Teacher’s best lesson may be his own story

TACLOBAN CITY—Before becoming a teacher, Rodel Peñaranda knew what it meant to go to school with barely enough money for the week—and sometimes with nothing but coffee in his stomach.

Now 48 and 15 years into his teaching career, Peñaranda uses his own experience to encourage students at Calingcaguing National High School in Barugo, Leyte, to persevere, telling them that poverty may shape where they begin but does not have to define where they end.

The fourth of nine siblings, Peñaranda grew up in a family that struggled to make ends meet. His father was a farm laborer and his mother a homemaker.

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After finishing high school in 1995, he went to Manila to work, taking jobs as a construction worker and bottle washer at a burger establishment.

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In 1996, he was elected Sangguniang Kabataan (SK or youth council) chair, which later gave him access to a tuition scholarship at the Palompon Institute of Technology. He enrolled in marine transportation but managed to complete only one semester because his family could no longer support his schooling.

His SK honorarium often went to his mother for food. He recalls having only P150 to P200 a week for his own expenses, sometimes relying on boarding-house companions for meals and attending Reserve Officers’ Training Corps or ROTC with only coffee in his stomach.

In 2000, he got another chance to study, enrolling in a Bachelor of Science in Education major in Aquaculture at Eastern Visayas State University’s Carigara campus. He continued under a scholarship and later won a barangay council seat, which helped him finish his degree in 2004.

Graduation did not immediately lead to a teaching job.

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Odd jobs

Peñaranda worked as a construction worker and later as a security guard in Tacloban City. During night shifts, he studied for the Licensure Examination for Teachers using a borrowed reviewer.

When the 2007 results were released, he initially thought he had failed after not seeing his name on the list at an internet café.

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He went home and worked in a rice field, only to receive messages from friends congratulating him. He rushed back to the internet café and checked again.

His name was there. He had passed.

While waiting for a teaching opportunity, Peñaranda worked for two years at the Oroquieta Community Cooperative and Credit Institution, eventually becoming a loan head.

In 2011, a teaching position opened at Calingcaguing National High School, the same school where he had studied. Former teachers recommended him.

He accepted the job and began teaching TLE (technology and livelihood education) computer basics after undergoing training at AMA College.

Today, he teaches Grades 9 and 10 and serves as the school and district ICT (Information and Communications Technology) coordinator for Barugo 2, assisting teachers and school heads with technology-related concerns.

Teaching was not his original career plan, but Peñaranda said he believes it was God’s calling.

“In God’s guidance, I have no regrets,” he told the Inquirer. “I am happy not only to teach my learners, but also to assist teachers and school heads through ICT.”

Weapon against poverty

His own struggles have also shaped the way he treats his students. When he sees a child who needs food, he gives what he can. When he sees students walking to and from school, he gives them a ride whenever possible.

More than anything, he wants his students to finish school.

He often tells them that education is one of the best weapons against poverty—a lesson he learned through experience.

“It’s not your fault that you were born poor or that you are struggling,” he tells his students. “But it would be your fault if you remained struggling until you grow old and die.”

For Peñaranda, the message is not about blaming those who are poor, but encouraging young people to work toward changing their circumstances.

He credits his mother, siblings, wife, and children for supporting him through the difficult years. His father, however, did not live long enough to see what his children eventually achieved.

Peñaranda said his family is not rich, but they are no longer living through the hardship they once knew.

The boy who once struggled to find enough money to stay in school is now a teacher telling struggling children that education can open a different future for them.

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After 15 years in the classroom, Peñaranda continues to teach through lessons, technology, and, perhaps most importantly, the life he has lived. INQ