‘If everyone is bribing, it must be all right’ (and other things our children must unlearn)

I gave a lecture recently at one of our elite universities. The succeeding question and answer period revealed how much our educational system has deteriorated, not just in its incapacity to give the young generation this abiding sense of nation, of belonging to Filipinas. More crucial than this, we are being destroyed by moral metastasis.

The most cogent comments from the very young – they were college freshmen – were these: "How can I progress in life if I don’t grease palms?"

"If everyone is bribing, it must be all right."

Some 10 years ago, a study on the attitudes of grade school children was made by a sociologist, and she came out with the astounding conclusion that the majority of young Filipinos would rather be Americans or any other nationality, than Filipino.

I must now admit to a terrible sense of embarrassment when I am abroad and I am asked how is it possible that Imelda Marcos, her children, and all the Marcos cronies are back.

Or, how come we elected Joseph Estrada President.

We are such an assertive and innovative people. Why then are we poor?

We have such excellent executives, technical people working abroad. Why then is our country such a mess?

The answers to these questions are all interrelated. To answer them, I must go to the very beginning, to the rearing of our young, to grade school. Permit me then to make some suggestions, culled from the hindsight of an old man of 79.

Work The Land

It is the land which creates the strongest sense of nation, the basic element which binds a people together, which also welds them unto itself. The land is not just a metaphor or symbol, but the living earth which farmers tend, which grows rice, trees – this mother earth where we tread, on which we build our homes. This land explains why a sense of nation is strongest among the peasantry whose hands touch the soil and who worship it, for this land not only sustains people – it also envelops them in its sweet embrace when they die.

Wherever possible, if the school has idle land or can acquire land for agricultural purposes, such land should be developed by the students, from grade school to college. Each student should be given a plot to prepare for planting vegetables, or whatever is suited for the particular locale.

The time apportioned for this work may be taken optionally from the time allotted for physical education, civics, or ROTC.

Several advantages accrue from this activity.

1) The idle land will be made productive; it will produce food which is our constant need.

2) It will give the students, particularly the middle class youth who have no actual knowledge of farm life, an experience with the land; they will prepare it, plant it, watch the plants grow, and finally reap the harvest.

3) Most important, they will come to understand what the land means, not just as a source of food, but most of all, soil to care for and to love. Such experience will then impinge upon young minds, the full worth of what MOTHERLAND means.

Make Rituals Meaningful

The singing of the national anthem should be followed by a recitation of Mabini’s decalogue in all grade schools, in the language of the region and not just in Tagalog. In this manner, its meaning is easily understood by the children. The decalogue should be printed in all grade school texts, in the frontispiece for easy reading. A short biographical outline about Mabini should follow the decalogue so that the children will get to know that its author was a hero of the revolution.

Make Literature Relevant

Early in life, children are told stories that are specially primed for them, to give them not just a sense of right and wrong, but also to develop in them pride of nation.

The Swiss have that famous story of William Tell and how he risked his son’s life by aiming an arrow at an apple on his son’s head. The Dutch have that story of the boy who thrust his hand in a hole in the dike to prevent a flood. The Americans tell their kids about how Washington cut the cherry tree and did not lie about it.

What similar stories will we tell our children?

Make History Interesting

All elementary schools should have history inserted in the curriculum, not so much as a separate subject, but as a consistent element in the classes, for instance, in reading, literature, geography. Each town must have a written history – this was started some years back, and the teachers must draw from this material. Each town, too, must have some personality of historical significance – some revolutionary leader like Mabini, or some personalities that stand out – during the Japanese Occupation, or during the revolution against Spain, or the Philippine-American war, some personality who had contributed to the nation’s development, senators of outstanding merit, or presidents, like Ramos in Asingan, Pangasinan, Magsaysay in Castillejos, Zambales.

Town Fiestas

They should be exploited by the public schools. The old Garden Day should be revived so that the town fiesta will also be a kind of agricultural or industrial fair, a display of the town’s historical importance.

Libraries

When I was young, I was starved for books. My mother who knew I liked to read went around town looking for books she could borrow. Our school library did not have much. It was not till I went to Manila that I finally found all the books I wanted at the National Library which was then at the basement of the Legislative Building.

Each town or barrio should have libraries or facilities that would bring books to our very poor. Encourage book donations to existing rural libraries and these libraries should have open shelves which permit all those who want to read to browse.

Adult Education

Some two decades ago, a study was made on dropouts in grade schools and it was found out that half of the grade school pupils quit school at grade five. There are thousands upon thousands today of young adults who are unfit for employment.

Some 20 years ago, I visited Denmark and got introduced to the folk high schools there. These are adult education schools for students 16 to 60 set up in the middle of the 19th century in the small towns to educate the rural Danes. The town blacksmith became a teacher, carpenter, etc. There was hardly any distinction between the teacher and the student – and both lived together for a period of time. The same adult education system can be adapted here. Some 15 years ago, on my account, I brought here three folk school teachers from Denmark and we held a seminar at the PRRM center in San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija. Unfortunately, nothing came out of the seminar in the sense that the project was not institutionalized although I am sure that some of those NGO participants learned a thing or two.

With a bit more commitment, such an adult education program will help a lot of our young unemployed. They can make use of empty school buildings during the vacation months, or other such empty buildings that belong to the church or government. They can be staffed with volunteers among retired teachers and professionals, or motivated professionals.

Let me state that for some time now, I have been giving pro bono lectures and workshops on writing.

Recently, I saw Munting Tinig – the acclaimed movie which is now being distributed internationally by Warner Brothers. The story is simplicity itself. A young motivated teacher takes on a job in a poor village. She faces problems which most teachers face today but she perseveres and even galvanizes the village into acting as a community when the children participate in a choral contest.

The theater was almost empty but that is another problem altogether. The status of teachers has truly gone down compared to what it was when I was in grade school in the ’30s. Then, the teacher, like the policeman, was regarded with respect, so much so that the spouse – even if he/she was not a teacher, was also called maestra/maestro. How do we put the teacher back on that pedestal? I am sure hundreds of teachers are well motivated. How do we increase their ranks, sustain them?

Eggie Apostol started sometime back a support the school movement – something which all middle and upper class Filipinos should contribute money to. How do we multiply such effort?

Tax Religious Institutions

Now, here is something which our legislators should look into. I suggest that all churches be made to pay taxes, and such taxes should then be plowed into the public school system.

I have been teaching off and on for the last 40 years in the college and post graduate level. Mind you, I have no degree in education and my knowledge of pedagogy is very elemental. I am bragging but one of the best compliments I got came some years back at La Salle.

At the beginning of the new trimester, I noticed a couple of students in class; I asked them what they were doing in my class since I did not flunk them. They said they were repeating the course because they were learning so much. I didn’t even know my teaching style till a friend audited my class and said I was using the Socratic method. He explained it consisted of asking questions for the students and the teacher to answer.

But if I had my way, I would teach in high school for high school students are far more inquisitive than those in college.

Remembering my own boyhood and the grade school teachers who first guided me, I think I will have to agree with a former student, now a grade school teacher, who said teaching children is most rewarding.

To date, I have written some 16 books – not much really compared to what other writers have written elsewhere. But looking back, I now realize that I did not conceptualize these books in my 20s or 30s. They all began in grade school, when I first read Rizal’s Noli and Fili, Willa Cather’s My Antonia, and Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote.

Truly, development starts at the grade school level, with our very young. Those of us who care about this nation should never forget this.