The Teacher

They are the most common faces one see for we spend almost 15 years in school. As we always say we are who we are half because of them. Sad to think that they give their life in molding everyone to be the person they are in society but society itself forgets to honor them and see their cause, their importance and them. Every year, we spend ten months with them, almost eight hours every day for five days in a week but do we really know who they are and do we really understand them, so as I am about to say goodbye to the four walls of my classroom, I open up three faces of who this being can be.

The Slayer

                One day on an elementary class, a teacher gave each of her pupils’ peace of a bond paper, she instructed them to draw their dreams on it. Most of the students draw toys, clothes, food and any other kid stuff but one boy draw differently. He draw a resort near the beach with cottages, a pool, a restaurant café, a butterfly garden, a petting zoo, a playground with few rides and four cars. Each of the students passed their worked and as the boy passed his worked, the teacher told him to change his drawing and don’t take the instruction so literal meaning to be a kid like anyone else cause if not she will give him an F.

                The boy went home with trouble in his mind for he didn’t get her teacher because he was only doing what was instructed. The boy told her mom of what happen in school and his mom told him a simple thing, “never allow anybody to take your dreams from you because no can except for your own.” With understanding and determination in his mind, the next day the boy passed the same thing to his teacher and told his teacher that he can accept an F but he will never allow anybody to steal his dream.

                Time passed by and the teacher remained on her profession, one day, she took her class on a field trip and they went to a newly opened resort near the beach with cottages, a pool, a restaurant café, a butterfly garden, a petting zoo, a playground with few rides and four cars. Not even entering and knowing who the owner is, it is the teacher’s gut that she knows who the owner is. As she came near the restaurant, a man approached him, the same young boy whom she gave an F for drawing the literal dream he have. They talked and the teacher feels so ashamed of what she did but the boy told him that, “it was never your intention to be mean or rude but I was just really not acting like every kid should be, it was a shocked but I am happy to firmly stand on what I believe is right and what I want.” The teacher answered the boy, “I never thought what my action may have cause my pupils but I am happy that one little boy never allowed me to slay his own dreams and I am proud of what you have become.”

                The lesson is that we should “never take rejection as rejection itself but take it as a motivation to prove people wrong and be the best person we can be.”

The Motivator

                This story is so known because this can be the best face or identity an educator can have.

                Once there was a teacher like everyone else, she goes to school and do her thing. One day she decided to give a task to her students. She asks them to take a piece of paper, write their name and pass the paper on the next student on the right on clockwise manner. After the students followed the direction, she told them to write the first word that comes in their mind when they see the name on the paper. So the student quietly did the activity, writing and passing the paper, as everyone have written on everyone’s the paper, the paper was returned to the owner and the teacher instructed them to read it. There were so many expressions of shock, amazement and happiness as each student read what their classmates wrote, everyone has pride on their eyes for they never thought how good they look on others and it brought them so much joy.

                Ten years after, all those students have grown and become professionals. One day, they were gathered in a very depressing situation for one of them died. A naughty boy on his childhood who became a soldier died in battle and all those who loved him gathered on one day to bid him goodbye. When the teacher came near the coffin, she saw how a young boy became a man and she was amazed of what he became in his short lived life but a life lived well. The teacher was approached by the boy’s parent and they talked, after awhile the boy’s mother gave the teacher a piece of paper and bid her goodbye. An old piece of paper that has aged through time and was close and open a lot of times, the teacher opened it and saw the boy’s name in his childhood penmanship then she saw all those good words that was written and remembered the activity she once given them. Remembering that day, looking at the boy of what he became brought tears on the teachers eyes, she was sobbing and her old student saw this and approached her to calm her down.

As they were on a circle, they saw the piece of paper and everybody looked back on that day. A man who is now an accountant showed his own piece of paper which he have always kept on his wallet. A couple shared that they keep their own copy on a special box at their room. A woman who became a nurse said that she keeps hers on a drawer at her apartment. A lawyer said that his copy was kept on his library at home in a frame. Everyone there revealed that they all kept their copy and what it did and meant for them. It meant a lot to them, it reminded them of how good they are in times that they are in doubt, it brought them inspiration to be better for they know they are good, it became their driving force. Hearing all this made the teacher cry and smile on the same time for she never thought how a simple activity made a change on her student’s life. as everyone said goodbye, the teacher never felt so much proud of what a simple act had made to her students and she proud to be a teacher, a motivator, an inspiration.

The Mother

  

              There was once a teacher who was so serious about her work. Education is not only her profession but her life. She gave everything for it and almost forgot the life she has outside of it. Every day is school day for five days and weekends are spent to rest or prepare for the week’s lesson. But this educator is not only a teacher but she is a wife, a mother, a grandmother but she was never keen on anything except for her work. Sometimes, she forgot her husband, her kids and even having grandchildren but it was a good thing that her family understands for they know what she did to be in the place she is now. She was poor but she tried to have the proper education she needs and became a teacher, she surpassed poverty and promised herself to make a change by helping molding children into being the professional, the adult they can be for their own self and for society.

                What this teacher never know that as she was making a change in everyone’s life, she is also making a drastic change in her youngest daughter’s life. She was a mother, a mother you can see but can never touch, talked or be with. She seldom do what a mother should do like take care of her child, send her to school, talk to her about stuff, hang out and maybe do girl stuff together. Her child was a good child and did everything right but she was a sad child, missing the idea and feeling of how great having a mother can be but she never revealed this feeling for she was proud of what her mother is doing.

                The child became a teen and went to the college where her own mother is teaching. She knows she can go anywhere but she chose to be close, to at least have the chance of seeing up close her mother, their good teacher. But nothing changed, she is still so far in her grip and the worst thing is that when she does goodness, its fine but when she messed up, she’s the worst person the world ever has. The child became very disappointment in her own self and decides to quit school and be the pain her mother never wanted.

                They became strangers to each other but time passed and the teacher became weak in age and died. During the burial her own child was there to arrange everything and be there at her mother’s last moment. The burial lasted for five days, a lot of visitors cam, young and old, men and women and all of them where her mother’s past and present students. Every time they come, they all have something to say about the woman lying lifeless in the coffin, praises and good words, happy memories. The child was so amazed on what she was hearing but on the same time she feel so clueless of how great a person her mom is. In the end, on her mom’s final day with her own family and the family her mom made in school, she bid goodbye with a smile to the woman who was her absent mother but have been an extraordinary mother, a mentor, a teacher to a lot of different people.

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                These three stories are not all my writings and I admire the writers who wrote it but one of this is of my own. I know it is not right but these articles should be published and spread for life now seems so full of darkness and at times we need a flicker of light to remind us how beautiful life can be despite the hindrances. Most of all, I want to honor our unsung hero, the people who can break or make everyone’s life, the dedicated souls who give and never expect to receive, men and women who take pride in molding people despite the harshness of it, to our slayers, motivators and our mother (second parent), we might not be able to always show our admiration but always know that here in our hearts we always feel a deep gratefulness and appreciation of what you are doing. In times that you feel pissed off about stuff, so depressed and annoyed try looking back, feeling the present and seeing the future of what you an individual can do to make this world a better place to live in. In a simple word, thank you so much! Ma’am, sir, miss, mrs., and mr. ___________________, we are who we are because of what you did and we owe you so much.