My dehydrated and miserable classmates

I often bump into my classmates doing their practice teaching at the elementary school where I graduated. During the first weeks, they were energetic and they still look fresh and enthusiastic. After a few weeks, I saw them again and I was surprised at the deterioration. One kept asking. “Kuya George, am I still beautiful.” Of course they are all beautiful but they looked stressed, dehydrated and miserable. They told me that their cooperating teacher was being mean to them. This is the problem with practice teaching in most public schools—some cooperating teachers get back at the student teachers for the way they were treated by their former cooperating teachers.

Some cooperating teachers treat their student teachers contemptuously because they know that student teachers have no way of getting back at them. For some say this treatment is good because it builds the character of the student teachers, the thinking is like that of fraternity hazing. But in reality, like fraternity hazing that breed violence, these “violence” done against student teachers begets “violence.” It becomes a cycle. And somehow, in some way this cycle trickled down to the students and pupils.

I pity my classmates but there’s nothing that could be done about it unless the DepED sees this as a real problem and formulate solutions for it.

I have my problems with student teaching too, but not from my cooperating teacher, and definitely not from the school, what is giving me problem is my waking up in the morning and sleeping late at night. My gulay, I am a night person and waking up early is the most difficult thing for me to do!

I am hoping to find a night elementary school where I could work at my convenience, but then again, who would I be teaching? Grade school Vampires!

But then again, that could be fun…