For World Teachers Day this week, I vividly recall my teachers from kindergarten to graduate school who made such an impact on my personal and professional life. My elementary, secondary and tertiary education was molded by the ICM Sisters in St. Catherine’s School in Carcar and St. Theresa’s College Cebu. When I entered kindergarten at the age of five, I learned to love school because of Mother Gertrude who was so kind and compassionate. She appreciated what we did in class. I never had a schoolbag but I brought to school a box that could accommodate a few sheets of Grade One paper and a sharpened pencil. When I did good in class, she would reward me with a stampita. We had frequent vaccinations then and since I was seated in the front row, I was always the first to be vaccinated. She made me feel unafraid of injections.
It was in Grade Three that I met Mother Regine (later known as Sister Julia), who was my teacher adviser, and teacher in all the academic subjects. She was a disciplinarian from class behavior to order and cleanliness, not only physically but also in the making of homework and class work. I remember that every noon break while some students played outside, she would gather the other students in the classroom to practice oral reading.
Grade four was memorable because of Mother Imelda, who was so dramatic in her ways in and out of the classroom. She would stand majestically at the door of the classroom and see to it that everyone who passed by greeted her. She always had a line or two for her students. She discussed stories from the Bible as if they were literary pieces. She had a unique sense of ritual be it receiving report cards every grading period where we dramatized excerpts from the Gospel or visiting the chapel in a very ceremonious way to observe special occasions like Cristo Rey or feasts of the Blessed Virgin. From her I learned to do things properly and with taste. In class she always made us explain our homework in her subjects orally. She was very particular about the way we read and what we wrote. We also learned to do housekeeping in class.
My grade five and six years were influenced by Mother Consejo. She was a disciplinarian in a very quiet way. It was from her that I developed a love for reading both silent and oral, and an interest in science. Most of all, I learned to be patient and resourceful while working with her as a working student. She taught me how to prepare teaching visuals from used materials and how to repair torn and damaged textbooks during summer so they would be ready for use when school opened.
My high school years were more of fun than serious work but I learned to love literature because of two teachers – Miss Lydia Cuizon whose literature class in my sophomore year held my attention from day one to the end of the schoolyear. Incidentally she was also our P.E. teacher from first to third year (at that time most P.E. teachers were also English minors and they were very good teachers.) The other was my elder sister, the late Mila de la Cerna, my Literature and Composition and Algebra teacher in fourth year, who made me love drama and theater and take interest in women characters in History and Literature.
My potentials were fully developed during my college years at St. Theresa’s College, Cebu where I learned to love and major in History under the tutelage of Sister Ma. Delia Coronel for Philippine History and Culture, Dr. Lourdes Quisumbing for Asian, European and World History, Sister Consuelo Varela for American History, and Sister Christiane Vandenbogaert (Sister Daniello) for Church History – all teachers par excellence. On the cultural side, I will always remember the Glee Club sessions every Monday and Wednesday afternoon from 4:00 to 5:00 with Sister Araceli Aspirin, who was always excited and animated every time we learned a new song in preparation for our Glee Club Concert. I enjoyed the Glee Club Concerts and the special music appreciation lessons Sister Araceli occasionally shared with us.
Graduate School made me appreciate the male professors but only two of them stood – Dr. Edilberto Alegre and Dr. Virgilio Enriquez (both deceased) I met Dr. Alegre in the summer of 1982, when I attended a summer course on Japanese Culture, Literature, and Society at the Ateneo de Manila University. He handled all the sessions on Japanese Literature and some sessions on Japanese Culture and Society. I learned how to appreciate and approach the complexities of other cultures and societies. I also learned how to analyze erotic literature. My meeting with Dr. Enriquez was limited to one semester when I enrolled in his subject in Philippine Studies focusing on compilation where he convinced us of the value of compiling noted works of scholars and writers and the contribution of these compilations to the body of knowledge, but it was very productive. Compilation does not only mean putting together bodies of work but it includes annotations.
There are two persons I will never forget. They were not my teachers but they were my mentors as a developing teacher – Sister Modesta Suico, ICM, the principal of St. Catherine’s School when I started teaching, and Dr. Josephine G. Mangubat, the principal of UP Cebu High School when I entered UP Both showed that administrators can help develop teachers.