The Lesson Plan

The Pisay Meets World project has found its way into the blogs, hearts and minds of Filipinos all over. The works of my second year students — particularly “We Hold the Future” — have become reminders of our youth as the nation’s hope.

But then it all suddenly became NASCAR, a long endurance race where half the fun is watching the cars crash into one another. How long will these students hold on to their dreams? How far are they willing to go? The challenges posed in The Magical Flying Chicken, The Construct and Kadzuki Kakei wonder whether this will just be another project.

This is my response as a teacher. Their teacher.

As a teacher, I face the reality that one day, these kids will grow up into ‘reality’. When that day comes, they will be forced to make choices that will either take their ideals to new heights, or to compromise them entirely for something more ‘realistic’ such as a fatter paycheck or a good loft in another country.

But that is why I teach. I teach in the hopes that out of my hundreds of students, that if even just one carries on the flame — just one — then that would make all the difference. Yet I always ask myself, will that be enough?

I have no illusions that this single project will change each one of them overnight. These students are still, after all, works in progress. The PMW is just another chip off their marble, and they have a long way to go before they become their own masterpiece. Even I can’t tell how it will all go down.

But sometimes I wonder, how much good can I really do? If I hope that one out of my hundreds of students do move on to make a big difference in our country, will that be enough?

If there is one thing teaching has taught me, it is that for us to have one million, you have to start with one.

Handling teenagers has given me some insight into what we may really mean with phrases such as collective change and collective action — things which most claim our country needs. Here in school, we put it simply — “working together”.

Whenever I put forward an objective to the entire class for instance, different classes always arrive at different solutions and answers. But regardless of how they do it, I have observed that key to their success revolves around two things: the quality of their leader, and the capacity for the members to maximize their abilities.

In education, the priority (ideally) is to help each student live out their potential. The curriculum, while it provides us with a shared goal, is only a horizon which all work towards at our own pace. If we impose the fulfillment of an objective (however noble) as the only cause, then there will surely be those left behind. Because quite frankly, different students learn, develop, and ultimately change at different paces.

Such it is with society at large. People find themselves in different places and thus have to satisfy different needs. While we can put forward social change as our agenda — which in itself is defined differently by different people — and effective change, collective or otherwise, will depend on the quality of our leader (a change agent at the least) and the capacity of our people to even think of and ultimately undergo change.

I can understand how “the one Filipino at a time” may sound mediocre, but from the point of view of a teacher it is a laborious task! Designing lessons and activities that appeal to different students, checking essays of varying degrees of sophistication (and language mastery!), providing feedback and insight into each student — this is no small task! It is exasperating but ultimately, worth it.

In saying that I would be fine if at least one student carries on the flame is my way of being content with my fate as a teacher: that the result of my hard work can only be really seen years from now — especially that my subject is social studies where we talk about how societies rise, fall and change.

So whatever my students become in the future — whether they become men and women of service, or otherwise — will be a reflection of how well I’ve taught and perhaps, inspired them during our short year together.

Whether they pursue lucrative careers in science, technology or business is an important rational choice they make, but it is what is in their hearts that matters most of all. And as their teacher, it is my job to prepare them for the day they make that fateful choice.

I don’t want to wait for change as much as anybody, but I believe in the power of education. It is thanks to my own great teachers that I have forgone more lucrative careers in order to teach and open horizons for the future generations.

After all, my own teachers made me believe in me, and it is with this that I do the same. In my final year in college, my education teacher pointed out that I was such an idealist. I looked at her curiously albeit asking if it was such a bad thing. Then she adds, “idealists make the best teachers.”

I do not have illusions of being the best, but I know that my best is what I always do; these iskolar ng bayan deserve no less. For me, these ideals and dreams they hold in their hearts are all part of reality, and so we must take care of them. They belong to a generation capable of dreaming big, and it is our job to guide these dreams into fulfillment.

So am I afraid that my students’ dreams and ideals would just crash and shatter one day? Yes, but only because they find themselves in a society that can deny them their dreams. But I am able to sleep at night because I know that I’m doing the work I love. I know that someway somehow, I am holding back the tide. I hold up my own dreams so that theirs can be possible.

This is why I teach.

While in teaching them I do not tell them how to live their lives, it is my hope that at the end of the day, they just find life worth living. It is my hope that they decide to live their lives for themselves but with an awareness of how they can make a difference in others’ lives.

As far as I know, they have already made a difference in mine.