A Teacher’s exodus
A lot has been said about the influx of Filipino teachers abroad. In the past year alone, more than 100 teachers were hired by the Baltimore City School System in an effort to supply much needed educators in the inner cities.
Hiring foreign teachers is a phenomenon that has swept the United States as school systems struggle to meet the federal No Child Left Behind Act’s requirement of “highly qualified” teachers in every classroom. Critics say schools should instead fix the classroom conditions that make it hard to attract and retain American teachers, but urban systems aren’t having much success in meeting that goal.
The Philippines, which has long supplied the United States with nurses, has emerged as a recruitment hub, because of its surplus of education majors and its English-speaking population.
I’m know some of the teachers; we fellowship with them every now and then in church. One of them is Eileen Mercado, who left her family back home for a chance at a better life to teach tough kids at one of the city’s most dangerous schools. For one whole year her life was chronicled by Baltimore Sun, observing her in school, at home, in church, at the prayer meetings. She had learn creative ways of teaching the special students assigned to her as an “inclusion” teacher. She aids children with disabilities working alongside their nondisabled peers and a general education teacher. More so, she had to cope with undisciplined students who really only want to be accepted, and yet need not just love, but tougher love .
It’s the beginning of language arts class, and Eileen has asked a boy to help her pass out notebooks. He sets a stack down on the desk of another boy, who pushes them off. It’s unclear who pushes whom first, but within a few seconds, the boys are punching, swinging, wrestling. As Mercado stands speechless and the language arts teacher yells, other children pull them apart.
With no one hurt, teacher Eileen remains calm and compassionate as she walks the boys to the office, two girls holding one of them back to prevent him from attacking again. Though she never saw a fight at her private school for special needs children in the Philippines, Eileen knows from other Filipino teachers that they are common at other Baltimore schools.
“Is this a bad day?” she asks as she sits down next to one boy, gently touching his arm. She tells both to “try to relax and think of what you could have done instead of hitting each other.”
Eileen starts writing the boys up for suspension, but another school official lets them go back to class.
Later that class period, someone opens a fire door and, as an alarm sounds, Mercado chases a pupil who runs out of class and down the hallway.
At a prayer service with other Filipino teachers that night, Mercado offers an assessment of the differences between their style and that of their American colleagues: “We like to love. They’re better with discipline.” In the Philippines, teachers are revered and respected by their pupils.
But her story is not unique. All the teachers share the similar if not difficult experiences of adjusting to life away from family, teaching in schools with students who would tend to ridicule them for their accent. They all share a common story of survival and triumph .
During a year filled with daily frustrations and triumphs, culture shock and homesickness, the Filipino teachers turned to each other. Mercado was the elected leader of the group, organizing weekly Bible study sessions and prayer meetings.
In the teachers’ personal lives, a lot happened in a year. Three couples in the group fell in love, with one marrying at Baltimore City Hall. One teacher spent six weeks in the hospital before giving birth to a premature baby. One was unable to return home for her mother’s funeral. Eileen Mercado’s roommate nearly died of pneumonia.
Teacher Eileen saw her family on a Web camera almost daily, but her absence clearly took a toll on her children, particularly 3-year-old Adrienne, who started crying a lot and throwing tantrums. Earlier this month, when Mercado told her over the phone she’d be home soon, Adrienne ran outside and looked to the sky for her plane. She sobbed when she learned her mother wasn’t coming that day.
Last week when the school was out for the summer, most of the teachers took their much-needed break as well and went home to the Philippines. They will come back this August to fulfill the second year of their three-year contracts. This time, I think it won’t be as difficult for them since their families will be coming over to stay.
To teacher Eileen and the rest of the Baltimore City teachers, we salute you for a job well done. I’m proud to call you “teacher”, and prouder to call you my fellowmen.
[Source: Baltimore Sun]
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POSTED IN: People
June 23rd, 2006 at 4:07 am
This is a very insightful and inspiring story. I have heard of the No Child Left Behind Act and it is indeed drawing a lot of Filipino teachers to the US. What Ms. Mercado also said is true, that Filipino teachers are more used to respect and are better at giving love to their students.
June 23rd, 2006 at 8:22 am
When I first started hearing about the Baltimore teachers experiences with their students, it was quite shocking. But they’re tough, our kababayans, and most of their students started to respect and really love them. I’ll post more of their stories as they start coming back from vacation. Best we can do is support our teachers.
August 17th, 2006 at 9:52 am
[…] That is really something that confronts and affects almost every Filipino. Last year in Maryland USA alone, more than 100 teachers were hired from the Philippines to teach the inner city Baltimore schools, and I told the story of one of them. I can only guess how many more were hired in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and other cities in the US. This year in Baltimore, many more Filipino teachers were hired, and the old set of pinoy teachers brought their families with them. I hear this comment a lot from fellow Filipinos, “paano na lang ang bansa natin?! naubusan na tayo ng teachers!” (what will happen to the Philippines now, if all these teachers leave the country?” […]
December 19th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
[…] My aunt’s story is just one of many by Filipino nurses. As with the teachers’ exodus, nurses and other OFWs leave the country to seek a better life for themselves and their families. Of the 100,791 foreign-educated RNs, 50.2 per cent came from the Philippines. But instead of just looking at statistics, the story about Maricris reminded me that every number is a story waiting to be told. […]
June 22nd, 2007 at 3:47 am
These people are mercenaries. If they are so skillful why is their economy failing? They come to this country and relocate in predominantly African-American schools; but their social life and all other activities are outside of the African- American community. Let them stay at home or go to predominantly caucasians schools
July 20th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Hi there. I am a Music teacher here in the Philipines. I have been teaching for 10 years already and I think it’s my high time to find a job in the United States. I hope this forum could help me reach the filipino teachers in America so that i will be guided in reaching my dream to go to the states and land in a teaching job. I hope u could give me pointers. thanks, i would love to hear from you.