The Extracurricular Being

Election time is here again.  It is the time that some Filipinos view as the perfect opportunity to give the presidency to the one they view as educated as qualified, and not just to a person whose candidacy is sustained by plain popularity.  The said scenario particularly apply to those who were "traumatized" by Erap's presidency.

And nowadays, administration candidate Gilbert "Gibo" Teodoro has emerged as the "thinking voter's choice", or rather apparently.  At the very least, Gibo now finds himself in the similar situation to that of Raul Roco in 2004.  Gibo is now considered as the "most intelligent" among the ten presidential candidates for 2010.

However, Gibo's intellectual luster is overshadowed by the current anti-adminsistration sentiments of the society.  It's not that I am anti-Gloria (and I am not pro-Gloria either) but let's face it, GMA right now is the biggest liability Gibo got on his back.

As I have said, I am neither anti- or pro-Gloria. I would say that as far as my view to the current administration is concerned, it is a mixture of both exceptionally bad (well, I don't have to mention those) and exceptionally good (c'mon, Philippines became a newly industrialized country under the Arroyo regime, and that's something that not even my fave prexy Fidel Ramos was able to do!).  But despite my softer-than-expected ire towards the current administration, I would say that I still won't vote for Gibo!

I know you can see that I have a different take on the issue of not voting for Gibo.  Again, you can see me wearing the hat of the differently educated sector.

A big number of his supporters often cite his colorful academic records as their primary reason for supporting him.  I know my readers know me well enough by now.  Academic excellence never impresses me!  Educational excellence does.

But again, I would like to clarify that I do not necessarily take good academic records as a fault to a person's character, or a candidate's qualification in this case.

But let's take the academic elitists' stubborn arguments for the sake of discussion.  Granted that academic excellence can indeed be translated to capability to govern, let's take a look at this academically excellent candidate's program in nurturing the intellect of the Filipino students.

The Carlos P. Romulo Foundation and ANC Channel sponsored the event "Presidential Policy Forum: Philippine Credibility and Competitiveness in the World" in Asian Institute of Management Conference Center on 15 January 2010.  The presidential candidates present were Richard "Dick" Gordon, Manuel "Manny" Villar, and of course Gilbert "Gibo" Teodoro.

In the said forum, Gibo made a statement that clearly revealed his program for the Philippine education system.  He said, "In pre-school level, we must start standardizing how we teach pre-school children - computer literacy, English speaking skills and other formative skills. Basic education reform, the road map is already there."

He further added, "We have to realign our basic education with international standards, with additional years perhaps. In tertiary education, we must rationalize scholarships and we should have more legitimate PhD and master’s degree holders."

Gibo, the so-called "intelligent candidate", did not hit a single note correctly as far as the problem of the Philippine educational system is concerned.  He sang way out of tune.

What Gibo failed to realize, or at least mention, is that the current crisis encountered by the Philippine educational system can be summed up into two problems: access and quality.

First is access.  Please, please, please... academic elitists may call me dumb for being a college dropout, but I am smart enough to know this reality and the urgent need to address this problem first and foremost.  I don't know how a lawyer like Gibo can miss this very important point, and instead choose to worry about the "need" for more PhD and master's degree holders!  Let's get logical about it.  How can you expect your people to pursue graduate studies if they cannot even afford the financial cost of a bachelor's degree?  Even the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, a known school for the intellectually gifted yet financially challenged students, recently attempted to increase their tuition fee by 2,000 percent!

And the sad thing is we now have a corporate world that is already very discriminative to people who got the skills but do not have a bachelor's degree.  In stressing the "need" for more PhD and master's degree holders, Gibo is actually creating an even more discriminative system in the local job market!  Nowadays, the discriminated sector in the local job market are the "non-bachelor's degree holders".  In the system that Gibo is aspiring to create, the discriminated sector will be the "non-master's degree holders".

Second is quality.  And when we say quality, we do not mean additional years.  I am sure everyone here has watched the new TV commercials of Bossing Vic Sotto for Tide detergent powder.  Bossing boasted that a spoon of Tide can beat two spoons of other detergent powder brands in terms of cleanliness.  Now that's quality!  When we say quality, we are embracing the "more in less" principle, meaning it's the school's obligation to make sure to it that students learn a lot in the least time possible.  Adding additional years to either elementary, secondary, or tertiary education cannot be readily translated to quality education.

