| | | | | A Poem: Thank You to My Teachers | | | | |
22 SangSaeng Spring 2006
Thank You to My Teachers
By Corazon Alma G. de Leon
Thank you Sister Clemencia For teaching me the meaning of self confidence Through the poems I recited in class Through the opportunity to emcee programs At the tender age of seven. Thank you Sister Scholastica For teaching me the meaning of frugality By explaining what forced savings really are For teaching me what fairness and justice mean When through a surprise examination You decided who is best among the best. Thank you Ms. Monica del Rosario For teaching me the meaning of peer learning For breathing life to Christ’s gentle reminder: “ To love one’s neighbor as we love ourselves” For showing me how to lead and to nurture the will to win. Thank you Sister Carmen Eser For your creative way of helping me Make new friends in a new and strange school By appointing me the class librarian For reaching out to me before your death After all these years. Thank you Sister Rita Anne For teaching me and preparing me To the life-long profession of Social Work For showing me the way through social action Eventually to deserve the Mother Mary Joseph Award for school spirit. Thank you Professor Luz Alabastro Einsidel For walking me through the value of community participation towards sustainable development For actually living the precept of volunteerism Thank you for caring and sharing yourself and your family To us, your then fledging students. Now that you are home, let me return the favor Allow me to show you in my own way How the seed you planted years ago Nurtured, pruned and prodded Has blossomed to further share with others What I have learned from you all along the way Thank you to the St. Josephs in my life People who have touched me and helped me People who have shared their lives with me You are all my teachers in the classroom of life To all of you… thank you!
Corazon Alma G. de Leon
Ms. Corazon Alma G. de Leon, former Chair of the Civil Service Commission and former Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, joined the Philippine government in April 1966 and left it in February 2001. An advocate of social development, she is involved with a number of non-governmental organizations, internationally, regionally, nationally and at the community level, which enables her to travel to all parts of the world and to write about her insights.
Spring 2006 SangSaeng 23