Unforgettable teachers

LOGARTA

For “Teachers’ Month” let me tell you about some educators I had been blessed to have. Sr. Luz was my grade 2 reading teacher. She promised us that if we read fluently in front of our classmates she would lend us a book from her library in her room in the nuns’ clausura. There was an air of mystery about nuns and their quarters. It was also very intriguing to actually borrow a book from this inner sanctum. Those really fired me up into preparing for the actual performance and I got to borrow a book from Sr. Luz’s personal library. Perhaps that actually started my relationship with books.

Sr. Verene our teacher in charge in grade 3 taught us many things including how lowly scraps could be transformed into beautiful gifts. During our home economics class she kept us busy shredding retazos into fibers. She prepared little rabbits into which the fibers would be stuffed. From strips of wallpaper brought all the way from Belgium she formed crucifixes. Just before Christmas classes had programs. Here we were all given a rabbit and a crucifix after our part in the program.
Sr. Candida our grade six teacher saw to it that the entire grade 6 took part in what she called our stage debut. There was an operetta, Pied Piper of Healthy Town, with Mary Jane Lim in the lead role. The rest of us were in the choir. We also had a spoken chorus, the theme of which was very unforgettable. There was a monk in-charge of the beggars that came to the monastery. Jesus appeared to him. But while the monk was having this encounter, the time for the beggars came. So he went to perform the act generosity. When he returned Jesus was still there and told him: “Had thou stayed I would have fled.”

Sr. Delia was our teacher for Types of Literature and Rhetoric. We had to write our version for each type of literature. She selected the best among these to make a compilation that would be a going away present for the graduating class. Through these works she chose the participants for the poetry social for the seniors. The selected students prepared poems on a theme; during our year, camia (a very fragile flower with a subtle fragrance) was the theme. Among those who prepared poems were Leilani Echaves and Tetta Baad.

She did not only teach literature and communication arts. She called attention to disposable plastic ball pens, preferring the use of fountain pens. In class she would tell us to raise up our handkerchiefs, to know who was using disposable hankies or cloth ones.

While teaching us in a foreign language and skills in this language, she brought us close to our very own culture and made an effort to get us acquainted with the indigenous people of our country. She had her ways of de-colonizing us. She initiated us to cultural heritage. She started the STC museum, inviting all of us to contribute artifacts.

In the course of all these, she decided that one Christmas, the entire college department would present the “Daygon” which May Ybañez had brought in. The College Glee Club sang the entire “Daygon” dressed in Maria Claras. All the rest had roles in the story beginning with the Annunciation up to the loss and finding of Jesus in the temple. After this we were able to have the unique caroling experience of singing the “Daygon” with scenes of the angel dancing as he delivered the heavenly message and Mary dancing in reply.

Sr. Consuelo taught us English and American Literature, Liturgy, and Church History. She was strict and gave many assignments. We consoled ourselves that she was far from boring. What the many assignments did was to send us rushing to the library when her class ended. This also sent out to libraries out of the school.

Sr. Ghislaine supervised us as practice teachers. She was very thorough in checking our lesson plans. In the beginning we were horrified by the red marks that filled our papers. But as we learned and improved these became less. When she supervised my science class she left before my lesson was over. After the class she met me with a book. She had gone to the library seeking an experiment related to the lesson. She said: “In science you use the experimental approach.”