Contrary to Gibo's "additional year perhaps" principle, we must actually REDUCE the years of tertiary education.  Why is that so?  Have you noticed that in a four-year bachelor's degree curriculum, up to two years of it are dedicated for general education subjects that have already been taken up in elementary and high school?  Aren't we wasting too much time for allotting half of the curriculum's time table for subjects that students should have already mastered before entering college?  This means that immediate reforms in the basic (elementary and secondary) educational system must be done.  The basic educational system must be strengthened in such a way that before entering college, students already have enough competence in core skills like language, sciences, and logic-mathematics.  And when they enter college, they will be taking major subjects right away.  This strategy saves time, and this produces more professionals in less time!

And also, when we say quality education, we mean that the bachelor's degree curriculum should already be comprehensive enough to catapult the student to the career related to his/her course.  Sure, academic elitists can stick to their four-year formula for bachelor's degree, but they need to make sure to it that engineering students end up as engineers!  We don't need more nursing graduates who end up as call center agents.

By stressing the need for additional years and graduate studies, what Gibo is actually giving the Filipino people is additional expenses for formal education.  We Filipinos are already suffering the unholy cost of formal education way too much.  Gibo's program will just make things worse.

What Gibo does not know is that his program for the Philippine educational system sounds good only to pedants like him, decorated with all the academic credentials that make him look smart, and blessed with all the money that made him capable of pursuing such credentials.  He, after all, is a Cojuangco.

But for the typical Filipino workers who feed their families on a minimum wage, Gibo's educational program is a total nonsense.

And unfortunately, I do not support candidates who talk nonsense, especially on very important issues like education.

(Click here to view photo source)

I am supposed to resume writing this Easter Sunday, but I feel like there's something I really need to write.

I need to share to my readers a very simple tip that has helped my nurture my spirituality.  After all, today is Lenten Season, a time for reflection.

So in my new post in Music Lessons (yes, I have now started writing in this new sub-blog of mine), I wrote how to listen to music for free without "robbing" the artists of their music.  I particularly made Real Music artists as examples for their music can help us in our voyage to deeper spiritual understanding.

Thanks.

Hi there! 

I will be away for quite some days to take some time reflecting this Lenten Season.  I will be back next week with new articles, including my first post for my new sub-blog Music Lessons. 

Thank you.

There has been a great amount of encouragement from my friends, relatives and even critics to start a sub-blog about music.  Perhaps it's because they have always known music as my primary interest, having performed and researched it for most of my life.

But what really kept me from starting a music blog was the question of specialization.  

Okay, I will be writing about music, but what particular topic in the field music will I discuss?  

Obviously, music is such a very wide subject, and narrowing down my blog into a more specialized topic is indeed a challenge, not only because it is already as challenging as it could get but also because I am such a man with a rather very wide range of interests as far as the discipline of music is concerned.

Another challenge is how will I connect my interest in music to my advocacy in promoting the welfare of the differently educated people?  That sounded like a one-million-dollar question to me.

As far as music is concerned, I am only sure of three things: (1) music is one of the beautiful disciplines where people do not really care if you got a college degree; (2) I am not a big fan of "pop music" for I find it more "musical" to listen to other excellent yet underrecognized musicians out there; and (3) beyond melody and rhythm, I learned a lot of life's lessons through music.

Wait.  Looks like I just hit the jackpot!

Well, the local music community enjoys the relative educational equality that has always been evasive in the Philippine corporate world.  But that does not mean the local music community does not have problems.  A lot of dignified yet underrated musicians are struggling to break free from the cultural tyranny of overexposed ultra-mainstream entertainers.  And amid these apparently eternal love-hate relationship between the musical yin's and the yang's, an open listener will never fail to capture the priceless lessons music has to offer.

And as inspired by all the lessons music bestows to all open listeners, I am now creating my new sub-blog which I called "Music Lessons".

So there you go.  Hope you'd like my posts in my new sub-blog about music.

About a decade ago, I came up with a principle I coined as educational excellence.  I opined that we must promote educational excellence instead of academic excellence, for the former outshines the amorality of the latter.

Let us compare and contrast the two principles according to their dictum:

Academic Excellence:
For the dictum of academic excellence is to attain academic merits through scholastic pursuits.

Educational Excellence:
To pursue knowledge in all available avenues and put knowledge into practice for the purpose of self and social welfare.

That means educational excellence tells us the following:

- If you do not have the means to pursue formal education, you do not need to resort to illegal and immoral activities to join the academic world, because there are other learning avenues available out there.

- People must put emphasis on practical knowledge.  Memorizing the scientific names of vegetables is a good thing, but isn't it better if you know how to cook them?

- True education must contribute to the empowerment of the individual, and the individual must contribute to the empowerment of the community.

