Teaching and transformation

Friday, 07 October 2011 03:39

Written by Louie C. Montemar

It’s Teachers Day (October 5) and I just enjoyed a simple dinner treat offered by a former student. As we chatted, I looked back at the fifteen years behind me. A decade-and-a-half of formal school teaching and non-formal education work—of dealing with people from all walks of life.

Tonight I can really say that I have learned more from being a teacher than my students have probably learned from me. I received so many “Thank you” messages and happy teacher’s day greetings but I realize that, on the contrary, perhaps I should be the one thanking all of them instead. Their many queries have helped me to never forget that “the important thing is,” as Einstein reminds us, “to never stop asking questions.”

It was only when I was in college when I realized I wanted to be a social science teacher. I told my father I would be shifting from political science to education. Tatay’s eyes squinted: “Hindi ka yayaman sa pagtuturo.” Tama siya. Pero matigas ang ulo ko. [He’s right, but I’m hard-deaded] As one other columnist put it the other day: teachers’ salaries in this country are criminal. You want to teach? Prepare to be victimized. Or, as I would prefer to put it, transformed.

When I first went into teaching, public school teachers were going on hunger strikes to ask for better pay. They got better pay after almost a decade. With inflation today and given all those deductions, those increases now mean nothing. It has been reported that the average public schoolteacher gets a measly net income of only 5,000 to 8,000 pesos a month, a rate below the national poverty level. Makes you wonder what keeps many of them going.

In my case (yes, I lecture in a private higher education institution, but I consider myself a teacher), I reckon it is my belief in change.

Much has changed and much remains the same. The examples or specific topics I discuss in class have changed but the basic social problems appear to have stayed the same. The subjects I am often assigned to teach have changed but my enthusiasm to teach hasn’t. A student once asked me, “Sir, where do you get your inspiration and optimism.” I think I told him: the power of human creativity and history.

So many times I’ve encountered the perennial sigh-encased exclamation: “Nothing has changed. The country is only getting worse!” But instead of being pulled down, I only feel challenged. Why? Because the statement is patently invalid! Hence, the need for teachers — teachers who aspire and fight for change, and believe in it; teachers who revel in transformation and push the limits of the possible.

After dinner, as I had coffee with my friend and finally found time to scan the papers for the day, what struck me was this report by the US Department of Labor on the Philippines’ having the third worst record of child labor among 140 countries. This is based on data from the International Labor Organization. We trail India and Bangladesh in this ignominy. That is bad, indeed. For education, that means less children being able to go to school or focus on their studies.

Someone less optimistic who reads this bit of news might again generalize: “Nothing has changed!” But not me. No, I am not saying the information is wrong. Yes, I might share this not so uplifting news with my students in “Philippine Development” this term; I should, in fact, so they have a more complete picture of things, but I am sharing other things as well to underscore that the world has improved and things are changing, albeit perhaps not as fast as many really want to.

Let’s take the case of the forty years from 1969 to 2009 and three key general human development indicators on health and income. Data from this wonderful educational website on international development, www.gapminder.org, show that in the last 40 years child mortality has in fact gone down significantly from 89 to 33. This is the number of 0-5 year olds dying per 1,000 born. Another health indicator, life expectancy, shows improvement from 45 to 72. Filipinos are, on average, living longer now. Income per person, adjusted for differences in purchasing power, GDP in international dollars, fixed 2005 prices, shows growth from 1,100 to 3,204.

No, things haven’t exactly remained the same. Much improvement has yet to be realized, but things have changed. More local governments are now showing improved ability in managing their affairs and the quality of life of their people notwithstanding the national situation and the purported opacity of national government. More and more people are now getting involved in or are being exposed to development work done by the non-profit sector which promotes real empowerment at the grassroots. More people are now seeing the need to deal more seriously in barangay governance and local political affairs given the Local Government Code of 1991.

Finally, I wish to emphasize insights I have gained from my years of teaching and dealing with our people. First off, most of those who say that nothing has really changed have not really been exposed to actual development work at the community level, have only confined themselves to very particularistic advocacies, or have simply not actively exposed themselves to social work at all. Secondly, those who are most optimistic about change and possibilities for transformation have had more meaningful and longer exposure to marginalized peoples.

Finally, I affirm a precept that I first heard from a community-based NGO-sponsored seminar: “That no one knows everything, but everyone knows something.” Teachers can only do so much. Teachers, in fact, know only so much. A most humbling and magnificent transformative lesson is that social transformation can only come when teachers, with their students, work together for positive, meaningful change.

Someone once wrote: “I cannot be a teacher without exposing myself.” Here, I say that I cannot be a teacher without exposing my belief in change and the human potential for change.

Thank you dear students, you have taught me, transformed me.

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