Trying to belong

There are now suggestions we revert to the old June-March school calendar instead of the August-May currently in effect. There had been two main reasons then for the shift. An August-May calendar avoids the June-July rains. But to a growing number of people, it seems the rains are better than the unavoidable April-May heat.

If it is just all about the weather, I really do not care one way or the other. In school or outside it, we still get soaked in the rain or get baked in the sun. That is the sorry lot ordained for us by geographic circumstance. I just do not like using the impact of weather on learning when the truth is there is not much learning taking place as it is whatever the weather.

That we continue to lag even behind our lowly neighbors in science, math and reading comprehension is an indictment of our educational system and the weather has got nothing to do with it. The fact that we use schools as evacuation centers when the weather throws a tantrum shows exactly where our priorities lie.

The other reason for the shift in school calendars from the June-March of old to the current August-May (which we want to change again?) is to me the real reason. It was never about the weather. It was because we wanted to belong. We wanted the American calendar for ourselves. We did not want to be left behind.

This wanting to belong is a reflection of our lack of maturity as a nation. We cannot seem to decide what is best for us under the circumstance of our own lives. We keep looking over our shoulders at the others. Even at work we only strive to be as busy as our fellows. If others loaf around on the same pay we get, out the window flies our own shot at excellence.

The K to 12 program that was rammed down the throats of Filipino students and their parents continues to be the big failure in expectations today as it was then when the Noynoy Aquino administration wanted it to be an educational legacy. And why was it forced despite universal misgivings? Because we wanted to belong.

The argument then was that we were one of only very few countries that did not have a 12-year basic education curriculum. My take on the issue then, as it is now, is that I am for the 12 years but only when our system and its capabilities are ready. We were not ready then. We are still not ready now. Go to rural Philippines and see for yourself and try not to cry.

Right now there is a bill in Congress that just might finally pull through. It is a bill instituting absolute divorce in a country that is more than 80% Catholic and therefore nominally opposed to it. Proponents of the bill say it will give a way out to couples trapped in non-working marriages. Who these couples are, I am sure, make only a tiny fraction of the majority.

Of course, it is never right to impose the will of the minority over that with the overwhelming numbers. But they never talk about that. They only talk of the sad stories and not of the happy ones of those in the majority who live happy married lives. To try and clinch this sordid deal, they say only we and the Vatican state have no divorce. The rest of the world has.

So again we need to belong. But the Philippines is unique among all nations in that we have very strong family ties. A marriage here is a family affair. It is never just about two people. When we hit a rough patch, as all marriages do, the family moves heaven and earth to set things right. We need not belong if our uniqueness is a virtue and a treasure.