One day, the whole world was suddenly confronted by the most terrifying threats in the entire history of the human race: the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone was lost of words, beset with anxiety and uncertainty as we face incredible turns and twists in every single aspect of our lives, our education area was spared too.
I, for one, a public school teacher, have always kept an open eye and mind about the different circumstances people are in.. Try as I may to not let every bad thing I come across on the internet steal my joy, I just cannot turn a blind eye, especially if the posts I’d encounter were created by my students and co-public servants, my colleagues in the DepEd family. Needless to say, this grueling scenario isn’t just hitting my physical body.. but much more my mental soundness is at some point being shaken too out of fear for my loved ones safety.
A couple of days ago, as I was having my rest and just browsing through the internet, I ran across a post of a colleague calling us, teachers, for an action: to be at our utmost leniency conveying the known “no students shall be left behind”. I paused for a while and thought to myself: what kind of leniency is still being squeezed from us? Are we really lacking such? My heart goes out to all my students particularly to those who are being left out by the sudden paradigm shift in education… but what about enforcing standards? Should we just loosen our grip? How about the “quality education” we are trying to deliver? Can these two (leniency and quality) be so carried out without the other one being set aside even a little? Searching my mind…. No answers were there.. Maybe, as we continue to journey through this new normal, we would, by and by, figure things out and find new ways to extend our compassion even further without sacrificing the quality of education we have been called to deliver. After all, we are in this together.
I will just for the time being keep my calm.. keep myself and family safe.. fo my best to serve and most importantly keep my faith.
By: Marilyn D. Sacdalan | Teacher III | Bataan National High School City of Balanga
