Hear!

"The only thing that will really stop gambling, or curb it, is not law, it is education. The poor are naturally prone to gambling because they are uneducated. You are uneducated, you will not want to read a book, you will want to play pusoy. You are uneducated, you will not want to go to the columns section of the Inquirer, you will want to go to the “hot tips” section of a tabloid, or consult Madame Auring on the numerical interpretations of dreams. You are uneducated, you will not want to contemplate “Waiting for Godot,” you will want to indulge jueteng for luck."---Conrado de Quiros

I can not help but say, "Hear!" when I read this.  I could not have written this any better.  http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100928-294695/Immorality

Ateneo Wins

My hair stood on their ends while I was reading this article about game 1, Ateneo vs FEU, of this year's UAAP.  http://www.admu.edu.ph/index.php?p=120&type=2&sec=27&aid=8981 

Why? and How?

Many people until now wondered how and why did Titanic sink.  The link below tries to answer these two questions and a number more of the giant Titanic's disastrous end.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100922/lf_nm_life/us_britain_titanic_book

Discipline

Some people or, should I say, teachers have developed this habit of establishing a wall or pedestal in order for students to respect (or worship) them as if they are gods from who-knows-where.  However, they should be reminded that one doesn't have to be scary to become an excellent teacher.  Discipline requires a little fear on the part of the one being disciplined but that shouldn't impede the teaching-learning process so that instead of getting excited to attend their class, students develop fear or worse, hate against the teacher and/or the subject.

In my six years of teaching, I have met teachers of varied personalities as there are students of varied characters and levels of intelligence.  There are teachers who have, after many years of teaching, decided that they can only do much as what the subject allows them to.  There are those who are always dynamic and want change and yet very poor in implementing the change they want to happen for they themselves unknowingly resist it.  There are those whose passion for teaching is unquestionable.  Those who go the extra mile by providing help to students despite the limited resources.  And, yes, there are also those who love to TORMENT the students, so instead of being a mentor, they become TORmentors.  The sad thing is they claim this form of tormenting as "discipline" so that students will learn that life is not a joyride.

First, I have nothing against disciplining a student.  Second, yes students should learn that life is not a joyride.  However, there is a thin line that separates discipline from overuse of power.  When you tell your students that deadline is deadline, that's disciplining.  When you tell your students to be on time in coming to class, that too, is a form of discipline.  When you give students a failing mark for a copied work, that's disciplining as well.  But when you give students projects and written work not discussed or taught in class, that is another thing.  If you tell your students to do push up one-hundred times for sleeping in class without bothering to ask the cause of the student's sloppiness, that's purely insensitivity. If you tell your students to attend to your tutorial for a pay after they have failed in your own class, that's corruption.  If you insult your students every time they effort to answer your questions calling them morons or idiots, that's verbal and psychological abuse.

While teachers have the freedom to impose rules and to discipline their students, they too, ought to be disciplined or if not, manifest a form of self-discipline.  Teachers ought to walk their talk.  How can you tell your students to come on time when you yourself come to class 30 minutes after the time?  How can you demand from your students to study when you yourself come to class unprepared?  Some teachers may have not known this but students know when their teacher is unprepared.  Students are, after all, our audience in the classroom, and yes, they have that eye for mistakes.  

So next time,. when you think of "disciplining" your students, how about a bottle of soda to chill out?  It is better being loved than being shunned or hated, right?  

 

What I Hate Most

 Today, I have decided to have a retreat, and by this, I mean self-introspection--getting into my weaknesses and strengths.  But before that happens, I have decided to write down the things I hate most or if not, things that I simply find annoying.

First: the papers to check.  This is already my 6th year of teaching and until now, checking papers remains a challenge for me.  Sometimes, I am tempted to quit my job and maybe, just maybe, find another job which is freer.  Maybe something else which is not loaded with paper works that seem to hold me captive so that my weekends still become a regular working day.

Second: waiting.  I don't know why many of us Filipinos still cling to the notion of "Filipino Time" as if it is a curse that runs our system that we can not do without.  What is horrible about this "Filipinoness" of  ours is that even the professionals are expected to be late.  Gee! In my class, students would sometimes tell me to "wait" as if they are just saying it to their friends.  The problem is waiting upsets me, so I think they have found their way to being prompt every time I expect them to do something on the dot.

Third: having no common sense or put simply, stupidity.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I'm not playing the "smart ass" here.  It's just that sometimes using common sense is not so common to some people.  Let's say, a student becomes so busy with her/his other subjects.  And surely, because of his/her "hectic and tight" schedule, s/he misses the class.  Won't you be so irritated if s/he only shows his/her butt after a month, telling all these lame reasons in the world for her not having been in your class?  That's simply nuts!  And that simply drives me up the wall.  If s/he is a true student, as s/he claims to be, her/his common sense would have told him/her that I already dropped him/her long time ago!

I feel heavy.  Next time, I should be posting the things I like most or the things which make me happy.  There are more of them than what I have written here, I suppose. Now, that's something to look forward to.  The idea itself is already lifting me up.

Talk on Journalism

I was invited to talk about Copyediting, Newswriting, and Feature Writing last Saturday, September 2, 2010 at the Angelicum Learning Center.  The participants were all high school kids who share my passion in writing.  To all you guys,good luck.  Keep on writing. 

Partying with my former students

“Edward is back and is holding a grad party,” Mao posted on my wall.  He then sent me a message that it would be nice if I’d go with them, so without a doubt I said yes.  I tagged along Tish and Jan (with Ed’s permission, of course, through Mao, thanks Mr Coordinator).  We got to Edward’s place ahead of the others (as expected!), and it was a complete surprise to see him so big already.  His American accent (twang) so distinct this time but his Bisaya is still good.  Then the boys came! Manny who was actually there first, Mao, Rien, Marc, Ben, Jared, and Jay R! It was a bang meeting these guys after many years—them on their studies in other schools as far as DLSU in Manila and in Hawaii!  That night couldn’t have been any better!

      

Good Poetry and Bad

 Some notes:

                To attempt to evaluate a poem should never be made before the poem is understood; and, unless one has developed the capacity to feel some poetry deeply, any judgments one makes will be worthless.

¡  The ability to make judgments, to discriminate between good and bad, great and good, good and half-good, is surely a primary object al all liberal education, and one’s appreciation of poetry is incomplete unless it includes discrimination.

Three questions we need to ask in judging a poem:

¡  What is its central purpose?

¡  How fully has this purpose been accomplished?

¡  How important is this purpose?

***WE need to answer the first question to understand the poem.  Qs 2&3 are those by which we evaluate it. Q2 measures the poem on a scale of perfection. Q3 measures it on a scale of significance.

Some of the several varieties of inferior poetry:

¡  The sentimental-Is indulgence in emotion for its own sake, or expression of more emotion than an occasion warrants. Sentimental literatures are “tear-jerking” literature, which aims primarily at stimulating the emotions directly rather than at communicating experience truly and freshly.

¡  The rhetorical-Uses a language more glittering and high flown than its substance warrants.  It offers a spurious vehemence of language—language without a corresponding reality of emotion or thought underneath.

¡  The purely didactic-Has the purpose to teach or preach.  It is probable that all the very greatest poetry teaches in subtle ways, without being expressly didactic; and much expressly didactic poetry ranks high in poetic excellence: that is it accomplishes its teaching without ceasing to be poetry.  When the didactic purpose supersedes the poetic purpose, when the poem communicates information or moral instruction only, then it ceases to be didactic poetry and becomes didactic verse.

Bago Aplaya

My dear students,
I have decided not to post the two poems since they will be printed as part of the questionnaire.  No more worries. :D