As you can see, educational excellence has nothing to do with having a college degree, graduating with honors, or being from a "reputable" university.  The goals of educational excellence can simply be summed up to three values: lifelong learning, practicality, and social responsibility.

Also, educational excellence strongly opposes various forms of cheating in the academic world, because cheating only gives a student good grades but not good grasp of the subject, and thus it is incompatible with the virtue of true learning.

Educational excellence, NOT academic excellence, is the mindset that we need to adopt as far as education is concerned.

There have been several attempts to define, redefine and refine academic excellence.  It may be because of either the increasing cultural pressure from the society to further impose the scholarly manners to everyone and everything, or the various small yet audible counter-academic sentiments that have sprouted inside and outside the academic world.

But at the end of the day, academic excellence never really abandoned (and it never will) its narrow essential traits: quantity over quality, grades over grasp, and merits over morals.

Let's face it.  Who is the better performer in terms of academic excellence, the student who got a high grade by submitting a plagiarized research paper, or the student who has a very sound understanding of the Philippine Revolution but got a failing mark from his/her pro-Magdalo professor for submitting a position paper stating that Andres Bonifacio is the first Philippine president?  No matter how we put it, it's the former who can be "labelled" as the academically excellent student, not the latter.  The proof?  The grade.  Simple.

Similarly, who is the "better writer" in terms terms of academic excellence, a graduate of AB English who does not even know basic verb tenses (yes, they exist here in the Philippines), or a prolific essayist who does not have a college diploma?  You got it right!  It's still the former.  The proof?  The diploma.

I know a lot of people would disagree with me, arguing that they did not finish college education just for the piece of paper that goes with it after four years.  Some people may cite other more sensible, honest, practical and even noble reasons behind their studies, like skills, interest, need and helping the poor.  True.  No doubt about it.  But these reasons are way beyond the concern of academic excellence.

For the dictum of academic excellence is to attain academic merits through scholastic pursuits.  No more, no less.  So that means if somebody resorts to prostitution to raise enough funds for tuition fee and ends up graduating as suma cum laude, that person is still academically excellent.  It's as plain as that.

Come on, if a licensed chemist who graduated summa cum laude in UP poisons the water supply, do you think he will lose those high grades he got in college?  Hell no!  Yup, he may be imprisoned or even put in the death row, but his academic excellence will stay as if nothing really happened.  In the eyes of the public, he is still "matalino".  Gago nga lang.

But as far as academic excellence is concerned, hindi bale nang wasak, huwag lang bagsak.

Academic excellence ALWAYS cares about merits but NEVER cares about morals.  Thus, academic excellence is not just immoral.  Academic excelence is amoral.

Academic excellence comdemns Erap not because of his crime of plunder but because he does not have a college diploma.  Academic excellence sings praises to Ferdinand Marcos due to the fact that he got a degree in law (end even topped the bar exams) despite the human rights violations allegedly committed during Martial Law.  And I can even go as far as saying that it's academic excellence that insulted and betrayed Andres Bonifacio.  During the Tejeros Convention, isn't it in academic grounds that Daniel Tirona objected Bonifacio's election to the post of Director of the Interior?

Much to our ignorance, academic excellence and the overall culture of academic elitism has greatly affected our history as a nation, and will continue to do so.  It creates a long and continuing history of corruption, marginalization, and moral decline.

Our children continue to cheat in exams.  Parents continue to do their children's assignments.  Students continue to plagiarize their research papers.  College prostitutes continue their business every registration period.  And towards the end of the semester, the "kuwatro o kantot" tales continue to be told as campus legends.

All these in the name of academic excellence.

And the sad thing is academic excellence simply doesn't give a damn on how you do things.

So what do we replace academic excellence with?  I will discuss that in my next post.

It is such a very rewarding experience to be able to raise two cute Labrador Retrievers, both emotionally and educationally.

I admit that at first we decided to take them as new members of our family because we found them cute.  We were very unaware of the huge challenges raising dogs can present, particularly high energy dogs like Labrador Retrievers or Labs for short. 

And when I talk about challenges, I am not only talking about the financial burden having dogs can offer (e.g. dog food, veterinary visits, dog toys and accessories, etc.).  But more importantly, I would like to emphasize the emotional readiness needed in raising dogs.

A dog is not a furniture that you can just leave in your yard to kill lots of time all day long.  A sleep-and-eat lifestyle is the last thing on earth a dog would like.  Mind you, a dog would find more joy in dying in a war while helping his/her human companion in the battlefields than to live a day in his/her life doing nothing but watch the clouds pass by.

A dog therefore needs more than just food and water.  More importantly, it needs quality time from his/her human companion.

