WHAT A TEACHER IS

This essay won 1st place in the SHS Essay Writing Contest of the Main Library. Congratulations to Mr. Fabros!

What a Teacher Is

Simon Theodore P. Fabros

Teacher – someone who educates you, someone who helps you in school as you grow up. Across different subjects in classes and different departments in schools, teachers are the ones who help us develop knowledge and understanding about the seemingly colossal problems and issues we have in life. They are also the ones who tell us to make the neglected diminutive things matter in our life. They’re always there for you and ready to listen to you whenever you have problems that are either school-related or personal. To other people, they might view a teacher as they are. But for me, I view them not only as a teacher, but as their own,  human, and as a second parent as well.

From the very beginning of their careers, down to the end, having taught as a career requires our teachers to go to such great lengths to be recognized as a teacher. It takes unbelievable amounts of time, patience, and money to be considered a licensed teacher. In some cases, literal blood, sweat, and tears are even lost in the process. Our teachers may not be telling us about their problems, but we know for a fact that they go through many hurdles day by day. Thinking about how they could deliver their complex lessons in simple ways that their students would understand is very pressuring. It is also tiring to think about how they have to wake up early to be able to prepare themselves for the school day that is about to come just to come home late at night, tired and haggard, which is very gruesome. They also have to deal with responsibilities in their home after dealing with responsibilities at school, which is why seeing them every day with a smile on their face is captivating. The determination and motivation they have in them are inspiring, and they’re setting the bar for us students to follow their lead in doing so with our own lives.

All of the sacrifices that our teachers have made for us will not simply go unnoticed. Knowing the hardships that they have gone through; we should appreciate them for those. With the way that they are all treating us nicely with care and passion, we should learn how to reciprocate those same feelings and actions to them. There are many ways to appreciate a teacher, and some of those could be thanking them for teaching us and being with us, helping them carry their stuff around the hallways,  erasing whatever is written on the whiteboard after their lessons, and many, many more. The possibilities and choices to make their days a little better are endless. These acts may seem small, simple, and easy for us to do, but to our teachers, hearing warm words and receiving affectionate actions from us, the people that they consider as our children, are big to them.

Being a teacher is one of the most dignifying, rewarding, and fulfilling jobs a person can have. Teachers are the ones who can influence and help shape the hearts and minds of future generations to come. They are already becoming a strong foundation for the future by educating the hopes of the future, which is us. Our teachers are selfless in doing these. By teaching us information and guiding us in different scholarly and worldly subjects, we become better people and members of society as days go by. Aside from that, our teachers are also the ones who get to see how we develop as a person and as a student throughout the years, apart from our parents. We make them feel happy and proud every time we get achievements in school and our homes, may those achievements be big or small. Our teachers being happy and proud about our achievements are the rewards and fulfillment that they sow for being good to us.

Looking back, a teacher is simply not just a teacher for they are beyond just that. A teacher could also be one's second parent, support system, therapist, friend, and more. They sometimes go unappreciated, but we are here to change that and to make them feel loved. They change us and our lives for the better, little by little, and we should thank them for that. Honestly, we would go nowhere without them, without the school and life lessons that they wholeheartedly give to us, and without the sacrifices that they have made for us. They are not just teachers. There is more to them, and that is what a teacher is.