IF YOU ARE looking for an excellent teacher in English and Literature, go for Prof. Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo.
Am not sure, though, if she still teaches full load and full time at the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the University of Santo Tomas.
What I know is that she’s the current Director of the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies.
People (that include me sometimes) called her Jing or Ma’am Jing but mostly, I refer to her as Prof. Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, a graduate of Ph.B. (Bachelor of Philosophy from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters (Philets) of the University of Santo Tomas where she graduated with Latin honors.
STRUGGLING IN ENGLISH
I recommend her as an outstanding mentor in English because I learned a lot from her when I took my English under her wings in my freshman years in Artlets.
I vividly remember I attended her daily English classes at the Annex of the Commerce Building of UST along Dapitan.
I was from promdi (from the province), a fresh graduate from the Lopez Provincial High School in Lopez, Quezon who wasn’t attentive in my studies let alone English.
Other high school subjects I didn’t pay attention to many of them although I passed my secondary course.
As a promdi, I was struggling in my English, both spoken and written.
Most of my classmates in the afternoon session—we were blocked section—were either valedictorians or salutatorians in high school, provincial or citified, graduates of exclusive schools for girls or boys and mostly articulate in the King’s language.
[W]e were bombarded with readings which I realized early on as a discipline to enhance not only our vocabulary, apply our English lessons and get exposed to multiculturalism but also to train us in oral and non-verbal communications.
FILM REVIEW, READINGS
But Prof. Pantoja-Hidalgo was a challenge altogether.
I was inspired by her teaching style in English which I learned the hard way.
Imagine, on our first day of classes alone, she would assign each one in our class, novels to read and require us to submit a book review at the end of the semester in between our drills with the English grammar.
I was assigned “Bread and Wine” by Italian novelist Ignazio Seloni.
I enjoyed reading the story of a young revolutionary in an Italian village disguised as a priest who would find it difficult to wage a revolution to topple down fascism and oppression because of the backwardness in beliefs of the peasants.
I was also assigned to review the film “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” adapted from a short story by Edgar Allan Poe.
She would also assign us to review the film “Ryan’s Daughter” directed by David Lean and starred Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles about an illicit affair of a married woman with a British officer of the World War; to write a review of any TV shows of our choice at the time.
In other words, we were bombarded with readings which I realized early on as a discipline to enhance not only our vocabulary, apply our English lessons and get exposed to multiculturalism but also to train us in oral and non-verbal communications.
I could imagine the mediocre writings I submitted to Prof. Hidalgo. She must have cringed reading them.
Must she be proud or ashamed of me?
She was a liberal teacher so she must be understanding but she taught us freedom and responsibility.
For me, even if I got a passing grade from her, I still cherish and admire her manner of teaching, rubbing off her knowledge and practical lessons in life to us.
WRITING AS A PROFESSION
That’s when I taught at the De La Salle University-Dasmarinas, Cavite, I copied her method of teaching by assigning my Journalism students with readings, written and oral reports, although the sad part, most of them would copy and paste the discussions from Google. I encouraged my students group dynamics and research
In our time at UST was the First Quarter Storm and student activism was at its height.
Pantoja-Hidalgo was no terror teacher, she was lovable, charming and intellectually honest.
She was the one who even encouraged us to join rallies which I heeded and it taught how to understand life better.
I missed Prof. Jing at Artlets when I was in sophomore until graduation but after college, I learned that she was at the University of the Philippines. After her stint at UP, she is back as a Thomasian.
At the recent celebration of the 60th year of Philets-Artlets at the Mania Hotel, I saw Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, my idol, from afar. She was like a star but reachable.
I also saw at the reunion journalist Pacita Syquia-Almario who was also a Philet. Pacita as a writer is vivacious.
Pantoja-Hidalgo and Syquia-Almario are both institutions in the writing profession we must emulate.