teacher ak lang.”

Dear teacher, please don't say that. You are what we are today.

And we owe you a lot. Mwaaaahhhh…