“O captain!  My captain…”
-from the poem by Walt Whitman (1865), and popularized in the film “Dead Poets Society” (1989)

I was in 3rd grade when I first experienced Pido.   It was 1985 and we were asked to pick an extra-curricular activity and I chose to join The Ateneo Children’s Theater.   He was the assistant director then.

During our very first cast meeting, I remember him coming into the grade school auditorium dressed in the most peculiar outfit I had ever seen—purple leg warmers over black leather, zip-up boots, jeans, a yellow scarf, and a white long sleeved shirt.   Furthermore, he came in speaking with a different accent and was making all sorts of gestures which I found to be a bit over the top.    In addition, I couldn’t reconcile with the idea that he was a teacher in the grade school department.   How could the Ateneo have someone who acted the way Pido did—unusual to say the least—teach?

None of my other teachers were like him.   So I, naturally (at the time, anyway), did not know how to relate to him.   “This guy is weird,” I thought to myself and recalled being confused as to whether I would be amused by his enthusiasm or dismiss him as an outright crazy person.

In 1989, I found myself with Pido again.   He was to be the class moderator of my final year in elementary.   He was still the same Pido I remember from four years back—odd, eccentric, and energetic.  But this time, I no longer saw his off-the-wall antics as strange in the negative sense.   In fact, it was now quite the opposite.   I looked forward to them.   His passion was infectious.   He was just so much fun to be with that there was a time when my only motivation to get up in the morning and go to school was to find out how Pido would sound like (would he sound Indian today?  French, perhaps?  Maybe even  German?),  what he would look like (what outfit he would end up wearing for that day), or what surprise he had in store for us in class (would he stand up on the teacher’s table and scream at the top of his lungs again, etc.)

He made learning an adventure, an adventure where every day we learned something new, or we learned to see something so mundane in a new light.    However, I think the most wonderful part of my experience Pido was not so much that I enjoyed the exploits and antics, but in the way that he related to me as his student.  I may no longer remember many of the subjects that he taught, but the most important lessons I carry to this day.

Pido had helped me believe that I could– that belief made anything possible, and that passion was the fuel that drove everything.

Pido Aguilar– author, educator, training expert and international speaker- will be doing a series of webinars for the ProFora Media Lightbulb Sessions.  His online talk, “Train to Retain/Teach to Retain”, scheduled on October 13, 2009, emphasizes the need for quality training, and touches on the seven standards of highly effective training.

Know more about Pido Aguilar, and check out his webinar on October 13, 2009.  Register for “Train to Retain/Teach to Retain” here.