Merry Christmas to one and all, and Happy New Year too. If your year were good this year, there’d be no reason why it won’t be so much better next year. It would be, I am sure.
This greeting goes to all my blogger friends and to all my blog readers out there. Holiday greetings to one and all.
This would also serve as some sort of apology as to why I have not been blogging as frequent as I should be. I’ve been so busy with my new vocation as a University lecturer. While I thought at first—since I would be just a new entry into the teaching staff—that I wouldn’t be immersed into more demanding tasks and work schedule, I was a bit mistaken. Teaching is not like many other occupation where the initial phases would be more on orientation processes, taking on light tasks and schedules, saying hi’s and hello’s to everyone in the office. In many ways, the initial phases of teaching is one of the most critical point in the overall approach to the job, sizing up the classes in terms of number and in terms of the amount of preparation needed, where too much becomes ultimately unviable (as learning would not be fulfilled to the hilt) and too little of it would mean lackluster instruction. It’s like walking on a tightrope I felt sometimes there.
It was of note how “academic freedom” meant that a teacher virtually has total control of what he or she has to feed the students, in relation to the title and scope of the subject course, and by this, I had to scramble for materials, doing intensive and extensive research in such a short window of time and opportunity. It was of much luck that despite I am just a newbie in this profession; I was able to collate and compile much of the needed materials and information that I needed to fulfill my lecturing tasks.
It was I think of good opportune that my short but very memorable stint as guest lecturer in the past, particularly in the Alternative Class program of my other alma mater, Ateneo de Zamboanga, had somehow helped me in giving important prior perspective on the business of teaching, providing me insights and helpful experience for such. That at times, I felt like I have just slid from one phase to another, that I am in my own water and have always been there, and have just gone for awhile and then returned in the end.
And in the short period that I have been in this job, I am been exalted that it becomes somehow a wonderful experience for me to become part of a student’s education and growth, and ultimately in his or her future success. It is a wonderful experience altogether. I have the most gratitude to my colleagues in the workplace for being so welcoming to my presence and have provided me great support in the time that I am just learning the main tasks of teaching like an infant, still walking unsteadily, still striving and struggling somehow. I thank our dean Prof. Eddie Ladja for this, King Sali, Sir Perry, Sir Saymaran, Sir Kams, Sir Al, Dams, Choy, Ka Dayyang, Ustadz Bulkhari and Ustadz Tanjilul for treating me with all kindness and friendship that there could be had.
Merry Christmas again to one and all. I’d be back to regular blogging once this “adjustment” period is done and over with. More power to you all.
I was just watching the opening segment of the The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and I couldn’t help but let out a rather loud chuckle when he had quipped about the subject of “pretending to be a student”. He had opened the joke by plaintively stating how this famous guy (the rockstar Tommy Lee I think) had complained about how tough or disagreeable it was for him to be pretending to study for eight months—referring perhaps to the television reality show “Tommy Lee Goes To School” that he starred in.
And then Mr. Leno said that Tommy Lee was just complaining too much and being a sissy for he (Leno) himself did not pretend to attend school for only eight months, BUT for four disagreeable years. And then I laugh so hard inside me and bented out that loud chortle.
Who really says school is fun? If there is anyone out there who think it is, please raise your right hand.
I am not saying that attending 5 to 8 classes everyday (as it is in college) is such a disagreeable activity. I know some of us here are educators and wouldn’t take it quite so well if somebody else says they hate it to be within your area of practice or occupation. For the record, I didn’t hate attending college. But at the same time—-just like most of the population—I was not exactly very fond of it either. Maybe just somewhere in between; liking to be at school half the time and being lazy at some other time. Maybe this was the reason why I haven’t got “A” grades in my college years—unlike in my elementary and highschool years.
Education is really mostly of motivation. What drives the student to thrive harder in school? What’s their incentives other than still a mostly mythical success in the future?
I have seen some of them excelling almost all the time and I thought I should have reasonably equal intelligence quotient with most of them, maybe even higher at that, but somehow I was just not so industrious to be a wunderkind in the classroom.
There were many times back then that I had daydreamed about the day when finally I would be free from classrooms and all those mushy blackboards that was in front of me almost on a daily basis. At that time, it was nearly a utopic idea for I was still planning to take up law after my accounting degree.
