Two thousand and eight years, three months and twelve days after, the perfect professionalism and spirituality have emaciated gradually… and painfully.

Your workplace is your academe… my workplace is my academe. However, what makes an academe different from any other workplace on earth?

The ingredient of professionalism and spirituality characterizes and makes an academe extraordinary as compared with other institutions.

What is Professionalism?

First, let us dwell on the meaning of professionalism. Professionalism stems from the root word profess which means to declare openly, to avow or to affirm in public. Professionalism in the academe, therefore, is to publicly announce and declare that the goal of the academe, your goal, my goal, our goal is to ensure a path for learners and students in general to trek towards their own future.

What is the Greatest Misconception about Professionalism?

It is probably the notion that professionalism is all about money.

Like money, many people believe that credentials – such as diploma, degrees and specialized certifications – contribute to professionalism. But while credentials can help, they do not mean much if a worker did not know how to act.

What Makes a Professional?

So what makes a professional? Money, training, and status aside, many long-time workers and managers will tell us that professionalism is a matter of attitude and behavior. It means not just knowing how to do our job, but also demonstrating a willingness to learn, cooperating and getting along well with others, showing respect, and living up to your commitments. It also means avoiding many kinds of behaviors that cause trouble in our institution.

What Makes an Academe Unique?

This leads us to the other concept of what makes an academe unique. It is because of spirituality. Dr. Paul Wong of the Trinity Western University in Canada comments that “Spirituality overlaps with religion with respect to belief in the mystical, transcendental reality, and affirmation of meaning and purpose in the midst of suffering and death. But spirituality does not need to be confined within the structure of any organized religion or a particular set of religious beliefs. In short, spirituality is more inclusive than any faith traditions.”

Spirituality, in this case, should not be used to as religious garment or a marketing tool. It is concerned with substance rather than image. More specifically, it has to do with how we define ourselves, view the world, relate to others, and make ethical/moral decisions.

How, therefore, shall we reconcile spirituality with professionalism in the academic institution?

“Live truth instead of professing it.”In other words, “Profess truth by living in truth.”

Let me share with you a famous anecdote to emphasize my point on spirituality and living in truth.

A carpenter had a brother who was a famous musician. When his brother came to visit the construction company where he worked, the foreman said “ You must be very proud to have a brother who is known around the world for his music.” Of course, not everyone in the family can enjoy an equal amount of talent. The carpenter responded, “You’re right. My brother does not know the first thing about building a home. It is fortunate he could afford to hire others to build a house for him.” The musician-brother nodded in agreement and added. “My brother and I work with our hands. I hold a musical instrument in mine and he holds a hammer in his.”

Not everyone is called to build and be a carpenter of a house. In addition, not everyone is called to teach and build a life. In this sense, the academe is a profession that holds an instrument to build a life.

What is the Status of the Philippine Educational System?

The Philippine academe is purportedly to build a nation. However, the Philippine educational setting has been replete with scandals, with misconduct, with unethical values. Newspapers, television programs and other media report of school principals sexually harassing students. Teachers bang the heads of students and pupils against the wall. Quality of education has been deteriorating as reported by researchers and surveys.

Recently, the world has been shocked with the leakage in the 2006 Nursing Board Examination. The grave dishonesty committed even by some review centers in the Philippines has died down the admiration of foreign countries that had been the market of our nurses. Parents and the community have shown their distrust and mistrust in the teaching professionals. Now, there is a negative stigma in the Philippine academe.

Where Lies the Filipino teacher?

What is happening? After Two thousand and eight years, three months and twelve days, where is the teacher of the Philippines?

Julius Caesar once said: “Give me all the teachers of Russia, and I will give you Russia.” Shall we also say “Give me all the teachers of the Philippines, and I will give you the Philippines”?

But What Kind of Philippines Can we Offer the Present Generation?

It is in this context, and on these times of the Philippines that a new set of professionalism and a new form of spirituality are needed in the academe. So that we can say that two thousand and eight years, three months and twelve days after the death of the greatest teacher Jesus Christ, today can we see a better vision of the path towards a better future for the Philippines.

Today is the best time to start becoming honest, committed, dignified, morally upright, academically excellent, and loving of humankind.

Spirituality is righteousness. Professionalism is living in righteousness.

The award-winning author Alvin Toffler writes about and describes the 21st Century worker in his book The Third Wave as:

In the second wave era, employers wanted workers who were obedient, punctual and willing to perform rote tasks. As the third wave cuts across the society, what academic employers increasingly need, therefore, are men and women who accept responsibility and who are sensitively tuned in to the people around them”.

Alvin Toffler adds: “If we begin now, we and our children can take part in the exciting reconstitution not merely of our political structures, but of civilization itself. Like the generation of the revolutionary dead… we have a destiny to create.

Hence, it is our increased professionalism and spirituality that the success of our destiny to create will depend.

Two thousand and eight years, three months and twelve days after His death, today… we begin the preaching of the greatest teacher in the world.