The real influencers

When I look back at my life, I’d have to say I’ve been set on this path of a career in language since way, way, way before - since that time I wrote a silly little poem entitled “Ang Aklat.” ("The Book")

Ang Aklat

Ang aklat ay binubuklat.

Ang aklat ay sinusulat.

Ang sumusulat ng aklat ay manunulat.

Ang manunulat ay si Susan Dilat.

It was a silly poem indeed. It had four lines and all the lines rhymed - features akin to poetry meant for children. 

Amazing, isn't it, how, at a young age of seven, I was already aware of the form of what I read enough for me to write a piece that follows the same form. 

I also remember that I wrote an English short story at about that same time. I can’t remember the subject of the story anymore, though. I submitted both of my works to my homeroom teacher (who was also the English teacher).

Why did I even write the poem and the story in the first place? It was because I heard that the school paper editorial board was asking for literary contributions. I didn’t even tell my mother about my plans. I just did it all on my own. It looks like I had lofty ambitions ever since.

Those childish childhood masterpieces never got printed. But my succeeding works did get published a few times on that school paper - a haiku I wrote when I was in Grade 4 and a few more articles I wrote when I finally became a member of the editorial board in my last two years in grade school.

I continued writing in high school; I even became the high school paper’s Features section editor. I also won a couple of English essay writing contests.

But I wasn’t the best writer. Many other student writers were way better than me. In any case, it was clear as day: Language - especially reading and writing - is my, in Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, dominant intelligence. Then again, even if the potential was there, obviously, I wasn’t good at it at the very start. What I’ve had though, were English teachers that set me on the right path.

The first in the list was that Grade 1 teacher who kindly accepted this young writer’s early literary writing attempts. Sure, she didn’t submit my work to the school paper. But she didn’t just throw them out either. She told my mother about my efforts. (My mother was thoroughly amused by it.) She was also the teacher who discovered my above average spelling skills. She chose me to represent my class in the grade level spelling contest in school. Since then, I had been a spelling bee contestant every year until I was in my last year in grade school.

Another memorable teacher was my Grade 4 teacher. She gave many creative writing assignments and projects to us. Full disclosure: My mother actually co-authored all those assignments and projects that I had submitted. Hahaha. The initial writing ideas came from my mother. I wrote a few lousy sentences here and there. My mother added her own, edited the whole thing and then out came a passable piece of writing. No, it wasn't just passable. It was a good piece of writing; my mother was a good writer herself. 

That was how it went until my mother decided it was high time I should do all my schoolwork and homework independently. So how did I manage my writing assignments without any help anymore? I followed the model structures - all those writing assignments that I had previously done with my mother. Eventually, before I realized it, I no longer needed the models. I could come up with my own ideas, construct my own sentences and edit and proofread my own work.

The next influential English teacher that I met was my high school sophomore year teacher. I couldn't remember any writing assignment that she had given that I didn’t feel inspired to do. My favorite was the weekly diary entries that she asked us to write. When one is a dreamy high school girl, diaries are like one’s best friend. Our final group project for that year was to present an original play. I wrote the script for my group and I won Best Script for that. (Insert smug look here. LOL.)

Finally, there was my English teacher in my freshman year at the university - the teacher who cruelly gave this naive probinsyana a D on her first paper. I felt it was pure cruelty. I certainly felt I deserved more than that grade. After all, I had graduated at the top of my high school class. And hadn't I written that paper from my heart? He dared to mark my heartfelt work with a lousy D! 

I literally ugly-cried during the consultation session with him. Hahaha. But that wasn’t the reason I received a final grade of A on that paper. It was because I listened to his valuable advice and I worked on what was lacking in my work. That teacher taught me what Ad majorem Dei gloriam really meant. It wasn’t enough that I poured my heart into my writing. There was more to effort than just heart. Unfortunately, these days, a lot of people, not just the infamous millennials, still don’t get that.

But of course, a tribute to my best English teachers is not complete without my paying tribute to my own mother, the Physics teacher who was a pioneer at multitasking like many teachers in the Philippines. She was an Algebra teacher when I had to find x’s and y’s in college freshman year, a Calculus teacher when I had to derive and integrate in college sophomore year, a Chemistry teacher when I had to work out chemical formulas in high school junior year. She was the English teacher who taught me the alphabet, taught me how to write my own name and taught me the first English words that I have ever spoken - everything that I am trying to do for my pupils in my own English class this year.

An American historian Henry Adams once said: "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." Social media influencers are overrated. Our teachers - they are the real influencers. 

For all they have done for us, we can never sufficiently repay our teachers. We can only pay it forward when we try to become the best in whatever career path we have chosen in life.

Happy Teachers' Day!