TEACHING AND A LIFE OF MEANING

Want to give your life a meaning? Want to live a purpose- driven life? Spend it passionately in teaching, the most noble profession, Consider what Dr. Josette T. Biyo, the first Asian teacher to win the Intel Excellence in Teaching Award in an international competition, said in a speech delivered before a selected group of teachers, superintendents, DepEd officials and consultants.

Teaching may not be a lucrative position. It cannot guarantee financial security. It even means investing your personal time, energy, and resources. Sometimes it means disappointments, heartaches, and pains. But touching the hearts of people and opening the minds of children can give you joy and contentment which money could not buy. These are the moments I teach for. These are the moments I live for. There may be times, when you will feel like giving up (many leave teaching after 3 or 5 years for varied reasons). Remember you responded to the call to teach and that you have accepted the mission to teach. May you be found faithful to your vocation and mission till the end.

THE "PWEDE NA" MENTALITY: ENEMY OF EXCELLENT MISSION PREPARATION AND ACCOMPLISHMENT

   For a professional teacher who looks at teaching as his/her mission, he/she will do everything to arm himself/herself for an excellent accomplishment of that mission. The striving for excellent accomplishment sometimes brings us to our "pwede na" mentality, which is inimical to excellence. This mentality is expressed in other ways like "talagang ganyan 'yan," "wala na tayong magawa," "dina mahalata," "di ko na 'yan sagot," "dagdag trabaho/gastos lang yan"- all indicators of defeatism and resignation to mediocrity. If we stick to this complacent mentality, excellent mission accomplishment eludes us. In the world of work whether here or abroad, only the best and the brightest make it. (At this time, you must have heard that with the rigid selection of teacher applicants done by DepEd, only a few make it!) The mortality rate in the Licensure Examination for Teachers for these past years is a glaring evidence that excellence is very much wanting of our teacher education graduates. If we remain true to our calling and mission as a professional teacher, we have no choice but to take the endless and the "less traveled road" to excellence.