Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

Most Filipinos are anti-elitist. A good proportion of the Philippine population would prefer that they be seen as being one with the common tao rather than be seen as one of the elites. Indeed it is a land full of contradictions. This mentality is inconsistent with the behavior exhibited by a people who also routinely act like The Talented Mr Ripley (read: social climbers) ... Full story

Organised religion has a tradition of being averse to stepping up to a serious debate on a level field when its dogma is challenged. Certainly the Roman Catholic Church is not an exception to this tradition of intolerance to free inquiry. I wrote a while back how the Roman Catholic Church is really... an institution ... Full story

I don't understand what is so complicated about this whole English-versus-Tagalog "debate". For me, it is a simple return-on-investment calculation. Compare every peso of public funds spent on Tagalog-articulated instruction and every peso of public funds spent on English-articulated instruction. Which of those two pesos spent contributes more to opening more doors of opportunity for the average Filipino? As I wrote way back in ... Full story

Intelligent people can be the worst teachers. They tend to be impatient with their students. This is because they assume that the students will understand what they are trying to say on their first attempt at explaining something. Because it is easy for them to understand things, it can be hard for intelligent people to put themselves in the average person's shoes and to try ... Full story

In 1995, an American educator named Charles J. Sykes wrote a scathing criticism of the US education system entitled Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why America's Children Feel Good About Themselves but Can't Read, Write, or Add. In the book, Sykes gives a list of “rules for life” that ... Full story

Why are Filipinos not even good at sport? It seems like our athletes had been waved a red flag one day and then simply gave up on trying to achieve world-class status on all types of sport -- I know, I know, aside from boxing, of course. A sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play. It ... Full story

Decent sex education in Philippine public schools. Long overdue. But then how can this become a reality with the Philippine Taliban making sure that "offensive" material is being kept off public school textbooks... Education officials insist that the bishops have nothing to worry about because the is open to deleting portions of the teaching modules that the Church finds offensive.... Full story

Guess what's coming up: "Independence" Day. More precisely, it is the could-have-been day of independence unilaterally declared by General Emilio Aguinaldo back on the 12th of June 1898 that we are celebrating this coming Saturday. Many who see that day as a day that defines "Filipino nationalism" are right. We are a nation because someone said so. It began way back in the 16th Century ... Full story

Political blogging is like a sport. Like any sport, you win some and you lose some. The idea is to play like Roger Federrer, stay cool, calm and composed even in defeat. Sometimes though, one can't help but act a little bit like John McEnroe and cry foul, especially when the opponent violates the rules of the game. As they say, he or she who ... Full story

It's just another day in the Philippines. A prosecution brouhaha is about to put another black eye on the completely bruised, next-to-useless perception of the Philippine Justice System. A situation which is caused by a massacre which just is the tip of the iceberg on the culture of impunity. And this is going in parallel with a presidential elections where the the three frontrunners out ... Full story

It must be hard being an intellectual. Just think of all the names they call people with all the answers to the problems of the world: "nerd"; "geek"; "eccentric"; "weird"; "odd". That's not to mention how they get bullied, ostracised and even labeled "pretentious" just by simply trying to help solve the big puzzles of the ... Full story

A word or a sentence from someone can dramatically change our life; that is, if we are strong enough to take it in stride. Let's take a slice from history and use Alexander the Great as an example. His tutor was no less than the famous philosopher, Aristotle. Surely what Alexander got from one of mankind's ... Full story

Mga kababayan, meron akong masasabi tungkol sa mga nakikita ko sa mga debate sa iba't ibang forum. Ang sinasabing "kabobohan ng Pilipino" ay hindi dulot ng problema ng mga synapse connections, kakulangan sa neurons ng mga utak ng maraming Pinoy, o kung anumang "brain deficiency." Sa totoo lang, maraming Pilipino ang matalino. At ang ... Full story

Got a heads up about ABS-CBN winding up its taping of another episode of "Maalaala mo kaya" featuring "karitonkid". Obviously, it's another source of content to bolster its ratings - no different from CNN allowing multiple votes per person in its Heroes program. My first reaction was here we go again. Another opportunity ... Full story

Retrogressing Education Consider this pronouncement from Chiz Whiz: Secondly, Mr. Speaker, we should and we propose that the curriculum be restudied. Mr. Speaker, I know that this will generate a lot of debate but I hope that our colleagues will listen for awhile. Sa ngayon, umaabot sa nine to eleven ang subjects ng ating mga ... Full story

I often wonder why smart people are frequently admonished for "failing to reach" less-smart people -- as if society owes the less smart a dumbing down of the smart stuff. One particularly controversial example of the prevailing pressure to dumb down is evident in parts of the debate around the "national language". Tagalugin mo na lang ... Full story

Since his reaction to the embarrassingly-low NAT scores was the catalyst for Part One of this discussion, Senator and presidential aspirant Mar Roxas has the perhaps dubious distinction to be the first candidate who will have part of his platform put under the microscope.  In the interest of clarity and fairness, a few conditions ... Full story

In an August 24 Senate hearing reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Senator and presumptive presidential candidate Mar Roxas expressed incredulity at a report by the Department of Education that set the passing grade for the National Achievement Test at 66%, higher than the ... Full story