Education: The Challenges Of The Cycle Of Education

Education is a process. It is a tedious process of educating not only the mind but the heart and soul as well. Behind this process are teachers who, themselves, are products of complex training and preparations in order to face the challenges of the cycles of teaching and learning for life. As Henry Adams said, “ a teacher affects eternity, he can never tell where his influence stops”. Teachers are the backbone of education. Without them, professionals of all levels are born. Teachers are great instruments to the formation of linguists, doctors, engineers, architects, nurses, technologists, physicists, and mathematicians among others. What come in between teachers and educational successes, however, are responsibilities (great responsibilities) and the demand for quality education and excellence. Responsible and highly qualified (and excellent) teachers are those that can produce equally responsible, excellent, and globally competitive graduates. In short, what the K-12 program envisions to produce. Teachers’ preparation to the huge tasks at hand necessitates professional development through attendance to seminars, workshops, symposia, and career advancement, among others. A mathematics teacher for fifteen years now, the researcher has also availed every possible way of these venues for professional development believing that these could result in more effective pedagogies and consequently effective learning. The researchers’ pursuit of this professional development,