ENDEAVOR Sonny Coloma World Teachers Day is observed every Oct. 5. On this day in 1966, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted a recommendation concerning the status of teachers, their rights and responsibilities, and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions. On June 1, 1988, I began to teach at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), where I had obtained my MBA degree 10 years earlier. It was an elective course on Labor Relations. I was tapped to take the place of Professor AmandoBuenviaje, a well-known labor law practitioner and past president of the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP).  He had been an elder and a mentor in the field of human resource management since I became an active member of PMAP in 1974 after I joined a private commercial bank as a personnel supervisor. I did not realize then that I would be a teacher for the next 28 years. In 12 of those years, I was on sabbatical from the academe. I was on work leave to serve in the government for 10 years; I also worked with a private conglomerate for two years. I am grateful to AIM for allowing me to go on sabbatical and pursue parallel careers in management and government service. Sabbatical comes from the root word sabbath: “a period of paid leave granted to a university teacher or other worker for study or travel, traditionally one year for every seven years worked.” AIM allowed its professors to go on work leave for a maximum of three years each time during which they could be compensated by their public- or private-sector employer. I was allowed to extend my work leave during my stint as Press Secretary during the entire six-year term of then President Benigno S. Aquino III. Previously, I worked for two years each in the administrations of President Corazon C. Aquino and Joseph Ejercito Estrada. It was not easy to be a graduate school professor. One was expected to keep abreast, and even be ahead of current trends and developments. This meant reading up from as many books, journals and publications to gather relevant insights, and apply the latest thinking in addressing present-day problems and concerns in the executive suite, on the shop floor, or over the counter. As AIM adopted Harvard Business School’s case method, the professor was expected to weigh in, share and understand real-word, real-time experience so that the students may imbibe relevant insights from the crucible of actual issues and problems faced by decision makers in corporations and organizations. Instead of lecturing, the professor serves as facilitator or discussion leader. He performs best when he talks least. In an 80-minute session participated in by 60 students, every student has only more than a minute of airtime. If the professor takes up 15 minutes of airtime, that means preempting recitation from 11 students. The word education is derived from the Latin word educare which means to bring up. Another Latin word educere means to bring forth. Therefore education means to bring forth as well as bring up. In a case method setting, the educator’s preferred role is that of bringing forth, or drawing insights and ideas from students. As AIM’s education philosophy is practitioner-oriented, 30 percent of faculty time is allowed for doing consulting work, one facet of which could be conducting strategic planning workshops for top management teams. Thanks to my fellow AIM Master in Business Management (MBM) alumni – Renato Valencia (MBM 1971) and JesliLapus (MBM 1973) – I was invited to lead such workshops that were participated in by the senior executives of the Social Security System (SSS) and Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) during the Ramos administration from 1992 to 1998 when both of them served at the helm of these two premier government financial institutions. Here's a memorable vignette: On an early Monday morning, officials of one of the country’s largest corporations called a timeout from their strategic planning workshop in order to check on the status of their investments with a global investment house whose rogue trader had been arrested in Singapore for alleged illegal activities. Before midday, they ascertained that their funds were intact, thanks to prudent management by the fund manager who happened to be one of my former students at AIM. This is certainly part of the “psychic income” of a teacher. On this score, I remember a poster outside the room of Fr. Jim Donelan, SJ, our professor at AIM’s Written Analysis of Cases (WAC) course: “This job does not pay much, but the fringe benefits are out of this world!” To all teachers, may your tribe increase!