The expected, and the unexpected

Today I received 2 emails from Mr. Ricky Pilar, the teacher of the students whose OpMan paper contained plagiarized material that I detected (go 3 posts back for details). One was a forwarded letter of apology from the student who had copy-pasted the chunks of text. He sounded sincerely contrite, and absolved his groupmates of any wrongdoing, admitting he was solely responsible for the parts that were lifted verbatim from online sources. The second email was from Mr. Pilar himself, explaining what steps the JGSOM faculty had taken in investigating the case, and their final decision to have the group rewrite and resubmit the paper, with a grade deduction for the errant group member. I already figured a disciplinary case wouldn't be filed (but, call me evil, it was gratifying to read the student's pleas that he not be expelled), and I found this final sanction satisfactorily fair.

In his email, Mr. Pilar also thanked me for having been so thorough and vigilant. He went on to say that during a meeting with the Chair and other teachers of the QMIT Department, Sir Mike Tan was commended for having invited me as a panelist for the OpMan defense (Sir owes me those pogi points :p), and it was proposed that I be invited again for future defenses (Zephyrz and Fyrinx beware, haha).

Then came something that took me completely by surprise. The department Chair, Mr. Tanchoco, actually issued an invitation for me to join the JGSOM faculty, to teach either OpMan or Stat. Reading that part of Mr. Pilar's email, I was flabbergasted. Sure, I've entertained notions of teaching in the SOM, but I never foresaw that I'd be invited. And I never thought it would be my lifelong anti-plagiarism crusade that would get me that invitation, from the QMIT Department Chair himself. The egomaniac in me felt flattered, and the Atenean in me felt honored. But of course I had to turn down the invitation. As I wrote in my reply to Mr. Pilar: "... as much as it would be my privilege to serve my beloved alma mater as a teacher, I'm afraid OpMan and Stat are both outside my field of teaching expertise. These are 2 technical subjects which I managed to pass only because I had a very patient teacher... and very competent groupmates besides." I closed by telling Mr. Pilar that in the meantime, I will be more than happy to render my panelist services to them every semester.

I confess that the out-of-the-blue teaching job offer was mighty tempting, my weak computation skills be damned. I had sudden visions of me strolling through the Ateneo campus, OpMan books cradled in my arms, heading for my class in the JGSOM building, with students calling out "Hi Ma'am!" along the way (never mind if they also shoot me dirty looks and mouth "bitch" as soon as my back is turned). Yes, I can see myself teaching in Ateneo. But realistically, I can't. Not only would my poor students screw up all their forecasting and capacity planning thanks to my inept mentorship, I couldn't squeeze it in my current work schedule anyway. Teaching part-time is not an option for me, at least not if I want to be a good teacher. I believe it's a 24-hour job that requires, demands, deserves my full attention and energy. If I ever go back-- correction, WHEN I do go back, it will be without constraints, without conditions, without circumstances that would keep me from being the best possible teacher I can be. Regardless of the subject. Even if it does turn out to be OpMan.

Hmm. I hope Mr. Tanchoco's invitation stands for a while.