Hindi Natitinag ang Pusong Pilipino

            Maraming dahilan kung bakit kahit maraming pagsubok ang dumadaan sa buhay ng isang tao, hindi pa rin siya natitinag. Bihira ang taong madaling sumuko sa mga pagsubok ng buhay na nananatiling buháy. At bihira din ang Pilipinong madaling lumuhod sa mga hamon sa kanya. Kung magkagayon man, baka nadapa lamang siya. Tulad ng isang kandidata sa isang beauty pageant, siya ay tumatayo nang may ngiti at nagpapatuloy sa paglakad nang may poise at projection pa. Sabi nga ng ating tema ngayong taon, Hindi natitinag ang pusong Pilipino.

            Kadalasan, lalo na sa mga international arenas, ang Pilipino ay tinitingnan bilang underdog, inaasahang kulelat lalo na sa mga paligsahan. Ngunit marahil ang pagiging underdog natin ay isa sa mga dahilan kung bakit sa manlulupig di tayo pasisiil. Dahil mayroon tayong dahilan para manalo. Dahil gusto nating manalo, upang ipakita sa lahat na Pilipinas Got Talent din. Kaya namamangha sila kapag nakakalusot tayo. Kasi higit pa iyon sa inaasahan nila.

            Ang sekreto ng Pinoy: breeding. Ipinanganak na tayong ganito eh. Ayon nga sa inyong mga aralin sa heograpiya, ang Pilipinas ay isang kapuluan, napapaligiran hindi lamang ng dagat kundi pati ng mga unos na dala nito. Alam nating tayo ay madalas daanan ng mga bagyo, madalas salantahin ng mga lindol, madalas makaranas hindi lamang ng mainit na panahon kundi pati na ng mainit na ulo. Pero sige lang, sanay na naman tayo sa ganito. At dahil sanay na tayo, pinaghahandaan na natin ang mga ito. Hindi na tayo madaling magapi ng mga simpleng sakit sa ulo. Alam nating Biogesic lang ang kailangan para sa ingat na damang-dama.

            At dahil likas na sa atin ang tamaan ng mga bagyo, natututo tayong makuntento sa kung ano ang mayroon tayo. Natututunan nating mag-reduce, reuse at recycle. Natututunan nating mas masarap na sawsawan ang toyong may kalamansi kaysa sa ketchup, lalo na kung walang ketchup sa hapag-kainan. Buti nga may isda pang isasawsaw paminsan-minsan. Okey lang. Kasi tayong mga Pinoy, marunong tayong magpasalamat. At saka magaling tayong magpalusot: kahit daing lang ang ulam, basta kumpleto ang pamilya sa hapag-kainan, solb na! Palusot man o hindi, ang bawat palusot ay may katiting na katotohanan. Marunong tayong magpasalamat dahil alam nating di tayo nag-iisa. Na may pamilya tayo at kaibigang makakasama. At kahit dumating man si Yolanda at mga kapamilya niyang tatangay ng mga ito, tinatandaan nating ang kasalungat ng babâ ay taas – doon sa mataas na langit ay naroon Siyang matibay na sandalan.

            At siyempre hindi pahuhuli sa listahan ang kakayahan nating makabili at kumain ng hamón sa Noche Buena sa kabila ng mga hámong ito, ang kakayahan nating tumawa at ngumiti kahit ang ilan sa atin ay bungî. Akalain ba naman nating magiging sikat tayo, lalo na tayong mga Waraynon, dahil kay Yolanda. Ang ilan sa atin, hindi pa malilibre ng mga NGOs at ng gobyerno sa pagkain, tirahan, at pagsakay sa C-130 kung wala si Yolanda. Lahat ng mga silid ay may labasan, lahat ng mga problema ay may anggulong pwedeng tawanan. Nakalagay sa isang souvenir T-shirt sa Tacloban, The strongest typhoon hits the strongest city. Ang pinakamalakas na lungsod daw ang siyang tinatamaan ng pinakamalakas na bagyo. At kasali din tayo dito, hindi lamang ang Tacloban. Hindi tayo bibigyan ng Diyos ng mga problema kung hindi natin ito kayang tawanan. Ang pagtawa sa isang problema ay hindi nangangahulugang minamaliit at binabalewala natin ito: ibig sabihin lamang ay hindi tayo masyadong nagpapaapekto sa mga ito. Sabi nga ni Nikki Gil, nakakapangit ang bitter.

