Here is the official statement released by concerned faculty, in support of our two Math 5 colleagues.
We, the faculty members of the Philippine Science High School – Main Campus, express our full confidence in the competence and integrity of our fellow teachers, Ms. Dinah Lizza M. Gutierrez and Mr. Jose Manresa Enrico D. Español IV in the midst of unfounded denigrations, unfair criticisms, and unnecessary threats that are currently circulating through the Internet.
We stand as a community of responsible academicians and responsive citizens who recognize the two teachers’ capability and proficiency in the same way that we uphold the Pisay tradition of “kahusayan ng isip” and “kagalingan ng puso” which are expected to be lived out by each science scholar whose passion to effect meaningful change is continuously fuelled by taxpayers’ money despite the ongoing economic crisis.
Words are insufficient to concretize our collective sentiments emanating from a disabling form of woundedness brought about by misguided thoughts and inappropriate statements that challenge the very integrity of these two teachers. Parker J. Palmer (1998), author of the phenomenal book The Courage To Teach succinctly explains why humiliating and distrusting any teacher in whatever form is divisive, destructive, and ultimately, debilitating:
Teaching and learning are critical to our individual and collective survival and to the quality of our lives. The pace of change has us snarled in complexities, confusions and conflicts that will diminish us, or do us in, if we do not enlarge our capacity to teach and learn. At the same time, teacher-bashing has become a popular sport. Panic-stricken by the demands of our day, we need scapegoats for the problems we cannot solve and the sins we cannot bear.
Teachers make an easy target, for they are such common species and so powerless to strike back. We blame teachers for being unable to cure social ills that no one knows how to treat; we insist that they constantly adopt whatever “solution” has most recently been concocted by our national panacea machine; and in the process, we demoralize, even paralyze, the very teachers who could help us find our way.
In our rush to reform education, we have forgotten a simple truth: reform will never be achieved by renewing appropriations, restructuring schools, rewriting curricula, and revising texts if we continue to demean and dishearten the human resource called the teacher on whom so much depends. Teachers must be better compensated, freed from bureaucratic harassment, given a role in academic governance, and provided with the best possible methods and materials. But none of that will transform education if we fail to cherish – and challenge – the human heart that is the source of good teaching.
Ms. Gutierrez and Mr. Español, like any other Pisay teacher, became teachers for reasons of the heart, driven by a passion to unleash our students’ potentials through our subjects so they may better be equipped to help others in the end. Aspiring to be or to act like gods in our classrooms is alien to our repertoire of reasons why we are intent about being with our students essentially more than five days a week. We see in our students very promising scholars who deserve not to be tortured but to be nurtured, for in them, we see the fulfilment of our collective dreams geared towards social transformation anchored on a clear understanding of their self-worth. Every moment we spend planning and carrying out instruction that will help our students grow is anchored on principles of mentoring, not tormenting. We believe that by providing them meaningful challenges that are the result of our long years of professional training, we will be able to ignite in our students the power to search for the truth and to use it to lead better lives. We simply cannot afford to let them miss the chance to be comfortable with challenges – precisely because we know they are a cut above the rest.
Teaching remains to be a science but we have gone beyond techniques in teaching and have always been compassionate in the same way we believe that excellence should always bear a soul. In the end, we remain to be faithful servants of the iskolar ng bayan.
CONCERNED PSHS-MAIN CAMPUS FACULTY
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More power to the PSHS faculty! The bottom line is, do you have your student’s and peers respect? Ms. Gutierrez and Mr. Espanol clearly got the respect of their students and their fellow faculty and that is all that matters. I hope they will stay strong amidst these challenges that are coming their way.
Pipit (a parent)
i value greatly the efforts of pisay teachers who keep trying to make a difference.
sir, irepost ko po ito ha? 
It’s great that the Pisay faculty unite on this issue. While it is clear that the Admin and the BOT would rather safely ensure their own interest and not rock the so called ” system”, this faculty take the bull by its’ horn responsibly and with strong accountability. Kudos to you all.
The faculty, students, and parents must continue to sent a strong signal to the Admin and the BOT,supposedly primary movers of the school, to respect set rules and not bend just to accommodate a PTA president who after instigating action against the named math teachers started to vanish upon seeing his son’s own escape from failure and disciplinary action.
When my only child was a freshman in Pisay, there was a young Math teacher who caught the ire of most parents. The reason was because, the grades of the students are low. A lot of the parents complained. My husband and I on the other hand had a different take on the matter. We talked to our child and she told us that indeed the subject was difficult and the teacher had a lot of requirements. She too, was having a hard time. I remember very clearly the message we told her. We reminded her that entering Pisay was difficult but staying would be harder. We would not fight her battles, but as parents, we will be there to support her. The support would come in the form of additional reference materials, nutritious food and an arm to hug her when she feels so frustrated with the exam results. Never has it occured to us to berate the teacher or to lay full blame on the mentor. We told our child that in college, she would have to deal with more impossible requirements and expectation. We could have spoiled her for she is the only one but we opted to teach her to cope with what is the situation. We reminded her that she will be held accountable and responsible for her actions. There will be battles where she will win but there will be some that she will fail. I am thankful for that choice because it has made her a better student and surely setting a cornerstone for maturity.
Allowing our children to walk through pain, while walking with them is preparing them for what life may bring. There is lesson in defeat, there is pride and dignity in upholding truth and there are rules to follow.
To the faculty, thank you.
One can only teach when the student is willing to learn.
Education is a two-way process. Both the teacher and the student have to desire the same goal, which in Pisay’s case, should be academic excellence. If the teacher falls short, the goal is missed. If the student falls short, the goal is missed.
In this case I think the students fall a bit short of the mark.
The teachers are competent. In many cases the teachers are excellent. I’ve plucked answers to college questions from many an old Pisay lesson. The Pisay educators did their job, and did it well.
And as a mediocre former student, I’ve witnessed and experienced “falling short” firsthand. It happens a lot more than parents would like to believe (Maybe ’cause slacking off is a tad more fun than studying, you know).
To all those who believe the Pisay teachers failed the students metaphorically (’cause they did, literally), I say it’s more likely the students failed the teacher.
And by failing the teacher, they failed themselves.