I had wished then that I should be like a bird (with wings of course) and fly away from all the lazy afternoons that I got myself stuck in classrooms that could be so eerily silent—especially when the respective teacher was a known terror—when all I wanna do then was take a nap. But one could not just say to oneself “I shall take a nap” when one is in a classroom with a bespectacled teacher holding a long wooden rod, ready to whack one’s butt if one make the slightest mistake. I know that there aren’t no more whacking in college; but I just felt that some of my college teachers were so much inclined to harm us physically—especially when almost everyone had blank stares, not being able to fully absorb the lessons she or he had blabber-mouthed all afternoon.
So there I was, trying to hold off sleep in some lazy afternoons while attending accounting classes full of “income statements” and “journal entries”. There were times that I just could not listen to the lessons being given for my mind was so windy and fragile, like I wanted to be somewhere else rather than inside the four corners of an electricfannized room. I believe that I had passed all my accounting subjects by mostly self-studying at home, not really listening to the lectures in classes I have attended but merely cramping up in my solitary room when the night comes and read the lessons taken for the day all by myself or read future lesssons in advance. I like it that way. I was more comfortable with that self-imposed learning system and luckily, I passed all my accounting subjects—the hardest subjects for me—and did not repeat any of them. That was some feat I realized by now.
So mostly when the lazy bug had hit me then and I found myself stuck inside a classroom and the class is often more than an hour—like one and a half hour or sometimes for straight three hours—I just sit at the back of the room oh so quietly and open up a thick textbook (or maybe some other book) and pretend to read and then giving stares at the teacher blabbering in front once in a while, and pretend to listen.
You know if anyone thinks that studying hard is so difficult, then he or she hasn’t tried “pretending to study hard”. It was just so bad and thorny, like being held by a Gestapo officer and tied to a wooden chair.
Now I ain’t downgrading here the value of education or boost up the crazy comfort of laziness. Education is so important for all of us and I do realize now that If I weren’t so lazy then, I would have had a better occupation by now, and have more money in my pocket. So kids, if ever any of you happen to read this, remember to study hard and don’t imitate Major Tom on this aspect. And also, always remember that smoking is always dangerous to your health.
Gaining that accounting degree in the end wasn’t so easy for me. It was tough and rigorous especially when at times I got too bored with numbers and statistics, having nightmares. I think numbers was just not for me. But there was I, by some circumstances, studying how to count other people’s money.
And it was not easy counting at all. You could count bills from one to a million and that’s easy. But in accountancy, we got to learn to count the monies by using hordes of yellow-colored and very wide worksheets and must know how to balance some balance sheets (they ain’t balanced all the time especially if one didn’t study too hard) and got to reconcile bank statements almost often that at one time, when I got so freaking out tired of all the numbers, I had wanted to ask my accounting teacher why the bank statements won’t better decide to patch up their differences and stop fighting with each other, and be reconciled? Why the hell did we have to reconcile these bank statements by ourselves? But apparently that was a very brainless question, so I didn’t ask anymore.
Oh, I had meant this initially to be fully a humorous post. Now I think it had gotten a little too serious and stern.
But honesty is a virtue. It was hard for me to study. But it was even more difficult to pretend to study. That I have learned before and Mr. Jay Leno could joke about this for all I care.
This post by the way reminds me of this REM song“World Leader Pretend” which is to me the most politically sarcastic song and comically brings and raise up the tragical state of our present global politcs……This is my world… Michael Stipe sings, “…And I am world leader pretend..I sit at my table,
And wage war on myself. It seems like it’s all for nothing…. Listen to it, maybe you’ll like it. Like I did and made it one of my all-time fave rock song. See complete lyrics here.
Who remembers a time when fuel pump prices were once dictated by the government? Like the price should be this and that and the increase or decrease this week should be for this amount of centavo or that. I do remember. At times these days, it is not easy for me to imagine that once, just some few years ago, fuel prices were in fact controlled by the government thru the Department of Energy. I feel somehow that those good old days were so many eons ago.
But years after the oil deregulation law took effect; we examine now the end results. Oil prices have skyrocketed since then and there were times one could feel that drowning feeling while oil companies had for one time increased oil prices in rapid succession of price hikes. As a daily consumer of fuel products—I did for once felt that the whole world had tumbled down on me and that it was about time to accept that car driving would not be a common necessity anymore, but one that should be a luxurious activity. With that level of prices—car use have now become an expensive commodity. I have known a number of individuals who have disposed of their cars due to the high prices of petroleum and some have just decided to keep their car in the garage—and not used them as frequently anymore.
Such were the effect of deregulating oil prices by the government. Drivers and car owners suddenly found themselves in a whole new world where a lot of adjustments have to be made and where previous conveniences had to be set-aside. Somehow, as time goes by, we just have to accept the new set of realities for factors are outside of our hands. The period of adjustment were truly hard, but nothing can be done, except to slowly and gradually be used to the present set-up.
