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LESSON 2 Text Ebing

1) Teaching can be considered both a vocation and a mission. As a vocation, one is called by God to teach and serve others, similar to biblical figures. As a mission, one is assigned the duty of educating students. 2) To be a true profession, teaching requires long training as well as continuous professional development to achieve excellence, uphold ethical values, and provide quality public service. 3) A "pwede na" or complacent mentality does not lead to excellence and has contributed to poor performance in licensing exams. Teachers must pursue the challenging path of continuous improvement. 4) Teaching can give life meaning by touching hearts and minds, though it may not be lucrative

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43 views6 pages

LESSON 2 Text Ebing

1) Teaching can be considered both a vocation and a mission. As a vocation, one is called by God to teach and serve others, similar to biblical figures. As a mission, one is assigned the duty of educating students. 2) To be a true profession, teaching requires long training as well as continuous professional development to achieve excellence, uphold ethical values, and provide quality public service. 3) A "pwede na" or complacent mentality does not lead to excellence and has contributed to poor performance in licensing exams. Teachers must pursue the challenging path of continuous improvement. 4) Teaching can give life meaning by touching hearts and minds, though it may not be lucrative

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LESSON 2

Teaching as
Vocation and a
Mission
 
 
  One can never have thought of being a teacher! Yet many are planning to become one! How did this
happen? From the eyes of those who believe, it was God who called a person to teach , just as God called
Abraham, Moses, Mary, the Bible. Unlike you, these biblical figures did not grasp the circumstances
surrounding their order. But they answered YES in their great faith. Mary said to me:
Look at the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word. (Of course, it is difficult to
justify a calling to teach as a call from God to one who, in the first place, rejects the presence of God, for
that is a matter of faith.) The fact that many are now in the College of Teacher Education means that many
individuals have replied favorably to the call to teach. Right? Right? Will the YES answer remain a YES,
and becoming much better over the years. Can someone imagine that? Well, better believe it!

“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those
who touched our human feelings…” Carl Jung
A. Teaching as a Vocation

Teaching as a Vocation
Etymology of the word “vocation”

Vocation comes from the Latin word "vocare" that means to call.
Based on the etymology of the term, vocation is therefore a request.
If there's a call, there 's got to be a caller and someone called. There
must be a response, too. To Christians, the Caller is God Himself.
To our Muslim brother and sister, Christ. The believers in the
Supreme Being are going to look at this voiceless call for a vertical FOCUSING CONTENT
dimension. For non-believers, the call is often felt, but it can be
perceived only in a horizontal sense. It's like a man call- ing
another man, never a Superior calling a man.

Most often, when people use the word “vocation”, they refer
to a religious vocation. Vocation includes other big callings like
marriage and

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single blessedness. It does not only refer to a religious vocation. It can also refer to a call to do
some- thing like to teach, to heal the sick, etc. Whatever is our calling o !r station in life, the
call is always to serve.
The Christians among you realize that the Bible is full of stories of men and women
who were called by God to do something not for themselves but for others. We know of
Abraham, the first one called by God, to become the father of a great nation, the nation of
God's chosen people. We recall Mo- ses who was called while in Egypt to lead God's chosen
people out of Egypt in order to free them from slavery. In the New Testament, we know of
Mary who was also called by God to become the mother of the Savior, Jesus Christ. In Islam,
we are familiar with Muhammad, the last of the prophets to be called Allah, to spread the
teachings of Allah.

 B. Teaching as a Missio


Teaching as a Mission

Etymology of the word “mission”

Teaching is a project, too. The word mission is derived


from the Latin word "misio" which means "to give." You are
FOCUSING called to be a teacher, and you are sent to the world to carry
CONTENT out a mission, to teach. The New College Dictionary of Webster
describes mission as "assigned duty." You are sent to perform
the assigned mission.

Teaching is as a mission means it is the task entrusted to someone in this


world. If it is an assigned task then naturally the person got to prepare oneself for it.
Four years of pre-service preparation will equip an individual with the knowledge,
skills and attitude to become an effective teacher. However, never commit the mistake
of culminating your mission preparation at the end of the four-year pre-service educa-
tion. One have embarked in a mission that calls for a continuing professional educa-
tion.

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Is it to help the child master the basic skills so s/he can continue acquiring
higher-level skills in order to become a productive member of society?

Is it to deposit facts and other information into the "empty minds" of students to be
withdrawn during quizzes and tests?

Or is it to midwife the birth of ideas latent in the minds of students?

In the words of Alfred North Whitehead, is it to help the child become "the man of cul-
ture and of expertise"?

Or is it "to provide opportunities for the child's growth and to remove hampering in-
fluences" as Bertrand Russell put it.

C. Teaching as your Profession

Professionalism requires long and arduous years of training


and aims for excellence. The ultimate aim is operation, and as we
have heard many times, "we can not offer what we don't have." When
we have more, we will send more. His Holiness Pope Paul VI reiterat-
ed this idea when he said, "Do more, have more to be better! "In order
for us to be able to do more, pursuing technical education is a must.
FOCUSING In order for us to be able to provide more, continuing vocational edu-
CONTENT cation is a must. For us teachers, continuing vocational education is
explicit in our professionalization law and in our Code of Professional
Ethics.

Our professional service to the public turns out to be diligent and devoted only if our so-
cial , ethical and religious values serve as our base. The same moral , ethical and religious convic-
tions inspire us to pursue continuing professional education.

If one chooses to pursue teaching as a career, this means that he / she must be able to go
through a long period of training and continuing professional growth. Someone must aspire for
perfection, dedicate oneself to social , ethical and religious values, and devote oneself to public ser-
vice.

The “Pwede Na” Mentality Vs. Excellence

13
“

14
 

D. DMentality vs. Excellence

DDvs. Excellence

The pursuit of excellence as another element of the profession brings us to our


"pwede na" mentality, which is hostile to excellence. This mentality is expressed in other
ways, such as "talagang ganyan yan," "wala na tayong magawa,"-all indicators of defeatism
and resignation of mediocrity. When we hold to this complacent mentality, perfection
escapes us. In the world of jobs, whether here or abroad, it is only the best and the
brightest that make it. The attrition rate in the Licensing Examination for Teachers over
the last ten years is strong proof that the quality of our teacher graduates is sorely lacking.
Unless we remain true to our calling and mission as a professional instructor, we have no
choice but to take the constant, "less traveled path" to excellence.

E. Teaching and a Life of Meaning

Would you like to add a meaning to your


life? Would you like to live a purpose-driven life?
Give it a sincere commitment to education, the
noblest career. Remember what Dr. Josette T.
Biyo, the first Asian teacher to win the Intel
FOCUSING Excellence in Teaching Award at an interna-
CONTENT tional competition, said in a speech to the
selected group of teachers, superintendents and
consultants, DepEd:

Teaching can't be a lucrative position. It


is not enough to ensure financial stability. It also
means investing in your own time, resources
and property. This also involves anger, heartache, and pain. Yet touching
people's hearts and opening children's minds will give you joy and
satisfaction that money can't buy. Those are the times that I'm teaching.

Those are the times I'm going to enjoy.There are many moments when you
feel like giving up (many quit to teach after 3 or 5 years for a variety of
reasons). Notice that you answered the call to teach, and that you
embraced the task to teach. To the end, may you be held true to your
vocation and mission.

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