On the right Track

If there is one thing that teachers like me live for, it's witnessing the breakthroughs in thought and realization in our students. It is the feather in our caps, the huge pats on the back, that long-held breath you're finally able to exhale as you think, they got it!

And it happened today, in one of my classes, when A responded to my question about their biggest insight after discussions on the historical tradition of the media form. Quite casually and even with a hint of annoyance, she said, in the end the form is a construct and it exists as different things for different people at different times. "Wala lang siya. Parang Malaya kaming I-define kung ano siya (it's fluid. It's like we're free to define what the form is for us.)"

I wanted to weep tears of joy and sing alleluias to the heavens. They got it! All this research, the late nights reading, the worry that would settle as I hoped and prayed they did't fall asleep in class or decide it was useless -- all of it seemed to diminish in that one moment. It was then I felt, wow, I can actually teach!

This gave me a much needed boost, a high, if you will, and I had to share the good news with E and B. They were delighted to hear the story and were happy that the students were becoming critical.

We're on the right track. It may have taken this long, but the fact that we got to this point at all is, for me, a cause for celebration.