The Mentor

Apr 29

Deception?

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The world seems to be full of deceptions. When you are young, it is always that you are asked by your elders to study hard and give your best in school because education is the key to success. Also, parents and teachers always utter this to you: The youth is the hope of the motherland. How will you react to this? Now if both of these cliches are combined, what it would seem to appear something like: for success to be attained in both personal and social levels, the youth should do good in their education, else they’ll fail.

I say that the world is full of deception because it does not follow that those who do not have interests in education, for whatever reasons, will not achieve success nor fail. I mean, I have personally witnessed succesful people in their fields without getting any college degrees. At the same time, I have also known people who have completed college yet remained to be jobless as of this writing.

Isn’t this deception? Or only a make-believe?

Apr 15

A Matter Of Priority

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Living a life that is supported with all the luxuries is always a dream-but-will-it-come-true to most, if not all, individuals. Living a life comfortably in an elite circle seems to just be a bonus for a person. Now, the only thing that is common to many of the people around the globe is to survive. Any means of survival has been tried and done – all targeting for a fulfilled life that is, the basic needs are already met.

In a world where parents can no longer support their kids’ education, for example, what would these parents do to keep up the demands of daily living? Will the parents barter education and have these kids “earn” their own living? If these kids will work, they will at least contribute to the little income of the family. In thi way, not only they need to survive in a daily basis, but can now extend up to a week-long maintenance. Later the education, now the food.

Apr 04

I Had Eveything But One

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I had once a classmate in primary school who was so smart. She used to top in our classes ever since our first grade, consistent until sixth grade. Everyone in the batch already expected that she be declared our class valedictorian. Everyone including her. She had the most promising academic performance. She represented each and every competition our school joined. And in many cases, she was victorious. Everyone but her. She was the only bet our school had.

But everyone also knew how she treated everyone of us. Including the teachers. She was so mean. But it seemed that during her first six years, no one minded it. But not on our seventh year.

We had a new teacher on our Good Manners and Right Conduct Class. This teacher was so ideal. He judged his students fairly. Including her. I don’t wanna say she was unlucky but I guess she was – for having an instructor so good and fair as our GMRC teacher. Our GMRC teachers failed her. Because of her conduct. The reason why she didn’t graduate as valedictorian of our class.

Feb 10

Mothers Educate Their Kids

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In a democratic city-state of ancient Athens, the goal of its education was to produce citizens who were trained in the arts of both war and peace. The purpose of education for them was to produce individuals who were trained in these arts so the curriculum was drafted to get this aim. Ancient Athens required two years of military training for all its citizens. This training began at the age of eighteen.

Also, the state gave responsibility to the parents in educating their sons as the parents so fit. They had private schools but the fee was maintained low so the less fortunate can cope up with it. It was until until the age six or seven that they were sent to schools. It was their mothers who took care of the “basic” education they needed.

Feb 02

Trained Since Birth

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It is known throughout world history about the nature of ancient Spartan men and women in the fields of education and military training. Different from the goal of education in the Greek city-states (which was to prepare each child for adult activities as a citizen), Sparta’s goal was to produce soldier-citizens who were well-disciplined, well-drilled marching army. Young boys were already trained to be loyal to Sparta. Loyalty was inculcated to their boys right from the start. Spartans always believed in a kind of life that’s simple and disciplined.

At a young age of seven, all the boys of Sparta were obliged to leave home and join in military trainings under the supervision of a hierarchy of officers. These boys lived, trained and slept in the barracks of their brotherhood. Everyday, they were taught survival strategies and all those techniques necessary to become a great soldier for their city-state. These boys had underwent an increasinly difficult course of training between the ages seven to eighteen.

Jan 27

Quality Education For All

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Another impressive news I have heard is when I knew something about quality education that should be deemed imperative in the 21st century. This was the primary goal of the Education Summit 2007. It was an invitation-only conference that brought together all the leaders in business, education, academe, and government in a conference environment.

The said summit was one of the annual conferences that’s organized to get the collective will and intelligence of the participants. The summit’s agenda “is designed to facilitate a realistic appraisal of the current education system; a review of what current and near-future assets, innovations, research, policies and methodologies are available for reform; and the construction of a forward-thinking plan based on the best available quantitative and qualitative information our nationally-recognized panelists and participants can provide.”

Despite my limited knowledge on the outcome of this conference, I know for sure that it was a success and that they’ve come up with ideas to help lessen the many problems of education worldwide.

Jan 09

What’s Next For Education?

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A conference on “what’s next” to education in the cultural/social, technological and methodological dimensions was sponsored by Focus on Education Foundation and The Center for Internet Research. The theme of the conference talked about the “need for realistic appraisal of the state of education and reform efforts, and what present realities indicate for the future, coupled with constructive and well-informed speculation about how change in education can be better managed to serve the need of students, educators, parents, industry, and society as a whole; the real and the ideal.”

The conference was well-represented because it had respresentatives all over the globe. Also, the participants were not only coming from one field but from all areas. Present in the conference who were one in making the education a basic right and necessity were people from the business, religious, academic, social ang government sectors. All in all, the conference was a success.

Dec 17

When Procrastination Was My Middle Name

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My mother used to say to me that my middle name should be procrastination because I kept on putting off doing chores or homework until the last minute. I used to find doing the household chores boring and usually spent my time reading or playing as these two activities were more fun and interesting. However I also found out that leaving responsibilities undone right up to the deadline meant that I felt stressed and rushed when I finally got around to doing what I should have done before its deadline. I also found out that I did not always give myself enough time.

Most of the times, I was not able to finish my assigned works and projects. These incomplete projects and tasks led to negative consequences, say, bad grades or additional chores. In the end, I learned that it is not healthy to put things off because it has negative effects on me.

Nov 20

So Many What Ifs

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If we follow the manifesto of Durkheim, that is the improvement of the sciences, arts, and technology is constant with the increasing number of crimes, then how about in the case of the those countries in the third world? These countries are therefore existing very oddly because these countries are not that super modern as when compared to other developed countries, yet statistics show that crimes are still skyrocketing. This reality does not support Durkheim’s theory then.

I now wonder what would Durkheim say at the present condition of the Philippines wherein a lot of Filipinos are idle and unemployed? What would be the role of unskilled and uneducated people?

With the basic assumption that no living being can experience genuine happiness or can even exist unless his needs are sufficiently proportioned to his means, does this mean that if this doesn’t happen, disaster will strike and chaos will dominate in the society?

Nov 10

I Used To Be A Barbie Girl

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When I was in my third grade, I always complained to my teacher about our uniform. I felt like my school uniform was not good enough and it was as if I was wrapped into a big piece of cloth with red and black stripes with a big red ribbon on my chest combined with white knee socks and black boots. Before going to school, it was always a habit that my mom tied my hair the pony tail way using big red laces. I felt I was so lousy and I felt like I was transformed into one little clown. Well, the clown less that red circle in my nose.

That’s why I didn’t want to go to school. But of course, I had to bear it.

Now that I am old, I always look back to that memory every time I pass by my alma matter. I see small girls wearing the same set of uniform with that of mine that I used to hate some ten years ago. Now I realize, the uniform is not really as clumsy as I thought it was. It’s even so cute, designed for little school girls whose parents and mentors continuously aim in making their school girls look like barbie dolls.

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