Teaching as the Highest Profession (in the world)

Let's Start the Revolution of the Filipino Youth XX

In the course of my 25 years of existence, I have met many kinds of teachers. From the "terror-type" as we call it in student lingo to the most amiable, from the most exciting to the the boring type, and from the great to the mediocre. Surely, there are many kinds of teachers in the world. But it does not deny the fact that they are here to teach me a thing or two about life, about science, about mathematics, about philosophy, and sometimes even about love.

I have always held my teachers in high esteem, no matter what type they were. I also genuinely believe that the role of teachers and students is interchangeable. The student in order to learn, to understand must become an expert like his or her teacher. And the teacher in order to learn, to understand how to teach better must become a student. The magic of being a great teacher from a not so great teacher is having a deeper understanding on what learning is really all about.

In education, what is more important is the HOW we learn it, and not the WHAT we necessarily learn. Yes, it is important to understand what a stone is for example but it is all the more important if we could learn how the stone came to be.

The 450,000 strong teachers under the Department of Education are everyday heroes who toil each day to impart the learnings of all in the history of mankind to a new set of Filipinos. It is no easy task. And it is no laughing matter as well, I am writing this article to set the record straigth that Teaching is by far the highest profession in the world - that is, in whatever form it maybe.

Parents are our first teachers, and teachers in school are our secondary parents. In a sense life is being a student everyday where we must seek the advice and guidance of mentors. They can be our parents, our school teachers, our friends, our relatives, our bosses from work or even our co-workers. They can also be dead friends from the past like Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Manuel Quezon or Ninoy Aquino.

Teaching is a calling of a different kind. It is very hard to quantify or even to qualify the joys that it brings. There are really no set of rules and system that can capture its nature as learning is an everyday process of trial and error and hopefully perfecting it along the way.

Sabi ni Rizal "Ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan.
Sabi ko naman "Edukasyon ang pag-asa ng kabataan."
"Ang ating mga guro kung ganoon ang pag-asa ng kabataan at edukasyon sa bansa."

Let's Start the Revolution of the Filipino Teacher!