My Paradigma: Making A Difference

My Vocation…..The Difference

Having established myself as an educator I can’t help but to look back to where I started from and how I am led into this career.

After graduating from high school, I wanted to pursue into the medical world…I wanted to be a Pediatrician but somewhere along the way it ricocheted into the education world. Spending years to complete the bachelor degree in Education won’t suffice for someone to be called a true educator.

After completing my bachelor degree at the age of 19, I received a lot of offers to teach in this school and that school. Like any other fresh graduate, I was too excited to be employed and in my case all I had to do was to choose which school…but again my path was plummeted.

I took the road that most will not take….it reminded me so much of Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken.

I went through a rigorous, brain whacking training for 1 year…the Montessori Teacher Training. Perhaps a lot would shun…Montessori? Too easy… IT ISN’T EASY. It is more difficult than my bachelor and master degrees.

While I was going through the training I began to discover great differences…in psychology of the child, the educational philosophy and methodology and other jargons related to the education world.

Part of the training was reading Maria Montessori’s books. They were not easy reading…one cannot decipher what she meant by just reading them once. Unlike other literary works that I can give my own interpretations and analyses; Montessori’s writings are so abstract for me I have to be introspective… until I went inside the classroom to observe the children and to discover what Montessori meant. Still a year inside the classroom and constantly doing observation and discovering children is not enough for someone like me to be “AN EXPERT”.

At the back of my mind it is stamped what Montessori said…FOLLOW THE CHILD. Questions constantly pop….such as “How I will do this?” “What am I supposed to follow in the child?” “What will happen if I will just keep on following the child?”

Having been educated traditionally all throughout my life I had to make full 360 degrees turn to embrace Montessori’s philosophy and methodology. It took me many years as a Montessori directress to dawn what she meant by “FOLLOW THE CHILD”.

Following the child doesn’t mean catering to whims and caprices of the child. It is more on believing of the great potentials that each child has been endowed. It is up to us EDUCATORS to discover and direct the child so the great potentials are realized.

I just realized how many children out there have been labeled and judged wrongly. If a child has difficulty learning the lesson the child is labeled “slow poke or dumb”. If a child is disobedient, naughty, rowdy…the child is labeled “problem child”. These wrong judgments have doomed a lot of children.

I may have been one of those who would have the same thinking but I’m luckier for my perspective and paradigm as educator have been changed when I became a disciple of Montessori. I cannot claim that I have perfected my craft as Montessori directress because I’m continuously discovering the children….tapping the potentials and directing them to fulfill their potentials. It never fails to amaze how the children would reveal themselves.

Their revelations would always humble me and bring such fulfillment and happiness that perhaps I would not be able to find if I had not chosen this field.

There are no slow poke or dumb children neither there are problem children as well. They become one of these because we the adults of the environment refuse to see beyond the children.

The task of every educator is to never stop BELIEVING. Keep in mind that the children are not empty vessels to be filled. They are endowed with all the potentials waiting to be realized and they need acceptance, understanding and unconditional love from us educators. We are the link between the children and the environment. Each child has a soul thus needing utmost RESPECT.

I would like to be remembered by the children that I’ve worked with as a person who have loved and helped them in realizing their DREAMS and inculcating in them…. treating each person that they would encounter in their path with KINDNESS.

Teachers…don’t get stuck by plainly teaching the children how to read, write and do Math…TOUCH THEIR SOUL WITH KINDNESS AND ACCEPTANCE…Reach out to the children rather than making them reaching out to us.

I have had children that I was so fortunate to handle and I would like to share this anecdote….

4 years ago, I had an endometrial operation in one of the best hospitals back home. My best friend who is an OB GYNE and my doctor too was the one who had given me the procedure. I was excellently taken care of by the staff, nurse and other doctors of that hospital because my best friend is one of the consultants there….from the operation room…recovery room and until I was back in my private room to recuperate I was treated like a very important person. In fairness, the people working in that hospital are innately kind.

It was 12 noon…one of the nurses was in my room and checking on me when a group of male and female resident doctors came into my room and I was so surprised. I recognized their faces….They were all my students when they were in elementary. They have transformed so beautifully. One of them said, she saw my name on the operating board…(board where they write the patients’ names due for operation) and she wasn’t so sure it was really me. So, she checked out in the nurses’ station and got my chart to verify and she called the rest of her friends to see me.

It was a touching moment to see them all in white doctor’s gown…so beautiful, dignified and caring. They told the nurse that they would be the one to attend to me. At that moment, I wasn’t able to contain my tears and we reminisced how they were during their elementary days….we shared laughter and there were teasing by each of them. I cannot explain the happiness that I felt at that time and when it was time for them to go…I thanked them for that precious moment. They said that I should not be thanking them….they thanked me instead. I remember so well what they said…”MISS P (they call me this) Thank you for believing and inspiring us. Simple words that penetrated my heart and I would treasure for the rest of my life.

Did I make a difference with these children? My quest is not over….