Why I don’t want to be a Teacher.

                It’s funny how I don’t want to be a teacher when I was raised by not just one, but two teachers. In fact, I was even born inside the campus. Yes, both of my parents are in the academe and have been teaching practically their whole lives. I grew up marveling at their stacks and stacks of lecture notes, syllabi and unchecked student exam papers.  So given the environment, it should have come naturally to me to want to become a teacher, right? Wrong. I guess not in my case. Maybe because I was never really a good student, I was a lazy one and that’s something I’m not proud of. I still remember though how I hated being compared to other “teacher’s kids” because most of them were achievers and I was but chose to be just average. I used to excel, too until I grew tired of it. So come college I just settled for the passing grades and told myself “ok lang, pasado lang naman hinihingi ng gobyerno, eh”. I do regret it, because I know that had I just pushed myself, I would’ve graduated with honors, too. But I’ve already let it all go. 

         I wouldn’t say that being raised by teachers (both are professors in a government funded state –university by the way) is hard but there’s an extra pressure to it. You are after all expected to be proper and at the very least should know what common decency is. You of all people should be learned.  Growing up with teachers is definitely more like growing up with books, so to speak. You are fed everyday with news and information. But more than that, you grow up with values. You grow up with that constant need for learning and understanding. You grow up with consciousness and awareness of the world around you.

          To tell you honestly, why I don’t want to become a teacher, or maybe not yet is because I don’t think I have what it takes. I don’t think I’m that good enough for it. Teaching, being among the oldest of profession, is I believe the very reason why there is development and why there is change. Perhaps, it is one of the very reasons we are where we are, today:  A civilized world. See, when you teach, you impart your ideas, your knowledge and you influence. You basically share a part of who you are as a person. And because of all that, for me teaching is the most noble of all profession.

Given the chance to re-live my life, I’d still choose to be raised by teachers, by my parents. And with that chance, I would also re-do how I was at school. I would pay more attention to classes and would listen more to my teachers. I would value more my time as a student instead of hurrying up to graduate. And I bet, I would make my parents more proud. So to all the students, I suggest that you cherish and value your time that you spend in your schools and in your classrooms learning. Because even before you become engineers, nurses or lawyers, or whoever you want to be, there WERE your teachers…

Happy Teacher’s Day to all.

By the way, Y2K teens remember this movie? Helen Mirren rocked it big time  and of course, Katie Holmes