Aling Pilar, Aling Loleng, Salamat Po!

Nasiyahan ako sa pakatagpo ng isang retrato, sa Facebook. Sa retrato, sa kabutihang-loob ni Ginoong Cesar Rulloda (Klase ng BCHS 1970) matatagpuan natin ang dalawa sa mga tanyag na guro ng City High, si Bb. Pilar de Leon at si Bb. Dolores Valdez. Napaligiran sila ng mga iba pang nasa Klase ng 1970. Sa kabutihang-palad, Si Bb. De Leon ang naging guro namin noong ika- tatlong anyo. Siya ay mabait at matalinong guro, ngunit ang kanyang mga iksamen ay napakahaba: pagkaraan nga isang oras, hindi pa namin maubos sagutin ang mga tanong! Bakit napakahaba ng mga eksamen? Dahil sa nais niyang mapabuhos-loob kami sa pagsulat ng mga sagot at nang mawala ang oportunidad na makipag-kuwentohan o kopiahan sa mga ka-klase o kaya’y magtanungan ng mga tamang sagot.

Hindi nagtagal, nakalipas ang aming ikatlong taon.

And then we had Miss Dolores Valdez as our English teacher at fourth year. In her years of experience, she knew exactly how to appreciate and guide our natural initiative and enthusiasm. How she was so instrumental to expand our vocabularies, is next to magic. Reading became an exciting event, never a chore. Our average English writing skills went from mediocre to a higher plane.

I think part of it was theaterics: she kept us engaged and entertained in some way also: they way she would pronounce a “new” word emphatically and advise us to use it as often as possible to stretch the young imaginations, the finger-wagging when some “hard” accent crept into spoken English by anyone of us, the appreciative stretch of the neck when someone excels in reading a paragraph, such as would be read by Diana B-C or Eduardo B, the rolling up the left and right long sleeves of her twin-set cardigan to her elbows and accompanied by furrowed brows when there is a serious breach of grammar.

We are truly grateful for all our fine teachers. How we express our gratefulness, we do so in many ways, some are done consciously, some not. The motivation and caring we had those four growing-up wonderful years from such devoted teachers, will remain part of us. Always.

Aling Loleng, Aling Pilar, at sa mga iba pang nakaraan naming mga guro, maraming, maraming salamat po!