teachers

"I’ve always seen teachers as expendable creatures who float in and out of a student’s life like clouds in the sky. One or two semesters, and they are never seen again, except for a few awkward moments outside the classroom days or even years after. I’ve never understood how several of my peers have real relationships with their teachers, even though they haven’t been in a classroom setting for a while now.

"I think it’s because I’ve always known teachers to be authority figures, and because of that authority, it’s impossible for us to be friends. I hold even the most irresponsible and undeserving teachers with respect, because I don’t know how else to act. I guess that that’s not the worst reaction that a teacher can ever get from a student, but it saddens me because, a few years from now, when I want to go back and visit Ateneo, whom exactly will I be visiting?"

This was something out of a reaction paper one of my students wrote for the film, Stand and Deliver. I quote it because it is something I could have written. I could still write. Despite the fact that I am already a teacher, I do hold authority figures with respect and think myself different from them because of that, and therefore, a real relationship can never be forged there.

And yet as a teacher, sometimes there is this desire to be seen by students outside this ice tower facade that teachers often have around them. But at the same time, there is also this desire to maintain the facade to serve the kids better.