It's World Teachers' Day!

I was once a teacher. I taught language and reading to elementary school students in this parochial school near our home. I enjoyed teaching, but it wasn’t really my calling. 

What I apparently look like to my student

You see, I never liked children, perhaps because I am the youngest in the family and not used to being with anyone younger than me. Even my nieces and nephews would annoy me sometimes. However, my two-year stint as a teacher taught me how to tolerate even the rowdiest kids. It also made me appreciate children’s innocence, wishing that I myself could go back to the days when I did not have to worry about anything (except acing my exams :P).

Once, I asked my students to write and draw what they want to be when they grow up. Some gave common answers like doctor, nurse, teacher, etc. However, some talked about things that made me go “Aw, that’s cute!” or “So this is what they get from watching too much TV?!” Here are some of them (after the jump).

Student wrote: I want to be a gardener because I want to have a small garden with plants, trees, and flowers. I want to plant flowers. I want to be a chef too and an artist too but I really want to be a gardener.

I think that's a bank vault.

Student wrote: A Millionaire

 Student wrote: I want to be the Pokemon Trainer in the future with pokemon named PIKACHU and Raichu and Wingull.

 Student wrote: I want to be a ninja.

Another thing I realized is that children never seem to hold grudges. I have to admit that I was not the best teacher. I would lose my temper and shout at my students (that’s the furthest I could go), but at the end of the day, I would still be like a big brother to them. One Valentine’s Day, my students gave me greeting cards that they made themselves to show how much they love me. I know that they were just obliged by their homeroom teacher to make some for me, but I still appreciated the gesture. Here is one:

Never mind that they misspelled my name...

Nothing compares to the happiness I feel when reminiscing my days as a teacher. Still, that is not enough to make me go back to teaching children. I’ll leave it to the real teacher. Hehe (I majored in journalism, not education, and even though I have a master’s degree, it is useless unless I take units in education and pass the licensure examination for teachers.) I’d rather teach in college. :)

We keep hearing about how hard teachers' job is, but we can never really understand their plight until we become one of them, which I did. Truly, their hard work should be appreciated. Thus, to teachers all around the world, HAPPY WORLD TEACHERS’ DAY!