THE VIEW FROM RIZAL

Tomorrow, Oct. 5, the world will be celebrating “World Teachers’ Day.”

When my eldest daughter was in sixth grade, I remember her asking me this: “Dad, why do we celebrate Teachers’ Day?”

Her question sent me scampering for a backgrounder on this annual celebration, and I discovered that Oct. 5 is meant to mark the anniversary of an important event. On this day, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) signed a set of recommendations.

On the momentous Oct. 5, 1966, the two organizations signed a joint recommendation on the Status of Teachers. The document is meant to show to the world the importance of the teaching profession and the need for peoples and governments to ensure that they are well cared for, protected, properly compensated, and given the help they require to perform their valuable role in society.

It also paved the way for countries to pause and reflect on what our teachers have done for us and on the need to honor them by way of setting aside one day each year to pay tribute to them.

My daughter, smart as she is, asked a follow-up question. She asked, why is it that among the many professions, it is only teachers who are honored by the entire world with a day set aside for them.

She asked, “Dad, do we have a ‘world doctors’ day? Or a ‘world scientists’ day’.”

“It looks like there is only a ‘World Teachers’ Day, Dad?’’ she said.

She had a point. It appears there are just two other persons honored by the entire world with a day all their own. There is an international “Mothers’ Day,” and a worldwide celebration of “Fathers’ Day.”

Days to honor mothers, fathers, and teachers. Maybe, the world has decided they belong to just one category. After all, we have always referred to teachers as our “second parents,” with mom and dad being the “first.”

Interestingly, moms and dads are also referred to at times as our “first teachers.”

At the end of the day, those who “parent” and those who “teach” are the people who must have earned the highest esteem of the people of the world.

Today, I will spend the eve of World Teachers’ Day with the educators of Antipolo and the province of Rizal. Today, I will thank them for two very important abilities that teachers equipped me with and which proved to be valuable life lessons.

I will tell them about the two test types which were my favorite as a student. The first is the “true or false” test. The second is the classic “multiple choice.”

I liked them because both test types gave you the available options. You only had to select the best, or the right, answer.

I liked them because they were relatively “easier” than filling in the blanks, enumerations, essays, and problem-solving. I thought that “true or false” and “multiple choice” gave one a higher percentage chance of getting the right answer.

I also realized that to do well on those two test types, one needed two very important abilities.

First, the ability to distinguish between what is true and what is false.

Second, the ability to make a decision; to decide which among many is the best choice.

Those abilities are crucial. Without them, the two test types become nothing more than just a guessing game.

These abilities honed, imparted, and modeled by teachers are very important. In this day and age of powerful media and advertising, one needs to be skilled at discerning what is true and what is false. Media and advertising also bombard us with so many options. One needs to be skilled at choosing what is best; at opting for the best.

Maybe, that is one way of defining what an “educated” person is.

An “educated” person can distinguish what is true from what is false.

He or she is a person who is equipped to decide as to which choice to make among the many available options.

There are educated persons because there are dedicated educators.

Many of these teachers had other professional options.

But they chose to teach. “Teaching” was the “answer” in a multiple-choice question which they opted to “check.”

If life is about making the right choices, the teachers of the world have, indeed, prepared us well.

On this day, this column joins the rest of the nation and the world in saying, “Thank you, teachers.”