THE SORTING

We see them everywhere: in the rooms of Palma Hall, in the corridors of the Faculty Center, even on the streets of UP, hustling and bustling, preoccupied with thoughts on their lectures while on their way to their next classes, lugging with them bundles of papers and books. Some of them may look sour, with their brows knitting and their mouths curled into a snarl, ready to bite anyone who provokes them with even the slightest mention of last week’s quizzes, or anything they deem negligible or unnecessary of note. There are also those who are timid and inconspicuous, just minding themselves while making their way to their next subjects, recognizing students’ greetings with an occasional nod here and there. Yet there are also those who flash mega-watt smiles, strutting towards their next room, acquainted with everyone they encounter along the corridors. They are not students like me; they are, in fact, men and women of profession who aid students in learning by sharing or imparting their own accumulated knowledge of the subject, at the same time creating an environment suitable for learning, and at most privileged enough to have been accepted to teach in the University of the Philippines.

They are our UP teachers.

But despite the binding trait of teaching in UP – which also sets them apart from all the other men and women in their profession – UP teachers vary in terms of many aspects, just as UP students are a mixture of different cultures and routines. These aspects include their personalities, whether they are of the serious, no-nonsense type or the more jovial, come-what-may personality; the approaches they use in teaching their crafts, be it through straight and serious lectures or with the use of funny jokes, interesting trivias, or stories; the teaching aides they use to assist them in their discussions, if they’d opt for state-of-the-art gadgets and gizmos like the popularly-growing PowerPoint presentations, or rather they’d use the traditional manila paper visual aids; the requirements they necessitate from their students during the semester, be it only a paper of two, an exam, a field trip, or even the entire lot; and the atmosphere their presence create in the room, be it an air of stifling silence filled with dread and bowed heads, or a cheery, good-humored ambiance, supplemented with a laugh or two.

Among the different classes of UP teachers, one of the most popular types is the “terror professors”, teachers who command silence and fear upon entering a room. Their mere presence in a room can cause dread and anxiety among the students of the class; strict, unforgiving, and intimidating, they exude an aura of tyranny & dictatorship. One example of this is a certain Law professor who scared the hell out of her students upon entering the classroom during the first day. She was said to be very intimidating despite her small stature, for with her physique comes a sharp tongue and knack for criticizing every small detail presented to her; she was even said to have called one student “bobo” when he forgot to introduce himself before a report.

Another classification of UP teachers is the “siesta” professors, teachers who are boring, just hearing their voice drone on and on can cause drowsiness upon students. Lethargic and wearisome, these professors can cause one’s eyelids to droop just by talking, or, in our case, doing a lecture; they can make even the most exciting topics bland and lifeless. One such teacher is a Creative Writing 10 professor who causes students to have forty winks in her attempt to teach the subject, murmuring on and on the exact words on the book she uses as reference; even just her mere presence commands a yawn.

Then there are the “over-the-top” professors, teachers who exaggerate so much on the minor subjects they teach, one would think the subject they are teaching is a major, not a GE. Also known as “frustrated major professors”, this type of teachers treat their minor subjects with so much importance that it would make one think that failing the said subject would mean the end of one’s course; they cause even the easiest types of subjects to be so complicated. One such example is a Geography 1 professor who required his students to take a class field trip, make an audio-visual presentation about the trip, do group reports, make 4 activity papers, & take 3 exams, all for a simple and not that important subject.

Another famous category of UP teachers is the lax or “too uncaring” professors, teachers who don’t give a care what becomes of their students, just as long as they have done what is expected of them. They couldn’t care less if their students learned anything from the subject or not, or whether their students attend their classes at all; all that matters to them is that they have done their job of teaching the subject, and therefore expect something in return. One of these teachers is a particular Math 1 professor who had some of his students, who wanted to take his finals because their grades were mediocre (but still passing), try to contact him for almost a week, but all in vain. They then found out he didn’t expect his students to want to take his finals since all of them passed, and didn’t bother informing those with low grades whether they’d like to pull their grades up or not.

Lastly, we have the class favorites or “darling professors” of the class, teachers who are favored by all the students of all the subjects they teach. Favored by the students who had taken up any of their classes, these teachers are popular among the majority of the student population; they are the ones that get recommended by the upperclassmen to the freshmen, and whose names are flooded by slot demands in the CRS. A Kasaysayan 1 professor who is said to be very good with the subject and teaches effectively has had his name in the CRS flooded with demands for his class exceeding his available slots to almost a tenfold; upperclassmen say that he is one of the few professors who are very easy to relate to and approach, & at the same time very experienced in the craft.

Nevertheless, despite all these classifications, one thing remains the same amidst the sorting of UP teachers: that they are the cream of the crop, and that they are the best of their profession. This thing is what separates them from all the other teachers in the country. Of course, UP professors would be the best amongst the rest, for if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be teaching in UP in the first place, right?