More teachers , randomly

While I was taking six masteral units in Education prior to my becoming a teacher myself, lo and behold, whom should I see but two (or was it three?) of my teachers in grade school, this time as my classmates. These two teachers were Ms. Despojo and Ms. Parcon. I can't recall now what Ms. Despojo taught us, possibly Grade 2 Math, but Ms. Parcon taught us Science. She was not too tall but was thin, maybe even bony. She'd always put her palms on either side of her waist at the back, palms down. Imagine a back pack's straps. Anyway, our teacher in Grad School was Fr. Luis Candelaria, SJ and I can't recall his question now but it had something to do with teaching (the subject I think was Teaching Methods) and he said, "I'll ask someone who seems to know the answer, to answer my question." Guess whom he called? ME. And I was a fresh college graduate. Made me wonder as a result if I looked older than my teachers. Then I said, "I just graduated from college." He said that the way I tilted my head as I listened showed I was thinking. That reassured me that possibly, it was really that rather than my looking older than my grade school teachers. I didn't really get to interact with my teachers when we were classmates as they were cliquish (power in numbers) and we'd just say hi.

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Another teacher I distinctly remember from the grade school was Ms. Dormitorio. She was small and always smiling and she taught Math really well. She'd patiently train me for the inttra-school Math competition every lunch time so that I won over Grades 5 and 6, though I was in Grade 4 only. I wonder where she is now.

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then there was Sr. Aida who taught us Chem. It was the first time ever we had a religious nun teaching us a subject other than Religion. She started to train me for the NSDB Chem contest but luckily that didn't push through because of martial law. I was so aghast when I got a low score in one Chem exam because she seemed to have told everyone about it so that one of her fellow nuns asked me, "what happened?" Years later, I think around the time of the EDSA Revolution, I'd see pictures of Sr. Aida among the rallyists. I also saw her name and pictures in the papers taking up the cause of taking care of Mother Nature or some such.

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One summer in UNO-R I enrolled in Accounting class. I was home for the summer and I can't remember why I even decided to enroll in the subject. I didn't regret doing so and I recall my teacher then, a Ms. Pacheco. She was really good. She spoke confidently of her subject matter and I had only the highest respect for her.

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In college, for one Eco subject we had this teacher, Ms. Carbonell, who often spoke to the blackboard and showed us her bare back. Didn't learn much from her.

Yet another teacher was Ms. Roldan. She taught Socio-Anthro and expectedly wore long batik skirts and tight fitting shirts without a bra. Liberated, I guess. One time she conducted this experiment. She called me to the front, dropped something and asked me to pick it up. Then she called a male classmate, dropped the same and asked him to pick it up. Luckily for her we behaved as she expected. I picked up the thing by bending my knees while the guy picked it up extending one leg a bit off the ground while the other foot was firmly on the floor. What would she have done if we didn't behave "normally"?

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We also had a part-time teacher from UP. wow she so disliked us and we were rather unruly because she usually arrived late. She'd always tug at the straps of her bra which were always falling off her shoulders (her dress had sleeves) or pull on her half-slip which were showing beyond the hem of her dress. I can still remember one of the dresses she wore. A yellow, eyelet, long-sleeved number cut in the waist. Anyway, one time we were just waiting for 10 minutes (time we were expected to wait for our teachers to arrive, otherwise we could safely leave) to elapse before we went off to the parking lot to the cars of classmates and hied off to Magnolia House in Aurora Boulevard. That was truly fun. The waiters were scratching their heads as we paid individually though we sat in one long table. There must have been 30 of us. Now this teacher from UP was always chiding us, "I'm doing this as a favor for your school. I'm already at the end of my rope..." We were an ordeal for her. One time she even brought two of her students to help her out. Anyway...

Some years back, I saw her, she still looked the same, and introduced myself. She said, "Invite me to your reunions." When I told a few classmates this they raised their eyebrows as though saying "Duh..." But I guess she's all right. One time at mass, all her grandchildren were all over her, craving her attention. Oh and an aside: When I told my classmate "You know, Mrs. B doesn't look a day older from the time she taught us." He naughtily countered, "Even then she looked old kasi." How mean, no?