A Question For Everyone

I realize that I’ve been angry lately. Impatient could be more accurate. Indignant too.

I only feel this way with my work, or to be more accurate — when I am at work. I’ve been in this school for over four years now. Not long, but long enough. There is no doubt that there are things that can be done better — should be done better. Somehow, the scale of our task — educating the gifted — doesn’t measure up with the scale of our ambitions. I don’t want to be someone who simply resigns into the way things are. I am just not built that way. And yet I know that it is only through working with things the way they are that I can get anything done. This can be so frustrating.

There are days when I need to remind myself of why I do this. My father has it right — if I am to endure a job with all this unnecessary stress, I might as well choose one that pays better. I easily could (or maybe not considering these tough economic times). But rely on my sense of mission or duty to keep me stubborn. Day in and day out, I remain here for something all of us teachers came here for. There is no doubt that all of us teachers only wish the best for our students. We may not agree on how to go about it, but we can all do ourselves a favor by remembering why we are here.

My core concern is that the world is changing quickly, our students with it, but we are not moving at the same clip. Increasingly, I see that their schooling is getting in the way of their education. I am concerned with the amount of work that seems to just increase year after year. I am bothered by the lack of varsity sports and the feeble support for clubs and extracurricular activities. I am troubled that all the government red tape will turn us into bureaucratic mummies, fit not for the classroom but for subterranean tombs. I feel we need to look hard into how we define and measure achievement. And I think we need to have an honest discussion of what values and virtues we really want our students to embody.

Times are changing, and yet our gym remains unfinished. Even with all the incremental upgrades in our IT department, that fact remains glaring — that building forever a marker of our missed opportunities and misplaced priorities. “Things haven’t changed” can be at once the most comforting and most frightening thing a future alumni could say. So when they say that let it be for the right reasons — that despite all our limitations, we are a community who continues to do our best. That is how it has always been. But at this point, I just dare to ask — are we being the best we can be?

The Sigaw! 2009 Official Tracklist

Check it out at the AKSIS blog!

A Moment for the People Power Revolution

The People Power Revolution of 1986 is one of the most enduring myths of the Filipino people. Though it is not mythic in how it happened, it is mythic in how it is retold.

Fact, it did happen. I was three years old at that time. Many have died in the years that led to it, and the death of Ninoy in ’83 led democracy down its ultimate fate. But I was too young to be neither of consequence to the revolution nor of the revolution to be of consequence to me.

Rather, it would take another four years before the Philippine government would enter my consciousness. 1990. During the Cory years I remember how the kudetas blocked the roads between our home in Paranaque and my grandmother’s house in Vito Cruz. And then there were brownouts. You’re not an 80′s kid if you didn’t have those rechargeable lamps at home, and got used to having no electricity for most school evenings.

Therefore, my first notion of Philippine politics is that it is a failure. And yet, the story of 1986, continually told and retold, instills in me a belief that things could get better. That things will. However, it is an ideal that only becomes loftier as the post-EDSA generations move farther away from ’86. Soon, it will be no stranger than 1898.

Nonetheless, in this Age of Obama, no moment is too far off. In our nation’s collective memories we can find hope and inspiration. All we need to do is channel the spirit of our own moment and recall those who have gone before us. Our generation may not be able to own EDSA as those who have stood there twenty-three years ago can easily do. And yet, it is through our search for inspiration that their stories live on.

P.S.

Here are some older, related posts:

• The Science of People Power: Lessons from Arabia
• Truth and Consequences: The High Price of People Power
• Battle of the Righteous: People Power in an Age of Ambiguity
• An Unending Revolution? Some thoughts on teaching Philippine history for the 21st century

Politics of Hope, Economics of Optimism

Hands down, the best Obama speech yet. His mastery of high rhetoric and impressive command of history is met with a plain-speaking pragmatism that is just right for the times. His agenda is impressive too. And I can’t wait to hear the foreign policy equivalent of this one.

His thoughts on education:

The third challenge we must address is the urgent need to expand the promise of education in America.In a global economy, where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity. It is a pre-requisite.

Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma, and yet just over half of our citizens have that level of education. We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation, and half of the students who begin college never finish.

This is a prescription for economic decline, because we know the countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow. That is why it will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education, from the day they are born to the day they begin a career. That is a promise we have to make to the children of America.

Already, we’ve made a historic investment in education through the economic recovery plan. We’ve dramatically expanded early childhood education and will continue to improve its quality, because we know that the most formative learning comes in those first years of life.

We’ve made college affordable for nearly 7 million more students, 7 million and we have provided the resources necessary to prevent painful cuts and teacher layoffs that would set back our children’s progress.

But we know that our schools don’t just need more resources; they need more reform. And that is why this budget creates new teachers — new incentives for teacher performance, pathways for advancement, and rewards for success. We’ll invest — we’ll invest in innovative programs that are already helping schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps. And we will expand our commitment to charter schools. It is our responsibility as lawmakers and as educators to make this system work, but it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in it.

