The latin original of one of my most favourite needless to say of-quoted dictum by Augustine of Hippo, Saint and Doctor:
Magnae vires et cursus celerrimus, sed praeter viam, that is to say, "much strength and great speed, but all off the track".
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Random Thoughts
On being asked about my take on Philippine education and educational philosophy in general
As a teacher especially involved in the education of minors I see a great gap in the country’s approach to education in general and to basic education in particular. While it is true that little by little change is slowly creeping in, in the country’s educational system, I believe that this problem is more than about reforming curricula and changing structures, this is a problem deeply rooted in our view of education.
This crisis in our educational system is brought about by a highly bourgeois attitude typical of the 60’s, where education is primarily viewed in its functional mode. There is a neo-utilitarianistic attitude among our educators and people in general where they think one ought to study only what are needed for their careers in the future. A child is brought to grade school left with clear instruction that he studies elementary to be able to get to high school and college. He moves on to high school with the same thought. Ultimately he reaches college, chooses a degree which would be most lucrative come graduation. After four or five years he “finishes” school, looks for work, gets dismayed by the competitive jobs market and lands underemployed if not unemployed at all. The young careerist easily gets dismayed because by this time he would have spent 14 to 15 years of his student life wasted away by being not able to find that “job” he studied for. After all, his sole raison d’être for having spent that much time in school was to “work”. Isn’t this the sad reality among the Filipino youth of today? Because of this neo-utilitarianistic attitude towards education, our people tend to be rather job-takers not job-makers, worst of all this view by and large dehumanizes schooling and working by considering “earning” as their ultimate goals, and, income as the be-all-and-end-all of education and employment.
Plato in his Timeon encounters a non-Greek affirming that the Greeks were αει παιλεσ, eternal children. To which the Philosopher saw no reproach but rather a tribute to the Greek character. At this a Greek Metropolitan, one Stylianos Harkianakis adds, ‘It remains firmly accepted that the Greeks want to be a people of philosophers not technocrats, that is, eternal children, apt to wonder in amazement at the higher states of human existence. Only in this light can we view the important fact that the Greeks have made no practical use of their innumerable inventions’. To which Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, that brilliant thinker and presently pope, furthers that, “wonder should not be lost – the capacity, that is, to marvel and to listen, to ask not only about what is functional but equally to perceive the harmony of the spheres and to rejoice precisely that it is of no use to us.”
A functional view of education must be tempered with a deep regard to the more fundamental principle of learning and that is learning for learning’s sake, for the apprehension of truths, and the attainment of “greater” states of human existence. In this way education becomes a humanizing agent in this ever dehumanizing environment we live in today.
As a teacher especially involved in the education of minors I see a great gap in the country’s approach to education in general and to basic education in particular. While it is true that little by little change is slowly creeping in, in the country’s educational system, I believe that this problem is more than about reforming curricula and changing structures, this is a problem deeply rooted in our view of education.
This crisis in our educational system is brought about by a highly bourgeois attitude typical of the 60’s, where education is primarily viewed in its functional mode. There is a neo-utilitarianistic attitude among our educators and people in general where they think one ought to study only what are needed for their careers in the future. A child is brought to grade school left with clear instruction that he studies elementary to be able to get to high school and college. He moves on to high school with the same thought. Ultimately he reaches college, chooses a degree which would be most lucrative come graduation. After four or five years he “finishes” school, looks for work, gets dismayed by the competitive jobs market and lands underemployed if not unemployed at all. The young careerist easily gets dismayed because by this time he would have spent 14 to 15 years of his student life wasted away by being not able to find that “job” he studied for. After all, his sole raison d’être for having spent that much time in school was to “work”. Isn’t this the sad reality among the Filipino youth of today? Because of this neo-utilitarianistic attitude towards education, our people tend to be rather job-takers not job-makers, worst of all this view by and large dehumanizes schooling and working by considering “earning” as their ultimate goals, and, income as the be-all-and-end-all of education and employment.
Plato in his Timeon encounters a non-Greek affirming that the Greeks were αει παιλεσ, eternal children. To which the Philosopher saw no reproach but rather a tribute to the Greek character. At this a Greek Metropolitan, one Stylianos Harkianakis adds, ‘It remains firmly accepted that the Greeks want to be a people of philosophers not technocrats, that is, eternal children, apt to wonder in amazement at the higher states of human existence. Only in this light can we view the important fact that the Greeks have made no practical use of their innumerable inventions’. To which Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, that brilliant thinker and presently pope, furthers that, “wonder should not be lost – the capacity, that is, to marvel and to listen, to ask not only about what is functional but equally to perceive the harmony of the spheres and to rejoice precisely that it is of no use to us.”
A functional view of education must be tempered with a deep regard to the more fundamental principle of learning and that is learning for learning’s sake, for the apprehension of truths, and the attainment of “greater” states of human existence. In this way education becomes a humanizing agent in this ever dehumanizing environment we live in today.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
PSHS-WV Announcement
The start of classes has been moved from Monday, 1-June to Monday, 8-June. This is official. Please pass around this wonderful news.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
SSIP - Luzon Announcements
SSIP Clarifications (Holidays and Excused Absences)
The 160-hours requirement of the SSIP is ACTUAL working time. This means holidays and excused absences (i.e. being sick, or there was a typhoon) cannot be counted with it.
This is the reason why you had 24 working days allotted for the programme. If you count well this exceeds 160-hrs. Why? So that you'll have time to make up for your absences and or for holidays.
So in the case of May 1 this year which fell on a Friday, that CANNOT be counted as ACTUAL working time. So that's 1-day less of your 24-working days.
If you were also told to leave early or were told not to come at all because of security risks due to the typhoon, that also will be counted as 1-day less or hours less from your 24-working days.
But all in all, you would still have gotten 160-hours by the end of the SSIP.
In short before you leave this Friday DO an accounting of your DTR and make sure that it sums to 160-hrs. or more. If not please contact Sir Oliver Fuentespina immediately! He may be reached at (0921)298-6259. Or contact me at (0918)908-7040 Smart or at (0935)151-2424 Touch Mobile.
Please also do not forget to thank your supervisors and everyone you met for this SSIP in your agency. If you can, try to give some token/s of appreciation, it may need not be expensive. It can just be a personally made thank you card, or thank you note. Just something to show you are grateful for the experience they shared to you.
The 160-hours requirement of the SSIP is ACTUAL working time. This means holidays and excused absences (i.e. being sick, or there was a typhoon) cannot be counted with it.
This is the reason why you had 24 working days allotted for the programme. If you count well this exceeds 160-hrs. Why? So that you'll have time to make up for your absences and or for holidays.
So in the case of May 1 this year which fell on a Friday, that CANNOT be counted as ACTUAL working time. So that's 1-day less of your 24-working days.
If you were also told to leave early or were told not to come at all because of security risks due to the typhoon, that also will be counted as 1-day less or hours less from your 24-working days.
But all in all, you would still have gotten 160-hours by the end of the SSIP.
In short before you leave this Friday DO an accounting of your DTR and make sure that it sums to 160-hrs. or more. If not please contact Sir Oliver Fuentespina immediately! He may be reached at (0921)298-6259. Or contact me at (0918)908-7040 Smart or at (0935)151-2424 Touch Mobile.
Please also do not forget to thank your supervisors and everyone you met for this SSIP in your agency. If you can, try to give some token/s of appreciation, it may need not be expensive. It can just be a personally made thank you card, or thank you note. Just something to show you are grateful for the experience they shared to you.
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