Now, let us go to another issue that is now hounding the nation; which in my mind hold similar circumstance with the controversy that arose when the government finally let-go of oil price control. Just days ago, the Commission On Higher Education had ordered the tuition price hike cap removed and from that day on, every college or university could increased their fees at whatever rate they deem and there’d be no limitation whatsoever. This news may not have gained enough interest among the public, unlike the burning protests that had met the oil price deregulation some years ago. Yet, I feel that this issue should be as urgent and as vital for we are talking here about the education of the mass of youngsters in our midst. To be sure, newer set of realities would be hard to take and that every Filipino parent spending for their kid’s education would be hard-pressed to accept a much difficult set of realities Just like we car drivers have to be compelled to accept that driving now is nearly a luxurious activity.
And this is not ideal at all.
CHED had presumed that schools wouldn’t dare to increase their prices so exorbitantly since they would fear losing students because of that. But how can they be so sure and did CHED did some scientific and empirical study on this; examining and studying schools behavior and characteristic and have methodically concluded that anyway, schools would not increase fees for fear of losing students. Gosh, only in the Philippines where government directives are merely based on unstudied assumptions.
And there’s another such presumptions where CHED had concluded that by allowing unmitigated tuition fee increase, colleges and universities in our country could now become globally competitive. It may or may not. But they are so sure it would and therefore justify this seemingly rash directive.
I do for one recognize the need of private educational institutions to self-sufficiency and need for additional resources, but I believe that there’s a better way to enact this kind of radical changes, especially that we are talking here about the price of education which is the most difficult problem that the Filipino parent faces, next to food and clothing.
And besides, what happens to that constitutional mandate that education should be very accessible to the public and even free, if possible. I can see a constitutional challenge that could arise from this controversy.
I believe that safeguards should have been instituted, like a gradual phasing out of the tuition fee increase cap—like say over three to five years—wherein in that manner, the populace would not feel a shock in the system and a shock in their pockets. And one safety mechanism that I think should have been instituted is that very important guarantee that present students should not be meted any increases beyond the previous 10% limitation or otherwise it would be highly unjusticeable that they have to find and transfer to other schools while being enrolled at a school which they initially thought they could afford and sustain.
The unbridled and unmitigated tuition price increases should only be applied to incoming students—that way, prior notice is applied and effected where “prior notice” to parents is one of the most important factor in any tuition fee increases in previous CHED law or directives. But now it seems they have completely disregarded it. Just like that.
Governments or government functionalities shouldn’t act like this. They ought to enact radical changes in a very gentle and cautious manner for after all, they are dealing with people here, and not programmed androids.
SELF-EXSPRESSION is one form of capacity that must be inculcated into the individual, if one adheres to the maxim of complete education—or as our Ateneo moderators had always pointed out, a well-rounded education. Ironically, such is never a field of knowledge that is formally offered in any educational institution, as if it were a subject matter or a group of knowledge like Mathematics or Science. The closest we could get to it is perhaps through communication subjects like English and Filipino, thru extemporaneous speaking and debate.
Maybe I could be wrong but true to my heart, I do insist that the educated individual, as he or she becomes after years of knowledge and skills inculcation in classrooms, should come as a person confident in his speeches, in expression and in his outward demeanors, that in this manner, fulfillment in life-long endeavors becomes more reachable or obtainable. Like for example, in a case between two young executives working in the same institution, the one who is more comfortable and skilled in his or her communications (in undertakings like field reports, task accountings, concepts and proposals) would more often than not be more upward in mobility than the one who struggles with his or her wordings. In this light, I should adhere to the precept that self-expression is one mighty field that every student should obtained and be well-honed at.
In connection with this, it should be laudable that the phone company that many of us patronizes is suddenly not merely interested in profiting tons and tons of money from its customers as now it offers this very innovative and certainly beneficial program where interested schools and colleges could avail of free webhosting and be online with no cost at all. Considering how costly and labor-intensive this kind of undertaking partakes, this is a great boon for our educational system and certainly students benefited from this could get enhanced methods in improving their communication skills as well as be able to finally ride this amazing wave called the Internet superhighway.
Maybe, students can formally be introduced to net concepts like blogging and networking, since I do believe that these undertaking could be utilized as a very effective tool in molding the individual to become fully capacitated in this ultra-modern age, and be truly competitive as a skilled individual in the global arena.
