Educ 2 & 3 (The Teaching Profession) Lesson 5: Teaching As Your Vocation, Mission and Profession
Educ 2 & 3 (The Teaching Profession) Lesson 5: Teaching As Your Vocation, Mission and Profession
“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who
touched our human feelings….
- Carl Jung -
Vocation comes from the latin word “vocare” which means to call. Based on the
etymology of the word, vocation, therefore means a call. If there is a call, there must be a caller
and someone who is called. There must also be a response. For Christians, the caller is God
Himself. For our brother and sister Muslims, Allah. Believers in the Supreme being will look at
this voiceless call to have a vertical dimension. For non-believers, the call is also experienced but
this may viewed solely along a horizontal dimension. It is like a man calling another man, never
a Superior being calling man.
Perhaps you never dreamt to become a teacher! But here you are now preparing to
become one! How did it happen? From the eyes of those who believe, it was God who called you
here for you teach, just as God called Abraham, Moses, and Mary, of the Bible. Like you, these
biblical figures did not also understand the events surrounding their call. But in their great faith,
they answer YES.
The fact that you are now in the College of Teacher Education signifies that you positively
responded to the call to teach. Right? May this YES response remain a YES and become even
firmer through the years. Can you believe it? Better believe it!
Teaching is also a mission. The word mission comes from the Latin word “misio which
means “to send”. You are called to be a teacher and you are sent into the world to accomplish a
mission, to teach. The Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines mission as “task assigned”.
You are sent to accomplish an assigned task.
Teaching is your mission means it is the task entrusted to you in this world. If it is your
assigned task then naturally you’ve got to prepare yourself for it. From now on you cannot take
your studies for granted! Your four years of pre-service preparation will equip you with the
knowledge, skills and attitude to become an effective teacher. However never commit mistake of
culminating your mission preparation at the end of the four-year pre-service education. You have
embarked in a mission that calls for a continuing professional education. As the saying goes
“once a teacher, forever a student.”
Flowing from your uniqueness, you are expected to contribute to the betterment of this world
in your own unique way. Your unique and most significant contribution to the humanization of
life on earth is in the field where you are prepared for – teaching. To teach is to influence every
child/learner entrusted in your care to become better and happier because life becomes more
meaningful. To teach is to help the child/learner become more human.
Teaching like engineering, nursing, accounting and the like is a profession. A teacher, like an
engineer, a nurse and an accountant, is a professional. What are the distinguishing marks of a
professional teacher? Former Chairperson of the Professional Regulation Commission, Hon.
Hermogenes P. Pobre in his pithy address in a national convention of educators remarked: “The
term professional is one of the most exalted in the English language, denoting as it does, long
and arduous years of preparation, a striving for excellence, a dedication to the public interest, and
commitment to moral and ethical values.”
Why does a profession require “long and arduous years of preparation” and “a striving for
excellence”? Because the end goal of a profession is service and as we have heard many times
“we cannot give what we do not have.” We can give more if we have more. His Holiness Pope
Paul VI affirmed this thought when he said: “Do more, have more in order to be more!” For us to
be able to give more, continuing professional education is a must. For us teachers, continuing
professional education is explicit in our professionalization law and our Code of Professional
Ethics.
Our service to the public as a professional turns out to be dedicated and committed only
when our moral, ethical and religious convictions inspire us to embrace continuing professional
education.
If you take teaching as your profession, this means that you must be willing to go through a
long period of preparation and a continuing professional development. You must strive for
excellence, commit yourself to moral, ethical and religious values and dedicate yourself to public
service.
The “striving for excellence” as another element of a profession brings us to our “pwede na”
mentality, which is inimical to excellence. If we stick to this complacent mentality, excellence
eludes us. In the world of work whether here or abroad only the best and the brightest make it.
The mortality rate in the Licensure Examination for Teachers for the past ten years is a glaring
evidence that excellence is very much wanting of our teacher graduates. If we remain true to our
calling and mission as a professional teacher. We have no choice but to take the endless and the
“less traveled road” to excellence.
Want to give your life a meaning? Want to live a purpose-driven life? Spend it passionately
in teaching, the most noble profession. According to Dr. Josette T. Biyo, the first Asian teacher
to win the Intel Excellence in Teaching Award in an international competition and she said in her
speech delivered before a selected group of teachers, superintendents, DepEd officials and
consultants, to wit: “Teaching may not be a lucrative position. It cannot guarantee financial
security. It even means investing your personal time, energy, and resources. Sometimes it means
disappointments, heartaches, and pains. But touching the hearts of people and opening the
minds of children can give you joy and contentment which money could not buy. These are the
moments I teach for. These are the moments I live for”.
Jenesa Mae J. Yaco BSED II-MATH
Synapse Strengtheners
allowing yourself to give your 100% to your learners. Even not all the student
appreciate it as long as it will touch the learners heart in order for them to realize in the
future that what their teacher has taught them has a big part of their lives someday. It
doesn't need to be repayed by the students as long as you're teaching with love even
without expecting anything. Teaching doesn't not need praising by other people. It is
important that you are committed and faithful.
Dear Teacher:
So I am suspicious of education.
Answer:
1. Yes, it makes a difference if the teacher will only take his career as a profession
and their is no vocation and mission. Because the teacher will only impart to
himself and herself that it is only a job and their is no devotion in his or her
teaching it will not matter to himself or herself if the learners learn or not.
2. The mission of the private school principal is to voice out his or her experience
to other teachers and allow the teacher to teach their learners to be human
because mostly of the professional people committed sins that out of morality.
3. Read Conrado de Quiros of the Philippine Daily Inquirer once wrote: “Being world-
class does not mean doing internationally and showing our best out there. Being
world-class is passion and commitment to our profession; being world-class is giving
our best to teaching. Being world-class starts right inside the classroom.” Write what
you resolve to START doing and STOP doing NOW as you embrace teaching as your
vocation, mission and profession.
START DOING
STOP DOING
4. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the
changing fortunes of time, says Desiderata. How can you keep your interest in your own
career? Write your reflections.