A year spent teaching at Colegio de San Lorenzo

By Karen Galarpe

Wrote this in August 2022 and this remained in my draft folder since then. Decided to let it see the light of day today. :)

Sad to hear that Colegio de San Lorenzo in Quezon City is closing.

Back in 2005, I taught part-time at the college department of Colegio de San Lorenzo which was just a few minutes drive away. I taught 2 subjects per semester for a total of 4 subjects that year. These subjects were: Writing for Print, Print Media Principles and Practices, Business Communication and Correspondence, and Advanced Expository Writing.

I didn't really plan to teach. I just left my full-time job editing Smart Parenting magazine the year before, and was freelancing. But my grad school classmate Nancy Galang, who was then heading the Communication Arts department, called me to ask if I'd be interested. I laughed. I couldn't imagine myself as a teacher. She said, "Bakit ka natatawa? E may masteral units ka naman?" And I realized she was serious. haha

So I inhaled deeply and said a prayer before entering my first class ever and put on my game face -- a performance art for an introvert like me. The young ladies and gentlemen in their well-pressed uniforms hurried to their seats and looked at me expectantly. In turn, I looked at them. Ok, let's roll.

I'd be at San Lorenzo twice a week for a few hours. I would stay in the faculty room in between classes, mostly just keeping to myself and reviewing my lessons, computing grades, or checking papers. The pay wasn't much, but it added to gas money.

I dreaded entering the classroom every time, but would always come out feeling fulfilled. For there was always something so wonderful in seeing a student's eyes light up, a pupil's head nod, and a young person's face smile.

Since I taught English, I laid down the rule that only English will be spoken in my classroom. They complied, but I remember this one male student who clearly struggled while reporting, and said sheepishly, "Ma'm, i-Tagalog ko na lang. Ganun din naman sasabihin ko pero Tagalog lang."

Also, since I taught writing, I made them write. In class. That's so I would really know they were the ones writing, not some other person they could ask to write for them if it were a homework. I would discuss writing principles then make them write short essays on the spot. I picked topics that were familiar to them -- their favorite food, what they did last summer, stuff like that.

One time, one of the big guys in class who usually sat at the back went up to me after he submitted his food essay, and told me, "Ma'm, parang nalasahan ko ulit yung kinain ko." I said that's the essence of food writing, and he smiled.

For finals exam in advanced expository writing, I asked my class to write an essay about the life lessons they have learned. These students were aged maybe 17, 18, 19, 20 then. They were so quiet during the exam. Then someone started to cry quietly. When they turned in their papers and I read them at home, my heart broke at reading a couple of them. One said his father was never there for any significant event in his life -- birthday, graduation, even his circumcision. And he said he didn't need the money his father would send from abroad. What he wanted was his father's presence. Another student, a female, also poured her heart out writing her final exam, saying she grew up with her grandmother because both of her parents were OFWs. They left for abroad when she was still a baby. The life lesson they both learned -- material things cannot compensate for the absence of a parent.

Then I remember I had a student in my business correspondence class. I asked him during the first day of class to introduce himself, maybe talk about what he plans to do someday. He just gave his name, and then, pressed for his future plans like what he wants to be or do after college, he just shrugged. Sometime later that semester, he got into an accident playing basketball and hit his head on the concrete wall. He fell into a coma and we visited him at the ICU at Veterans Memorial Medical Center. It seemed he just waited until his mother arrived from working abroad, as he died a day or two after she reached his bedside. Maybe he kinda knew early on that sem that he need not think about the future at all.

There's this one time I was asked to sit as member of a thesis panel. It was to be held on a Saturday morning. I didn't have money anymore then so I resolved to just say I'll go home after the thesis defense, in case one of my co-panelists would invite us all to have lunch. Anyway, during the defense, I noticed that part of the thesis wasn't original. It was copied. I raised the matter, and as a result we told them they had to redo their thesis. One of the students defending the thesis cried right there because she knew what it meant: they wouldn't be able to graduate on time. Tough. But well, we can't bend the rules. Before I went home, I was given a letter envelope which turned out to be compensation for being part of the thesis panel that day. Wow. May pang-grocery na, thank you, Lord.

The following year, the new department head called to ask if I can teach again business correspondence. They weren't going to offer the writing subjects anymore though, due to a change in curriculum. I said oh but it's the writing subjects I want. The department head asked me to consider teaching again even just the business correspondence class since they only invite back the teachers who got good feedback from students. I thought about it but decided to let go of the opportunity. I wanted to do more writing.

Anyway, so those are my memories of San Lorenzo. It was a good year well spent. Thank you for the memories.

BOOK OF THE WEEK: I've had "One True Love: To Have And To Hold" by Dr. Grace Shangkuan Koo on my bookshelf for some time now but didn't read it coz parang hindi ako maka-relate. :) Only recently though did I pick it up to read it. It turned out to be a wonderful book discussing what it means to have a "forever" kind of love, with examples from both the lives of the author and her parents. It also devotes some chapters on why some relationships fail, and why for some singleness is bliss. A great read, good for the soul and the heart.

VERSE OF THE WEEK: Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)