....Very few people
realize how multi-faceted Daniel S. Razon is. Many people look up to him as a
broadcast-journalist, a voice-over talent, a PR consultant, and a TV director.
But hardly do many people know that Daniel S. Razon is also an educator– a
teacher who equips aspiring broadcast-journalists of the necessary wisdom and
know-how in order to make it in the industry, aside from implanting in both
their minds and hearts the necessary virtues that they ought to possess.
...In fact, DSR has handled
practically all the pertinent subjects in Mass Communication such as Broadcast
Ethics and Laws, Radio & TV Speech, Radio and TV Production &
Direction, Media Business, Film Theory & Appreciation, and Audio-Visual
Communication. And if you had admired him in the way he delivers a news story,
or in the way he does a voice-over task, the more you would admire him as he
takes center stage in the classroom.
..Evidently, DSR loves
teaching. He loves imparting to young minds not just theories but a clear
picture of the in’s and out’s of broadcast-journalism world. And his almost two
decades of immersion and his stints with the country’s leading networks have
developed in him mastery and expertise in subjects related to Radio and
Television. All these have made him a very competent and effective mentor.
..Each time that a semester
begins, his students would be both apprehensive and excited at the same time.
They are excited because they hear from his former students how great a teacher
DSR is. But they are also apprehensive, not because they dread to see him, but
they fear that they might not live up to his standards. Surely they must have
heard the way DSR would whet and squeeze his students, until he has finally
brought out the best in each of them. For one, Sir Razon, as his students
address him, gives very difficult examinations and very tedious projects and
assignments. But despite this, students find all these enjoyable and rewarding.
Never mind the many pages that they have to come up with, never mind the money
that they would be spending in those projects, never mind how their hearts
pounded during graded recitations, never mind the sleepless rights during
shooting and editing. What matters is that theylearn and that they enjoy what
they do.
..DSR is a teacher in the
truest sense of the word. The moment he takes the helm in the classroom,
without any effort, he readily captures his students’ attention. The moment he
opens his mouth, everybody listens and digests every piece of wisdom he is
imparting on them. And his students are rest assured that, at the end of the
term, they would surely receive what they truly deserve. When it comes to
giving grades, DSR has always been very fair and objective. He rates his
students not by what others say about them, and neither by their affinity to
other faculty members nor by what he thinks of them, but by their performance.
And for him each day is always a fresh start
..But more than being a
classroom teacher, DSR is also a good friend to his students. He is very
approachable, and as always, he shows interest and willingness to be of help to
them especially when it comes to academic matters. And this is extended outside
the classroom. In fact for several instances, he had invited his students to
come over the studio of his own production studio in order to have a hands-on
experience on the different broadcast equipment like the TV cameras and the
editing machines. And typical of his unselfish and magnanimous nature, DSR
would even bring to school all the pertinent broadcast equipment, from cameras
to monitors, to editing machines, to lapel microphones – for free.
..And because of his genuine
kindness, he has won not just the admiration but also the respect of his
students. And even if they do not verbalize it, it seems that they would also
want to be where DSR is. During the time that he was still in ABS-CBN, a number
of his students opted to have their on-the-job training there. When he moved to
GMA 7, many of his students followed him there also.
..To this day, a number of
students that passed the hands of DSR have landed in some sensitive posts in
the country’s top rating program aired over the country’s leading networks. And
most of them, if not all, are all too thankful to the kind of training, tests
and exposure DSR had given them while they were under his tutelage. If not for
those rigorous assignments, if not for the challenges he had posed on them,
they probably would not have the guts, the skills and the right attitude that a
true broadcast-journalist should possess. And, perhaps, aside from giving their
best in everything that they do, the other important lesson that would always
linger in the minds of his students is for them not to succumb to
“envelopmental” journalism because a person’s integrity and credibility is
worth more than what “an envelope” contains. And with his head up high, DSR
could always proclaim to his students that never in his life did he practise
“envelopmental journalism”. God is his witness.
..Teaching may not be a very
lucrative profession in this country, but it remains to be the most noble. DSR
does not teach for financial gains, in fact an entire semester would sometimes
end without his claiming his pay checks from the cashier’s office. Instead, it
was the cashier who would be going out of her way to personally deliver to him
his checks. DSR is teaching because this is one of the ways by which he could
lead people to God. Although he never uses the classroom as a pulpit, yet, with
the moral values he exemplifies, he, in effect, is also teaching them a
Christian way of life. And that makes DSR a real teacher… emulating no other
than that greatest teacher of all times, Our Lord Jesus Christ.