And for yours truly who is working in Makati in a pretty unholy shift (3:30 am-12:30pm) and resides outside the National Capital Region, it is indeed a huge challenge to give my dogs the quality time they need.

Yet thank Heaven and Earth, I was able to provide my furkids with the time and love that they need.  As I have implied in my previous post, it is just all pure will power and old-fashioned hard work.

But let me stress that it's not just all work as far as raising my dogs are concerned.  Of course, they give us a lot of priceless things in return.  I feel like they rewarding us for all the care that we gave to them.  And in my case, what I treasure most is I learned a lot of precious things from them, things that I only used to brush off when I was a lot younger.

Ask any seasoned dog owner out there, and they will all tell you that one of the greatest things a dog can teach you is patience.  Yes, PATIENCE.  Oh dear, my very good mom knows how many seconds it would take for me to lose my temper.  Same goes to my wife.  I admire these two women for the patience they showed on me for my very lack of that virtue.  Aheheheh!  But let me tell you, my dogs taught me to just laugh things off.  So what if they chewed my socks again!?  =D

But the most important thing my dogs taught me is that every great blessing comes with great obligation.  The academic world has made us believe countless times that we must work hard to receive blessings.  Yeah, that's true... but that's not just it.  My dogs taught me a lot more than that.  They taught me that when we receive blessings, we must work harder!  Why!?  Because blessings may be happy outcomes but they aren't happy endings.  Whether it is a very good job offer, a beautiful girl who finally gave you her sweet "yes", or an angelic newborn baby, we must work harder to nurture these blessings so they can blossom into something bigger, something more beautiful, and something more meaningful.  Blessings should never be treated as graduation day.  Rather, they must be treated as the first day in class, or should I say "first day high"... wow pare... nyahahahah!

It touches my heart everytime people tell me that our furkids are such beautiful dogs because I and my wife know the fact that these kids didn't grow overnight.  Their current cuteness is a product of a long history of hard work and dedication.  What's more amusing to realize is the fact that we are just getting started, and these furkids still have a very long way to go as far as cuteness is concerned!

I really, really feel like writing about this one.

I, for the nth time, have become guilty of abusing my earthen body again.  I worked way beyond my physical limits.

My tummy went berserk yesterday, and it was really violent.  The tiles, the faucet, and that throne suddenly became my frequent friends.

I lost a lot of body fluid in the process.  It made me very weak.  Yet still, I decided to go to work, much to my wife's protest.

This morning, upon arriving at our office, I knew my body could not handle eight hours of office drama.  It was downright impossible.

For the body, that is.

All that propelled me is my stubborn refusal to let the workload take one golden opportunity to crazily pile up and multiply like gremlins on the loose.  No way!  Over my dead gorgeous body!

And before I knew it, my spirit, armed with that unyielding will power, has taken over my dehydrated earthen body.

Eight hours is now over.  What a daredevil stunt for this differently educated soul!

Finally, I can now go home.

It is such a good thing that some of us are now calling other people in a more respectful way.  The senior members of our society are now being called “wise” or “experienced” instead of the apparently harmless term “old”.  I heard someone call our Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as “vertically challenged” instead of “pandak”.  We now call our handicapped brethrens as “differently abled”.

Too bad, as a writer and advocate of counter-academic beliefs, I am ashamed to admit that I myself failed to observe political correctness in addressing my fellow “undergrads”.

Some Pinoys nowadays shun the label “college dropout” for it is a pejorative word that segregates the undergrads from the “college graduates”, with the former as those who failed and dropped out of the academic arena and the latter as those who won and earned the recognition is being among the educated. 

In order to soften things, some people (yours truly included) use the term “undergraduate” instead.  But the term “undergraduate” is an equally contemptuous one, for it implies that the intelligence level of the “undergrads” is UNDER the competence bar of the college graduates.  We all know that’s not true.

So from now on, we college undergraduates will address ourselves in a totally different way.  We will now call ourselves as differently educated.

And as a mark of respect to our new name, I will be renaming this sub-blog from "Learning Beyond Schooling, Education Over Academics" to "Differently Educated".

Cheers to the differently educated talents of the Philippine corporate world!

I recognize the fact that both college graduates and undergraduates nowadays face the same harsh reality: the difficulty of landing a job here in the Philippines.

To tackle the said issue, I created another sub-blog of The Extracurricular Being entitled "Requirement: Pleasing Personality".  There I will write about equal employment opportunity, disagreeable job ads, life-work balance issues, and other concerns faced by both the jobless and the overworked Pinoy.

Enjoy reading!