Looking at 22-year-old Ian Francis Manga’s face it’s easy to see why
some people have a hard time believing he is a kindergarten teacher, and
not a student himself. Luckily, he towers over the children, but his
face still looks uncanny.
A teacher in San Jose Del Monte, the Philippines’ Bulacan province,
Ian Francis Manga has always looked younger than his years, and that
became even more apparent in middle-school, when all the other boys
started growing mustaches and armpit hair, but he did not experience any
of the changes of puberty. In fact, his facial features remain those of
a very young boy, but because he never suffered bullying from his
schoolmates, he never felt the need to see a doctor and learn if there
was anything wrong with him.
According to a report by Stand for Truth, Ian believes that
his delayed growth may have been caused by the fact that he was always a
sickly child. Still, he managed to overcome his health problems and
passed his kindergarten teacher exams to become part of the faculty. He
is in charge of the kindergarten and grade 2 classes at the Mater El-Roi
School Inc., and the school administrator says “he is fitted for the
job and he loves the children”.
Manga said that most of the children in his care consider him an
older brother, but added that he goes to great lengths to overcome his
baby-faced appearance and be perceived as a teacher. For example, he
always wares baggy clothes and stiff leather shoes to make himself look
like a proper adult.
“As a teacher, you need to serve as a model. You need to look the part despite being baby-faced,” the 22-year-old told Stand for Truth. “When I’m teaching, I will become more serious. They also take me more seriously.”
Apart from his baby-face, Ian Francis Manga
also has a very childish voice and measures only 162cm. He admits that
while his schoolmates never bothered him, his childish appearance did
sometimes make him the target of cruel jokes, adding that some people
still tease him by calling him “little boy”. He has always tried to
ignore such remarks, but claims that deep inside they only pushed him to
work harder and prove to everyone that he could become a respected
member of the community.
