Teaching in College General has been exciting, challenging, joyous and heart – breaking. It has also been a two-way traffic.

I have been teaching English Language in College General for the past eight years. Some of the seminarians that I have taught have been ordained as priests. Some have left of their own accord; others have had to leave.

The ages of the seminarians range anywhere from the early twenties to the late thirties. They are all adults with working experience so teaching them is nothing like teaching school children. While one has to impart knowledge to them and expect them to learn as one would of school children, one also has to constantly be aware that they are adults and should be treated as such. It is a delicate balance.

In so far as the language is concerned, every one of them has made progress though rather unfortunately not to the level of proficiency as to enable all of them to continue pursuing their vocation to the priesthood. Herein, paradoxically, lie the joy and the heartache. Joy when they make headway and when they are allowed to continue studying in the College; sadness when they are told that they have to leave.

Unlike in other institutions of learning, one does not feel any pressure to produce results. This does not mean that one is allowed to be lax; only that one works in a congenial environment where there is mutual respect and trust.

In College General, it is not merely the dissemination of information or the impartation of language skills that matters; it is also the retrieval of values.

I have benefited much from teaching in College General. I have grown spiritually and emotionally simply from observing and interacting with the priests of the College, the staff, the seminarians and my colleagues.

The experience is reciprocal.

Eustace Ulric Surin