My Teacher, My Hero

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What is a hero?  Who is your hero?  Some would answer, Superman.  Others would say, Jose Rizal.  Contrary to what many think, the best heroes are not found in books.  We meet them everyday.  They influence us in many ways.  They do things we can never repay. Now they hear what we have to say.

My mother always told us stories when we were kids. Those stories consisted of fairy tales, of adventures, and of fantasies.  But my favorite ones were those of heroes.  To me, heroic feats were more credible than the magic-carpet-rides, more impressive than wish-granting-genies, more captivating than palaces made of gold.  Heroes inspire, stir, and rouse us to doing better things, becoming better beings, and achieving higher dreams.

If mothers are called “ilaw ng tahanan,”  teachers should be rightfully called, “tanglaw ng lipunan.”  They bear the torch that illumines our minds - the light that dispels the gloom of hopelessness and ignorance. In a class that averages seventy, with mostly poverty-stricken students like me, my teacher still treats each of us dearly --  very much the same way my mother does to me.

In the most recent local and national elections, our teachers served without reservations.  Their sacrifices serving the populace entailed diligence, fervor, wit and grace.  For what could have happened if the country entrusted such a task, to the faint-hearted whom the wicked could easily attack?

Batman, Spiderman and Superman have common denominators.  They all have super-powers.  Unlike them, teachers are ordinary human beings like you and me, but their super-power consists of transforming the lives of many!

Teachers give shape to the society.  They give hope to humanity.  They make us thirst --- for victory, for knowledge, for self-sufficiency.   

We do not need another Rizal, another Bonifacio, or another Mabini to remind us that we are the hope of this country.  There is a Rizal in the eyes of our teacher who reports to school notwithstanding his domestic malady.  There is a Bonifacio in the teacher who attends to his students’ needs despite his meager salary.  There is a Mabini in every teacher who, amid his fears, despondency, or anxiety, treats each learner with enthusiasm, hope, and generosity.  Every teacher is a testimony, that this world has still so much hope in store for us, for everybody.

Every dedicated teacher who responds to the demands of his profession recognizes his accountability to God.  They protect us, they discipline us, and show us a visual representation of God.   

When a person decides to be a teacher, he is emulating the Great Creator.  Afterall, the Great Father’s Only Son was a teacher before He became our Liberator.  Thus, teaching became the most beautiful avenue, through which we get a better view -- of God.

               

In loco parentis.  That is Latin for the phrase, "in the place of a parent." When we are in school, our teachers assume responsibility over us “in loco parentis.”  Legally, this principle refers to the institution’s legal responsibility  to take on some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent. But for me, my teachers do not only stand in loco parentis.  They stand for all eternity affecting all facets of my being.  Because even after this phase of my education is through, my teachers’ influence will remain and continue to reverberate throughout my life the same way that One Solitary Life, who lived thousands of years  ago, does.

I will not live my life in vain.  No I won’t.  Because for once in my life, a teacher stood up for me.  Thus, I am forever changed. 

Mi magister, vir mea.  My teacher, my hero.