In Defense of Inspiration

While it is true that most of us – students – come to school each day with the

hope in mind that we will go home in the afternoon bringing with us education at its

best and knowledge at its finest, it could not be denied that there are those of us

who come to school for the sole reason that we have to come to school – or else…

On the one hand, there are students who come to school intent at unraveling even

the depths of the oceans in search for wisdom. These are the students upon whom

we can pin our hopes for a better future – the students who define the task of

teachers.

On the other hand, some of us come to school so we could get our

allowances. Or worse, there are those who come to school without really knowing

why they do so. But they go to school, anyway. Perhaps to tag along, perhaps to

play. These are the students who, before they could be made to learn, must first be

inspired – the students who redefine and refine the task of teachers.

The academic community is a melting pot of various students with various

intellectual capacities and inclinations. Well actually, it is a melting pot of various

students, period. Some of these students have intellectual capacities. Others have

none. For these reasons, the school should serve not only as an avenue where

lessons are taught and learning is advanced but also as a haven where attitudes are

redefined and lives are molded.

For this reason, a salutation is due to our teachers whose two-fold task

towards the students, may have been the most noble of all tasks. While our

teachers are expected to advance the frontiers of learning in efforts to provide the

best instruction for the intellectual students, they never took for granted their

responsibility to go down to the level of those students at the opposite end of the

spectrum and prod them all the way up until their capabilities commensurate to

that of a student – not an intellectual student perhaps, but a student nevertheless.

In the surface, this two-fold task may seem pretty simple. At a closer glance

however, this task is very laborious and taxing and many who are not trained

teachers might frown at the mere mention of it. It would start with our recognition

and acceptance of the fact that not everyone is the same. Individual differences

exist everywhere. This existence did not spare the academic community. Students

are different and so are their needs. Our teachers work night and day to design

their lessons in such way that they can cater to our individually differentiated

capacities and needs to ensure that everyone of us gets benefited by whatever

goods the academe has to offer.

I render this write up as a means of heightening the community’s awareness

of the hardships and challenges built-in to the teaching profession into a height high

enough to let everyone understand that teachers do not only teach – they also do

all sorts of other things if only to uplift the intellectual well-being of students.

Further, let this inkblot of gratitude to the undertakings of our teachers serve as an

inspiration to rekindle their flame of devotion to the very profession they have

unconditionally sworn themselves into.

Take pride, our beloved teachers for yours is the noblest profession of all. No

questions. No arguments. Just a notion. Shun not away from this calling for this is

the very essence of your existence. After all, more than we students will remember

you as the teacher who taught, we will remember you as the teacher who inspired.