So tonight I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be a community college or a four-year school, vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.

And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself; it’s quitting on your country. And this country needs and values the talents of every American.

Then he connects it with one of my favorites themes of his:

These education policies will open the doors of opportunity for our children, but it is up to us to ensure they walk through them.In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a parent, for a mother or father who will attend those parent-teacher conferences, or help with homework, or turn off the TV, put away the video games, read to their child.

I speak to you not just as a president, but as a father when I say that responsibility for our children’s education must begin at home. That is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. That’s an American issue.

Amazing. If only we had such visionaries.

Read the full transcript here.

The Blog at the End of Time / Freedom Rings

So what is beyond the end of time? I am about to find out.

The finals of Sigaw! had been at the end of my calendar for the longest time now. It was a date I looked forward to the most. Sigaw! set a benchmark in the same way that IK2 did. The latter was whether I can design, execute and sustain a training program for students, and the former was whether I can bring a songwriting competition and concert all together. Both activities culminated in the same month, with the end of IK2 and the Sigaw! finale within one week of each other.

And in the past few days, I’ve been running on fumes. Yesterday, I was just waiting for myself to collapse and shatter into a million pieces. And now that Sigaw! is over, I feel oddly rejuvenated. I should be tired. But now I don’t feel that weight of the world anymore. I don’t feel that time and space will collapse on each other if I stop moving. Now, I can just stop. I can rest. It is over.

I am free.

Work has been a little tough lately. Calling the system out on its weakness is like falling through the rabbit hole — it never ends. And as I begin to look into the things I can change, I discover more and more that the work of change is unending. Corruption exists, I realize now, not just because of greed but because of fear (and it can be argued that greed itself is caused by fear — of losing). Now the likes of me have to choose between either standing against fear or giving in to it. It is a choice that can only be made through action, but am I ready to commit myself to what this realization demands? I know I am not impervious to fear. And over the past week, I caught myself asking, “Why do you do this? You know how bad this eventually gets, why bother?”

Because I can. I am free. And I choose to live for others rather than me.

This wasn’t any clearer than that moment in Sigaw! when I realized that all the answers to my doubts sang and swooned right in front of me, and that the work I’ve done in the past month is not just my own. IK2 would have never been possible without my partners in Ed Briones, Tin Guevarra, PEERS, and the PTA. Sigaw! wouldn’t have been possible if AKSIS didn’t believe they can make it happen, and the SocSci unit didn’t take a chance at something we never tried before. I’ve always been an optimist — everything’s possible — so I define teaching as creating situations in which all things are possible. Hence education becomes about how to use those possibilities well, and how to make them when there are none. So having seen all I’ve seen, this was really quite a night.

Over the past year, my guiding principle to AKSIS has been “Become the change you seek.” That will still guide us, but so will this: “Kaya pala, kaya pala.”

That’s why we can.

More on this soon. Now I shall take my well-deserved sleep. For while I’ve reached the end of time, tomorrow will be another day.

Thank you to everyone.

“The F Word” tomorrow! Some reminders:

“The F Word” this February 20, 5:30pm

Pisay, we need to talk (an open letter)

Dear Pisay,

In light of the discussions that emerged in My Case Against the Achievement Test, I am compelled to propose something I’ve always felt we need to have. I understand that my post got your attention. As passionate as I am in my defiance, I wouldn’t want to be irresponsible. I will walk the talk.

I have to make one thing clear: I see the Achievement Test as a component of a complex network of problems we need to solve if we want to move forward as an institution. You may wonder who I am to talk. I have always been an outsider. I am not a Pisay alumnus. I’m not from UP either. I have neither a Master’s degree nor a PhD. I don’t know a thing about statistics. And I’ve never had a formal training in education.

Yet I feel I have accomplished something in the past four years. I have gotten to know our students. I have learned the balance between listening to them and asking them to listen to me. I know what motivates and inspires them. I’ve also read up. Though I rely on my gut, I’ve read up on education, social science, and history so that if ever I take risks, I take smart risks. I know I am still learning, and this is the attitude I bring to every single thing I do.

Thus, I am not comfortable with a system that is either too confident or too complacent with itself. Change is the status quo. Scientists are supposed to change their minds.

Thus, what I propose is a meeting of minds. A venue where intuitives such as me can learn of frameworks and discipline from intellectuals, and an opportunity for intellectuals to be reminded of the basics they may have forgotten along the way. I’d like to talk about issues and ask the hard questions. If no one can provide us answers, then we work to find our own. It is time to stop thinking we are a government school and begin emphasizing the Philippine in Philippine Science High School.

