Filipino Teachers

American Public School System in the Philippines

American school teacher in his classroom possibly taken in 1901
Moro School, Zamboanga, Mindanao, P.I.

In 1901, the United States of America established a public school system to be implemented throughout the entire Philippine archipelago.

They shipped in American teachers and dispersed them to the different provinces that make up the Philippine Islands. These teachers taught Filipino students the same curriculum as in the U.S., in the English language. The teachers came by way of a US Army Transport boat called "Thomas", the first batch came August 1901. Hence, these teachers got the nickname "Thomasites".

By 1903, Americans started sending selected Filipino students to the United States to actually study in U.S. high schools, colleges and universities. This practice lasted until the start of World War 2.

All if not most of these students came back to the Philippines with their diplomas and all the learning and the experience they received in the U.S. mainland. And some of them became the country's next teachers and educators themselves.

100 Years Later

Fast forward to 1999, numerous U.S. school districts in major cities in many states are having problems with the hiring of qualified teachers, some with having no applicants at all.

It got from bad to worse and school districts had to  "import" teachers from a handful of countries. And you guessed it, many came from the Philippines -- talk about coming full circle.

Export: Teachers

The teaching profession have always flourished in the Philippines since the post war era. We can say the same thing about professions involving accounting and its allied courses, nursing and other health careers, care giving, domestic work and related fields, sea faring, blue collar,skilled and entertainment jobs as well as call center, business processing and IT consulting -- which basically make up the bulk of Filipino workers who are being contracted to work overseas.

The Learning

In 2011 PBS aired a documentary titled "The Learning". This was about the face of this imported teachers phenomenon and it followed the story of four Filipino teachers who left their careers and their families to teach in Baltimore, Maryland.

What the casual reader might be missing here is that even though these teachers might be receiving salaries which are 10 times more than what they would receive in the Philippines (which is probably the only reason why they would be doing this in the first place), is that they were sacrificing a lot by leaving their careers, their pensions, their homes and their families to travel and live half-way around the world. And to come teach children in a country where they couldn't find anybody local to do it themselves.

Filipino students protesting the lost of their teachers

Sacrifices

This is very similar to the sacrifices the "Thomasites" had to go through when they sailed from the United States in the early 1900's, leaving their American lives, their comfortable homes and their friends and families to teach people in another country where everything is very much different from what they were used to.

This old saying is is true, you reap what you sow.

Today Filipino teachers are repaying those brave, naive and idealistic American teachers who taught their grandparents by going to the U.S. and teaching their grand children.

And they themselves are enduring sacrifices which those American teachers had to go through.

Respect

To these pioneering teachers, we salute you for your service and for helping educate the next generation of people who will come after us.

Many Filipino teachers across the U.S. right now have been receiving awards and recognition and they are proving that they deserve to be teaching American school children today and for years to come.

Award Winning Filipino Teacher in New York

A Filipina Teacher is the Top Teacher in California

News Links:

Arizona Teacher Shortage Forces Schools to Go International

In Attempt To Lure New Teachers California Pulls Out All The Stops

Bringing in Educators from the Philippines is Helping Some Cities Solve their Hiring Problems

Recruiters are Tapping the Philippines to Help Fill a Void in American Classrooms

Vietnam Hires Filipino Teachers Despite Concerns

The World's "Budget English Teacher" found in the Philippines, BBC News

Poem written by E. Schneider (an American teacher)  while he was on the first boat to the Philippine Islands in 1901

TO THE PHILIPPINE TEACHERS

O'er boundless seas and to a foreign land 

A chosen and devoted band you go; 

And those of you upon whose heads the snow 
Of age has fallen labor hand in hand 
With those who still in youth's prime vigor stand 

The selfsame task to carry out, to sow 

The seeds of truth and culture; and you know 
This is a noble duty, wisely planned. 

So let no fear of failure fill your hearts, 

Or dash your courage, or your spirits grieve; 
And let no petty doubts becloud your brain, 
Remember, while you try to do your parts, 
That, if one single spark of light you leave 
Behind, your work will not have been in vain. 

E. E. Schneider. 


May our Filipino teachers abroad be guided with the same sentiments.


Philippine Trivia

The First English Public School Teacher Was A Filipina, Not A Thomasite


Photo Credits:
George Percival Scriven, library.duke.edu
JHU, gmanetwork.com/news