Ito ay ilan lamang sa mga dahilan kung bakit hindi natitinag ang pusong Pilipino. At sinasabi ko sa inyo, mga minamahal na mag-aaral, taglay niyo rin ang mga ito, dahil kayo ay mga Pilipino kahit pa may dugong foreigner ang ilan sa inyo. At kung hindi niyo pa napapraktis ang mga ito, simula sa araw na ito ng inyong pagtatapos, maging matatag kayo, laging magpasalamat, at tumawa sa kabila ng mga pagsubok.

            Una, maging matatag. Ayon sa isang karakter sa pelikulang 3 Idiots, Life is a race. If you don’t run fast, you’ll get trampled. Ang buhay daw ay isang takbuhan. Kung mabagal kang tumakbo, matatapakan ka. Ngunit nais kong sabihin sa inyo, mga minamahal na mag-aaral, na ang buhay ay hindi isang takbuhan. Kung ito ay isang takbuhan lamang, eh di sana nag-unahan na tayong lahat sa kabilang buhay. Sabi ng Mangangaral, Isa pang bagay na napansin ko sa daigdig: ang mabilis ay di siyang laging nananalo sa takbuhan ni ang malakas ay laging nagwawagi sa digmaan. Ang matatalino’y di laging nakasusumpong ng kanyang kailangan at di lahat ng marunong ay yumayaman. Napapansin ko rin na di lahat ng may kakayahan ay nagtatagumpay; lahat ay dinaratnan ng malas.Ang pag-aaral ay parang Pilipinas: dinadaanan ng maraming bagyo. Upang maging Ultimate Survivor ay kailangang maging matatag kayo sa bawat bagyong sumasagasa sa inyo. Sabi nga kanina, ang mabilis ay di siyang laging nananalo sa takbuhan. Sa pag-aaral, kadalasan ay Eveready battery ang kailangan para sa tibay na pangmatagalan. Hindi na baleng mabagal ang asenso, basta’t sunod-sunod ang hakbang papunta rito. Huwag sumuko agad, hindi lamang pangarap ng mga magulang mo para sa iyo ang nakataya dito, higit sa lahat ay ang mga pangarap mo. Ika nga ng isang Yiddish na salawikain, kung gusto mong matupad ang mga pangarap mo, huwag ka nang matulog. Bumangon ka, humayo, at tuparin ito, bago ka magpakarami.

            Ikalawa, magpasalamat. Dahil hindi ka nag-iisa, malamang ay pati sa mga paghihirap mo ay may magulang, kaibigan at mga guro kang kasama. Tandaan ang sabi ng isang kanta: di lang ikaw ang siyang nahihirapan. Matuto kang magpasalamat sa mga taong tumulong sa iyo sa iyong bawat hakbang. Huwag maghangad ng higit sa kaya; yaong binibigyan ng labis-labis ay sinusubok din ng labis-labis. Mga minamahal na mag-aaral, pahalagahan ang pagod na ginugugol ng iba upang kayo ay makapagtapos. Kasama rito ang mga utility men, mga tindera sa canteen, mga drayber ng traysikel at iba pang mga karaniwang tao na hindi niyo aakalain ay tumulong sa inyo upang kayo ay makaakyat sa entablado. Alalahanin na kung walang guard sa eskwelahan, walang magpapapasok sa inyo. No ID, No Entry. At sa mga nagbabalak sumuway sa patakarang ito, No Trespassing din.

