TO MY STUDENTS AT GCIC

To my students at GCIC:

At the start of the semester I asked you one question: "Do you like History?" I clearly remember that most of you answered in the negative. It was therefore a challenge for me to teach you because I know that most of the things taken up in History cannot help you in your most immediate concerns, like passing the Nursing Board Exam, for instance. At the start of the semester, I had the hope of changing your mind about the subject. Now that the semester has ended, I am not sure if I succeeded at all.

I would like everyone to know, however, that the semester I spent with you had been a very enjoyable one. Perhaps the most interesting part of it was reading your essays--the last exercise I gave you. Some of you wrote very touching words--words that inspired me to further develop my skills as a teacher.

Personally, I believe that students owe 80 percent (or more) of their knowledge to themselves. The remaining 20 percent (or less) they owe to somebody else. I know that you owe me very little for what you know, but what matters to me is the possibility that I may have influenced you in a positive way, no matter how seemingly insignificant.

I recall having asked you to momentarily look back and think about your life. How much of your past can you remember? Not much, right? It is pretty much the same with your History class. The moment you step out of school to face the so-called "life," there is not much that you would recall from the subject. Nobody expects you to, including me. The human brain is designed in such a way that you would recall only bits and pieces of your experiences. Chances are, you will recall only the things that you choose to highlight. So, you see, I do not expect too much from you. For, after all, what are the names and dates that you can remember from history? You will find no use for them. At least, not until one day you find yourself being quizzed about history in a TV game show, or you find yourself lost in the middle of Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

So what gains can be had from taking History class? There are too many to enumerate here. But eventually, it is not the facts and names of people that matter to you or anyone. What matters is that you have gained new perspectives and new ways of asking questions about the realities that surround you. In other words, that you have grown intellectually and gained wisdom and maturity in the way you apprehend things.

I suppose that the students who found the most satisfaction from this class were those who sat through the entire semester with all the patience they could muster in order to listen and understand the lectures. I say this because one of the greatest satisfactions that can be had is the thought that you have conquered yourself--your weaknesses and all. The least satisfied students would of course be the ones who just waited for the semester to be over without taking a moment to value the opportunities of learning. Not all learning experiences can be quantified. One can therefore treat the whole subject as an exercise in character-building. If you think you succeeded in this, congratulations! If you think you failed, then you are bound to repeat the exercise somewhere at some other time in your life.

I am most happy by the fact that even those who did not do well in their exams did very well in writing their last essays. I am very pleased that the essence of education was not lost on them. In the end, it is not the number of facts and events you can remember that matter most but how deeply you have thought about them so you will not be running blind in the larger context of the world.

Do your best, and good luck!