VIRIDITAS: SOUL GREENING
In the beginning, when Mother (my superior general) asked me to take up studies in elementary education at St. Augustine College, I disobeyed her and enrolled in high school education instead. I was only a temporary professed sister then. When I got home, I told her that I was sorry, and that I had enrolled in high school education instead. When she asked me, “Why?” I said, “Mother, I don’t know how to sing or dance.” I heard from other elementary school teachers that you need to know how to sing and dance. I couldn’t do either. So in my mind, I was really hesitant to go into elementary school education.
My first teaching assignment after graduation was at St. Jerome School in Duenas. I was placed in the elementary school rather than in the high school. However, I learned to love it. At the end of the school year I could see the progress the students made and I was so happy to see that they had learned.
My next assignment was at St. Joseph Academy in Bugasong. I asked my principal if she could assign me to “section A,” the advanced class, the smarter students. She asked me, “Who will take care of the last section if I assign you to the first?” These students came from the barrios and it was their first year in a private school. It was a struggle to figure out how to help them learn, but I felt fulfilled and happy after. By the end of the school year you could really see their progress.
Later, when I was told that I would be assigned to Hawaii, I told Mother that I did not know how to teach elementary school and thus did not want to go. She said, “You can always come back if you don’t fit.” At Rosary Preschool, I had good mentors that I observed. Through them I gained the courage to say, “I can do it.” There was one boy for example, that kept running away from me. I tried different ways to gain his trust and get him to like school. Preschoolers, if they don’t like you, they run away. They bother others and take others’ toys. I learned that you have to be patient in dealing with them.
Whenever I am having a hard time, I try to tell myself inside, “Control yourself. Be patient.” Then, in the evening when I am by myself, I make an examination of the day as to how things went, and look at how to handle things better the next day. I also always pray (to our foundress, Mother Rosario Arroyo), “Mother Sayong, if you want me to stay here in Hawaii, you need to help me in this ministry.”
I have learned to love the little ones. It is my love and my dedication to my ministry that has kept me going as a preschool teacher for now 22 years.
Sister Merle Lebaquin is a Dominican Sister of the Most Holy Rosary of the Philippines. She has been professed 34 years. She resides at the Dominican Center Hawaii in Waipio Gentry, Oahu and teaches at the adjacent Rosary Preschool.