I would want us to have an Academic Retreat. It is a week or two where teachers and administrators can have a free flowing dialogue about teaching and education. We talk about our students’ workload, what kind of exams we wish for them to have, what constitutes real learning and achievement, and what changes we need to introduce in order to make our job better. Among the topics I wish to have are the following:

1. The Role of the Humanities in a Science High School: Introducing the Language of Formation. We often say that our students are all mind and no heart. This is not necessarily true, but this is not unfounded either. But what is the role of the Humanities in this? The social sciences provide our scholars with a context without which they will find it impossible to place their efforts in the larger scheme of things. The languages teach them to communicate their complex ideas in an artful and effective way, and literature helps facilitate an open ended dialogue between their mind and their spirit. It will be irresponsible of us to allow our students to think that the Humanities are inconsequential in a science high school; for before they are scientists, they are human.

2. Squandering the Gifted. The romance is over. The honeymoon is ended. The question is: Are we teaching our students the skills they need to survive the 21st century? How do we compare to the schools we visited in Singapore and India? It is the ultimate irony that in the premiere school for the sciences in the country, our gym is unfinished and our facilities are unfurnished. These cosmetic lapses reflect the over-all malaise our students feel towards their subjects, their schedule, their requirements, and so on. Why do more and more of our graduates end up disliking science upon graduation, and hope they could have taken a different course? How do we really define achievement and how should this reflect towards how we teach?

3. Less is More: Towards Integration and Holistic Learning. Our students can do so much more with so little if academic units moved toward tighter integration across activities and objectives. During this workshop, participants will share activities they have done in class which may tie in with other subjects. They also share best practices and see what they can learn from other teachers. The objective is to give our students less work. Working in groups, their output will be a sample school calendar for their year level, detailing their common objectives and integrated projects. They also do this in view of implementing it the coming year.

4. The Need to Respond to Special Needs. Our school does not discrimate against applicants, and yet we are incapable of dealing with special needs children. Teaching students with learning disabilities and behavioral problems require a different approach, and thus it would be an injustice to expect them to keep up in a class that is taught more traditionally, or worse, at a more advanced level. They deserve an excellent education as much as anyone, and thus it falls on us to be able to deliver on this promise more effectively.

5. Discipline, Cleanliness and Campus Ethics. Year in and year out, discipline problems remain at the top of the agenda. We still lack an effective framework to consistently implement and enforce rules, save for some attempts to emulate practices in other institutions. In the second major workshop of the retreat, participants discuss issues they’ve encountered in enforcing rules and regulations, and draft systems they think we need to address our problems more effectively.

6. Adding Value to High School Life: Emphasizing Extra in Extracurricular. Sports and extracurricular clubs play an important role in high school life. They allow our students to break out of the classroom and work for something they are genuinely passionate about. It teaches them the value of commitment, sacrifice, and hard work. While there is a healthy atmosphere for clubs, there isn’t much growth and development. We must bring back varsities. More can be done when clubs can work together on projects. Outreach activities, in order to be successful and sustainable, have a great chance of surviving through clubs. I will also put forward a proposal for an Officer for Student Activities which will coordinate and develop all these efforts.

These are just some of the topics I feel we need to address and I am sure that other teachers will have something to propose to the Academic Retreat. I don’t mind spending some of my summer days on an event like this. And if adopted by the campus or even the system, I will readily volunteer to speak and even help organize.

Perhaps, we start with the campus level first. We need to set our priorities so that we don’t get lost in the System. Then once we have a firm grasp on what we want to do and how we’ll set out to do it, we can compare notes with other campuses in order to reinforce our own efforts. The System must be humble enough to realize that one size does not fit all; that different campuses have different resources and capabilities, and hence if we will be honest with each other, we start with our immediate community.

Yesterday, I’ve had a conversation where I realized why I continue to stay with you despite all the circumstances that would make it permissible for me to just leave. It is because through all my hard work, I know I am making a difference. My students motivate me beyond measure and if I channel some of these enthusiasm and energy towards helping you, perhaps I can do even more. And I will.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Martin

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

With all this talk about achievement and learning, I couldn’t help but share this poem.

Have a good night, everyone.

Scientists are Activists

The foundation of modern science is the ability to question. Innovation is achieved when boundaries and tested and broken down, not when they are held.

The scientific method itself is founded on investigation, a willingness to suspend assumptions in order to bring new truths to light. Scientists are supposed to change their minds. If we become unwilling to seek, then we cease to make the world brighter. Thus, darkness is dwelling in the false comfort of the boundaries we’ve set for ourselves.

I refuse to keep my students in the shadows. My goal is to teach them to search for the light.

This is the role of the social sciences in a school for the gifted in the natural sciences. This is the principle behind my defiance. The Achievement Test is just one matter; my position on which I firmly stand by.

But rest assured. I believe in a system of rules, but only when they work. It can be argued that they don’t work because they are not followed. I rather believe that people will follow rules if they are seen as fair, practical, and true. Key to this is leadership, particularly leadership through sheer virtue of example and simple strength of reason.

Thus we recognize that the system we have in place is not perfect. There are many moving parts, and we are missing some. They will never be found if they are not sought, and we will not seek if we don’t ask. We are training scientists right? How can we expect them to innovate, when we impose them to accept what they see in front of them as true?

Thank God they’re smarter than that.