Hosted by veteran educator Jean Dumago-Descallar, Filipino at Heart with Teacher Jean seeks to broaden the definition of a well-rounded and educated Filipino, regardless of age, through insightful interviews and engaging segments that touch on the country’s teachers and their challenges as well as historical explorations, traditional crafts, culinary delights and musical performances.
By Alex Y. Vergara
The same TV producer who made business and entrepreneurship understandable, inspiring and even fun for countless everyday Filipinos with Negosyo Goals, seeks to duplicate her success, this time in the field of education and values-formation, with Filipino at Heart at with Teacher Jean.
Produced by Ivy Attaya and directed by Noel Cabacungan, Filipino at Heart… debuts on the small screen on Feb. 23, 6:30 a.m., on GTV. Like Negosyo Goals, which made a virtually unknown entrepreneur like Anna Magkawas a household name among its followers, Filipino at Heart... will be hosted by a real teacher in the person of Jean Dumago-Descallar. Each episode will run for 30 minutes.
A seasoned educator with a PhD, Teacher Jean is also a proud Mindanaoan and the president of Starland International School, which, apart from Metro Manila, now has branches in such cities as Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Butuan and Cebu. She may be a veteran in front of the blackboard, but when it comes to hosting in front of the cameras, Teacher Jean is a green horn. It took Ivy a great deal of convincing to make her finally say yes.
Prior to collaborating on the show, the two women didn’t know each other. Ivy, who’s also into marketing and advertising, responded to Teacher Jean’s call to market a new Japanese-made product she intends to sell in the Philippines.
“It was her eldest child, the one managing the business, whom I met first,” said Ivy in a mix of English and Filipino. “Teacher Jean was abroad that time. Seeing perhaps how transparent and warm I was, her daughter said, ‘I have a feeling that you and my mother would hit it off.’”
And they did! When Ivy and Teacher Jean finally met, the former asked her if she could star in an audio-visual presentation of her product. Teacher Jean, without the need for a teleprompter, agreed and nailed it.
“My cameramen were beside themselves,” Ivy shared. “She was so spontaneous, articulate and had a commanding presence. And she wasn’t even hosting then. It was just a test. Then it dawned on me. Of course, because she’s a seasoned teacher with decades of experience imparting knowledge before a class.”
Not long after, that initial encounter became the catalyst for Ivy to develop an inspirational show that would honor the country’s teachers and hopefully inspire televiewers to support them or even for young children to someday follow in their footsteps.
“The thought of getting a celebrity to host the show never even crossed my mind,” she said. “Like Negosyo Goals, I wanted my new show, which didn’t even have a title then, to be organic. I guess I was developing it in my head with Teacher Jean in mind.”
So, when the time came to finally sign up a host, in Ivy’s mind, it should be Teacher Jean or nobody else. When Ivy first broached the idea to Teacher Jean, she said no. Apart from having no experience in facing the cameras, she was reluctant and a bit self-conscious of her lingering regional accent.
“It has been one of the challenges I’ve had to constantly overcome,” Teacher Jean, in a mix of English and Filipino, said. “When I was a young teacher, I learned to turn my weakness to my advantage by first conducting my classes in English.”
Her efforts extended to the early years when she first opened Starland, then a small school catering to pre- and grade-schoolers. She became a proficient teacher in the English language while also constantly working on improving her command of Filipino.
What finally convinced Teacher Jean to say yes to Ivy? The likely possibility of reaching a wider audience and, thus, spreading her education-related advocacies to more people through television.
“I’ve really had to practice and be open to corrections and constructive criticisms from people I now work with on the set,” said Teacher Jean, on how she is faring in her new journey as a TV host.
She added: “I always tell our director to correct me. I’m open to corrections because I’m humble when it comes to that. Until now, my learning as a teacher continues. I must work harder. I can’t say to myself that I already know enough. Being a host on TV is totally different.”
Although she relies on a script when delivering her lines, Teacher Jean, being an educator herself, is an invaluable resource person for the show. She’s no mere talking head on cam, Noel insisted. People behind the show seek her inputs during brainstorming sessions to be able to come up with enough sound ideas and segments to make each episode as engaging and as trail-blazing as possible.
“We adjust to each other and welcome each other’s ideas and suggestions until we are able to come up with really good segments that would hopefully make our televiewers happy and informed,” said Noel.
But Filipino at Heart… isn’t your typical educational or instructional program. As the face behind the show, Teacher Jean intends to make it a “celebration of the richness and beauty of Filipino culture, language and values” through well-researched and engaging segments featuring fellow teachers themselves and their challenges and triumphs in molding young minds entrusted to them.
For its pilot episode, for instance, Teacher Jean will take her audience on a virtual tour of the Luzon countryside to interview Teacher Diday, a member of the Dumagat tribe and the first and so far only person in her community to finish college by taking up Education. Teacher Diday is now paying it forward, deciding to stay and teach children in her remote community.
A future episode will also train the spotlight on Teacher Che, who specializes in special education or SPED catered to children with various special needs.
One of the show’s segments will also present an overarching question to be answered by various individuals. For its pilot episode, for instance, Teacher Jean will be asking nine individuals the same question: “What was the most important lesson you’ve learned from your teacher that applies to you now?”
Apart from “guest spotlights” and “inspiring interviews,” the show has allotted segments revolving on such topics as historical explorations, traditional crafts, culinary delights and musical performances. Areas that, despite the prevailing budget constraints, especially in the public school sector, educators try as much as possible to inculcate in their students.
As Teacher Jean would probably agree, it takes more than the three Rs to make one a well-rounded and educated person. And this she will try to reaffirm with each episode of Filipino by Heart with Teacher Jean.
