Bombarded by the notion that each of us must be ready for the prompt changing world we are all part of and for the global competition that seeks for quality, we have been driven by the call of transformation inaudibly pushing us to strive even harder to reach the zenith of excellence making us all tend to forget what we are really leaving behind. We embrace the fact that remaining stagnant in your place makes you stunted and incompetent. Thus, most of us in the teaching field pursue promotion believing that it is an apparent proof that we are professionally growing.
It may be true at some point, yet what others failed to discern is that making themselves great and forgetting to carry with them what they are supposed to nourish makes them less effective than what they thought they are. What makes an educator great is when he makes his students better than he is. Having a bunch of students who will say with awe that you are a good teacher doesn’t merely assure your worth in their lives, doesn’t ensure that you are doing well your job. Instead their achievements will speak if a teacher’s craftsmanship in their learning has been truly effective. As what the saying, “Success builds success” implies, there is no better recognition than the students who have reached their triumph and serve as your living trophies as they find you to personally express their gratitude.
Even without receiving any accolade to recognize your effort for doing well in the field, the educator who is truly in pursuit of excellence still continue to do his passion silently. Though unnoticed, he strive to deal with the challenges of educating young minds in the best way he knows how. There may be instances he needs time to pause whenever he gets tired of facing the frustrations he experiences from teaching, yet he never stops to give what he has and what he can bequeath.
To lead the students towards the road of their feat, we must conquer our apprehension of not being able to sustain what they need to nourish their half-full souls which are too vulnerable for life’s complexities. Inner strength, resounding moral fiber, are what we have to nurture to our students deep being. These are what we have taken for granted when we started to focus our attention in molding our learners in the frame of competence which loosens their drive to be the kind of individuals this society needs the most.
Excellence is not solely confined to superiority and merit, but to the fineness of character and brilliance of compassion for humanity. If everyone in pursuit of excellence do understand the unvalued meaning of the said word and replenish the learners of today with its unfeigned worth, then there will be no left behind. Everyone will all be busy making their ladders towards excellence.
By: Janice Calibara Ibañez | Teacher I | Limay NHS | Limay, Bataan
