A Message to History Teachers

.Once there was a soldier who was reprimanded by his officer for playing cards inside the church during the mass. The soldier explained : “Sir, I was not playing cards; I was reading the bible. You see, Sir, when I look at the ace , I am reminded that there is but one God, the maker of heaven and earth. When I see the two, I think of the bible which is divided into two , the old and the new testament. When I see the three, I remember the Divine Trinity; the God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The four reminds me of the four evangelists; Mark, Luke Mathew and John. The five reminds me of the five wise women who trimmed their lambs, and the six reminds me that God created man on the sixth day. When I see seven, I remember that God rested from His great work. The eight reminds me of the eight righteous that God spared when He destroyed the earth; they were Noah and his family. The nine reminds me of the lepers that God cleansed, Nine out of ten didn’t thank Him. The ten reminds me of the ten commandments that God passed on to Moses. The king reminds me of the King of heaven and earth, the God Almighty. when I see the queen, I remember the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Angels and Saints. The Jack of Knave reminds me of the devil....” and so, the soldier continued narrating until he finished shuffling the deck of cards. (My apologies to T. Texas Tyler for his “Deck of Cards “, narrated by Wink Martin Dale )

Ladies and gentlemen, believe it or not, I have not read the bible; but I know the contents of it. This is because since I was five years old my grandmother who was a daily communicant took me along with her to the church to hear mass every morning .She made me kneel beside her until the mass was over. I did not understand the masses because they were said in Latin ,but my interest was caught by the part where the priest would say,”Sadto nga panahon,...” and would end it by saying,...”Amo ini ang ebanghelyo sa karon nga adlaw.”As the years went by, I observed that the priest read the same “ebanghelyo” on the same day of each year. I discovered that the “ebanghelyos” I heard for the whole year were what the entire bible is all about. I realized that the bible is a history book on which were written not only the past but also the present and future of mankind.

When I became a teacher, I taught history. I noted that the pupils hate, dislike, or were afraid of this subject. They regard it as boring, useless and very difficult, as evidenced by what a Graduation guest speaker who was my former pupil said: “Nagahiribi ako kang saulo. Nagakurudog ako kon magsulod ron si Ma’am sa classroom ay manukso ron kanamon it isa-isa.” Hearing this, I felt very sorry for forcing my pupils to digest what they have not swallowed. In my desperate desire to make my pupils learn history the easy way, I meditated, contemplated and reflected. My wandering mind stumbled upon the life of the Greatest Teacher in the world Whose teachings by means of parables spread throughout the world through all ages. So I gave up the inductive, deductive, dogmatic, rote memory, spoon feeding and all other methods of teaching I learned in the service. I returned to the biblical way of teaching which is story -telling by means of parables. I saw that it was good as proven by the weakest boy in my class when he gave me an answer I never expected of him. I asked where he learned the idea. Looking down but smiling shyly, he answered,”Ikaw man nagkuon kara; gin-istorya mo kanamon.”I was shocked with the realization that the stories I tell I may forget but in the minds of the children, they are kept .Since then, I became very cautious in teaching history. I did tremendous research before saying or writing anything. I saw to it that the children will value history and learn it with pleasure and assurance that they are not being misled. I bound myself under the pain of mortal sin to teach history with veracity and never twist, distort or invent it because to teach a wrong fact is a crime. According to my cousin who is a writer, a bullet can kill only one person, but a wrong information or idea can kill or wreck a multitude of minds and lives.