Guess what direk Joel’s first love is

Joel Lamangan may be one of the most decorated directors in the film industry today, but he is at heart a teacher. That’s where his first love lies, and that’s where his sympathies still belong.

To begin with, it’s all in the genes. Joel’s comes from a family of teachers. His mom is one. An aunt is a school principal.

He used to shuttle from La Salle to St. Scholastica’s College to teach Theater Arts.

"I had to quit because I figured it would be unfair to the students if I didn’t give them 100 percent of my time," he reveals.

He unabashedly admits being a product of public schools. In fact, one could sense pride in his voice when he says, "I came from a public school (actually, the term is an understatement; he should have said state university) – UP (University of the Philippines)."

It is this milieu and its unsung hero – the teacher, Joel is training his directorial skills on, in Star Cinema’s eighth anniversary offering, Mila, starring Maricel Soriano.

As title roler, Maricel is Mila Cabangon, a dedicated teacher who turns the streets of Ermita into one big classroom after she is forced to leave a public school after a prolonged strike.

Among the lives she gave new direction to are those of prostitutes’ (played by Cherry Pie Picache, Angelica Panganiban, Kaye Abad and others) and a juvenile delinquent’s (played by Jiro Manio).

Direk Joel himself has changed his classroom – at least for the moment – now that he’s better known as a filmmaker.

"I use film to teach values," he declares.

In Mila, these values are those a dedicated teacher has in boundless measure: patience, selflessness, love for one’s work.

"Family drivers earn more than a teacher does," he relates.

No wonder the laborers in the field are few. And these few usually have full-time jobs aside from teaching to give them solid income to put body and soul together.

The rewards, though, are enough to last a lifetime.

"Seeing how much your students learn is already a big achievement," Direk Joel explains.

By learning,. he means acquiring knowledge not by spoonfeeding but by hands-on problem solving and analysis.

Direk Joel is not the type of teacher who’d sit on his desk and make his students buckle down to seatwork while twiddling his thumbs on his closed books. He challenges them with problems, and asks answers from them. Spoonfeeding is a no-no.

The best thing about it is that everything is a two-way street. The teacher learns from his student as much as the latter soaks up knowledge from the maestro.

From his young students, Direk Joel learns what the latest hit songs are; and what today’s youths feel and think. More than anything else, he reveals, teaching is a rejuvenating process. It enriches both teacher and student.

It’s also a crash course on practical matters –those the books cannot really show you.

From his students in Muntinlupa (where he organized a chorale), Direk Joel learned how to stage actual hand combat (read: those done with hand knives and other home made instruments).

From his peasant students, he learned the ABCs of planting rice. It’s also a big classroom out there for the teacher in Joel, and he couldn’t have enough of it.

Problem is, time is far from his side. Direk Joel is also at the helm of Richard Gomez’s weekly drama on ABS-CBN, Your Honor.

This means, the director – much to his regret – has set aside his passion for teaching. But only for the moment, he is sure.

"I want to go back to teaching if I’m not directing anymore," he reveals one of his plans.

Directing’s loss will then be the academe’s gain.