Snippet from My Journal: What My Nursing Students Need to Know Part III

...Now that the semester is almost over, I begin to reflect in retrospect how I did as a teacher. I could not believe I have spent a year (although not succesively) in this "D.M." University. When I was working at the Development Academy of the Philippines, I have always wanted to return to what I really love--teaching. Believe me, I almost went robotic in Manila--writing memos and letters, taking down minutes of the meeting, etc. (for only four months). I even promised myself to improve once I get back to teaching. And I was made to teach TECHNICAL WRITING!

The way how things unfolded this semester, maybe I expected too much, especially on the way I handled my students, and the kind of students I handled. Somehow they altered my viewpoint. Students have the tendency to change or influence a teacher's perspective, whether from good to worst or from worst to good. They could unleash a teacher's fangs s/he knew s/he never had. They could awaken the deed a teacher knew s/he is not capable of. They could make a teacher throw words s/he never knew s/he is capable of speaking--in public, that is.

What is the gist of my written ranting? I know that it is very useless for me to talk about stuff that I do not really care about--squeezing my creative juices just to write about robots and puppets. This article might elicit reactions from people being addressed to, but sometimes, truth must be told. Truth must be told in order to cull out the HUMAN in every robot. Blessed are those students who realize that not everything is gauged by numbers and extension duties. Not everytime, someone has to take the remote control or push the ON button just to make these students move, and worst, follow every command. Because there are students who just pretend to be robots, act stupidly to be at par with their equally stupid gods who adhere to the school's equally stupid policies (FYI: an eraser is worth PhP5.00 or less, not PhP200, just imagine if a student misses to bring an eraser, that would be equivalent to four hour extension--and a student has to pay PhP200? Bull...)

The semester has ended. And my world seems to end as I face the challenges and stresses inundated by the final term. But, what a pity--their hell, not unless someone has to pour water over it, will never end.