There is a lot to rethink about the Philippines’ party-list system. For one, President Duterte wants it abolished, saying that party-list groups are being used by millionaires to get a seat in Congress and push for their interests. While progressive groups recognize this flaw, they call not for abolition but for a thorough review that assures that party-list groups and their nominees truly represent marginalized sectors.
Teachers are demanded to grade objectively. Students are commanded to deliver. And while this seems to be the most efficient way to identify who “passes” and who “fails”, it disregards the human aspect of education. In fact, it is this obsession with efficiency and production that reveals how misplaced the priority of our education system is.
In this country, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, education has always been a class problem. We have seen how our educational system further intensifies the gap between the poor and the well-offs by making schools physically inaccessible and economically expensive. Online classes as a response to the pandemic underscores this economic divide.
When I was younger, in every Christmas or New Year’s celebration, I always insisted on putting apple in the lechon’s mouth. My father’s explanation for why he found my suggestion foolish was quite simple: only rich people did it. Also, an apple would surely not go with a lechon wrapped not in foil but in corrugated cardboard cut from old boxes of cigarettes. It was far from the “ideal” preparation and presentation.
That one needs to conduct their graduation ceremony miles and miles away from their own home is in itself symptomatic of how spaces have become unsafe for those who originally owned them. That one needs to shed sweat and blood to experience schooling while others enjoy the same experience with a miniscule amount of effort is a sign that a larger enemy has to be defeated. That a group needs to suffer the consequences of a war that they did not create is a call for help, a call for action, a call for resistance. And we should start listening.
The best way to make students hate math is to show its usefulness in accurate computation, then imply that this is its only purpose. Students have always assumed that the only skills you need in this discipline are memorization of rules and proper execution of them. This makes math so mechanical, so routine, and, as an effect, so uninteresting. There must be something about math that is more than computation – something more human.
When they killed Ate Beng, it was not only her body that they were trying to destroy; they were after her ideals. By thinking that a bullet could pierce through an established principle, a member of the CAFGU shot Benjaline Hernadez near the head when her hands were clearly raised.
K-12, with some schools offering inadequate choices, worsens the state of our educational system by making education a privilege than a right.
To express one’s dissent is of course not the ultimate solution to everything, but it is incorrect to dismiss it as useless. It is only when we talk that we generate better ideas; it is only when we generate better ideas that we create better policies; it is only when better policies are created that we, our actions are better directed.
My grandparents’ house has an underground hole. It has been there since before I was born. For this reason, I was never bothered about its existence; I thought it was originally part of the house – like a basement where Lolo could store his farm equipment. Besides, the oldest houses in their neighborhood also have small underground holes, so it was never unusual for us.
