When All Else Fails, Humanized Teaching is the Way

           When students are at risk of failing and disengaging, teacher’s human consideration is paving the way; that is looking the students in a more humane perspective by leveraging all sorts of activities to help them receive a passing grade or enhance their performance. But sometimes, it is not just giving all sorts of advice, encouragements, prevention, intervention and post-intervention programs, nor reinforcements that would help them succeed, but the teacher’s presence and tender loving care by making them feel that you are there, on their side, and together with them in finishing their journey of education. It is the teachers’ ability to make the students experience how to become more humane and not just simply becoming human. Humanized teachers appreciate students in their highs and lows; value students the same way they value themselves; give importance to the little things are done by the students; promote students’ holistic development grounded on the principles of individual differences in personality, emotional quotient, learning styles, intellectual quotient, and multiple intelligences; uplift students’ morale; adapt to student needs but not sacrificing the quality of learning; inculcate to students camaraderie, belongingness, sense of responsibility and love for peace; share the essence of becoming a social being that is caring, passionate, and humble; and promote students’ connectedness and integration with the rest of humanity.

           Teachers should not just be equated by the veracity of knowledge they had imparted to the students (for they are not just imparters of knowledge), but by the value of life experiences -- whether good or bad -- that they had shared and learned with them. Also, students should not be imprisoned on the content of education alone, but in the context of meaningful educative processes where their individuality persists, their sentiments weigh and being appreciated, they feel at ease, and not afraid to make mistakes and be who they are. Off course, this falls more on the topsy-turvy side of educating humans. Though we are capable of doing almost anything, we had also the weaknesses that sometimes causing us to bleed, crash and breakdown. During these hard times, sympathy is not making any work, but the empathy of others does. Hence, education is a mutual undertaking.

            Humanized teaching and education do not only geared with the emotional perspective, the affective domain, and the feeling-oriented modality of delivering quality and relevant learning experiences towards the development of the total person per se, but on the shared responsibilities of educational success based on the holistic effort between and among teachers and students. Today’s approach to education is personalized, learner-centered, and globalized. As John Dewey described, “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” Teachers build one’s life. They are not just filling students’ heads with facts, but also, preparing them for life, to be good and productive citizens of this borderless world. Regardless of social status, teachers imparted not just the value of living for the students themselves, but most importantly, the value of living for and with others. Truly, students are the lifeblood of teachers. Hence, they are also playing a pivotal role in the success of the teaching profession. If the teacher and the students uncap their mutual bind in the teaching-learning process, the dynamic exchange of ideas, experiences, and meaningful learning will surely be unfolded. Education is not just a task for the teachers, but for those students who shared responsibility in making it progressive. It is a collaborative effort; hence, teachers and students both benefited from it.

As a humanizer-teacher, it is good to witness how the seeds of hope you had planted in the hearts of your students started to grow, cultivate and reap by themselves. In this sense, your hardships as a teacher really paid off. This is the legacy of a teacher that will undoubtedly live forever and become part of someone’s history. Like what Henry Brooks Adams have said, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” Being a teacher is one of the good marks that a person could leave in this world. And doing this only requires the simplest thing to do with – being who you are – a humanized teacher.

            Kudos to all teachers!