            At panghuli, tumawa at ngumiti. Ayon sa isang Aprikanong salawikain, Ang hangal ay tumatawa sa kanyang sarili. Walang taong gustong maging hangal habambuhay, pero sinasabi ko sa inyo, hindi masamang maging hangal paminsan-minsan, dahil paminsan-minsan naman talaga’y tayo’y nagiging hangal. Sumasablay din tayo at pumapalpak, dahil ang Pilipino ay tao rin. Nakaka-stress kung seryosohin ang mga kapalpakan. Nakakaaliw ang mga ito kung tatawanan. Tandaang inilagay ang recess at free time sa class schedule upang paminsan-minsan ay mabuhayan tayo ng loob sa pamamagitan ng mga isnaks, pahinga, at tawa. Ngunit tandaan ding enjoy man kayo sa free time, kailangan niyo pa ring pumasok sa next period dahil kayo ay nag-aaral pa. Boring din ang buhay kapag palagi na lang free time. Mas marami ka pa ring matututunan sa class time.

            Uulitin ko, maging matatag. Magpasalamat. Humalakhak. Dahil ang buhay ay weder-weder lang. Maraming salamat at maligayang bati sa ating lahat!

LET and the Liberal Teacher

The University President, Dr. Jude A. Duarte, university officials, Dayao awardees, fellow LET passers, guests, good evening.

The Dayao Awardees 2014

University President Dr. Jude A. Duarte

We were invited to this gathering because our university wanted to recognize us as LET passers. We attended because we wanted to thank the university for helping us become LET passers. This sounds a bit like television but yes, we’d like to thank our sponsors: the Lord, the source of all things, our ever supportive parents, our teachers who have prepared us in our four years in college, and most recently, the CTE Review Center, especially Dr. Marife N. Daga, who provided a lot of materials for the review, our unit heads who never abandoned us, and of course Dr. Cruzada who gave some of us, especially those who are English majors, quite an extensive rundown in the major subjects, particularly those that are the most cerebral. All of you have helped build the hype towards the LET day.

            And what a day it was. A day that effectively pronounced judgment on whether the teaching profession is really for us. It all seems so long ago now especially after what happened on a certain Friday in November but I remember waking up that day and saying to myself, this is it. The exam will push through no matter how my classmates wish it would be postponed. And I remember asking myself after, now what? For several months, our lives have basically rotated around this exam and suddenly, after it, we were left without an axis, just suspended in space.

            To tell you the truth, the LET is never what you expect it to be. Which makes sense when we remember the saying, Expect the unexpected. For some of us, it was overrated, and a little disappointing. After all, we are taught to consider the three domains of learning whenever we teach, and the LET has only tested us for the cognitive domain. But I realize, the affective is put to the test after, especially at the moment you are dreading to click that button and scroll down and see who passed, and the psychomotor is tested once you are actually teaching. These two domains show that there is still life beyond the LET.

            But in order to look beyond, we must look back first and put the past to bed decorously, as Charles Handy said. I wanted to tell you tonight two reasons not one of this batch is a topnotcher. One reason is that we could have done better. Yes, we admit that. I admit that. The LET is a test of aptitude, but also of discipline and training. Some of our teachers used to tell us that preparing for the LET isn’t done months before; it begins the moment you enter school. All of these things build you up to face one moment, one judgment day. But we can’t soak in in months what we have seriously lacked in years, and I’m talking about Philippine education in general. I’m happy to know that the next batch is more rigorously prepared, but on the whole, this is a challenge, specifically for LNU. We have done very well in our 93 years, we can do better in the years ahead. We will do better.

           

Our practice teaching coordinator, Dr. Elizabeth M. Quimbo,
Gold Awardee for 30 years of  good service to LNU

            Which brings us to the second reason: we can do better than being a LET topnotcher. The LET has exposed a serious lack in the quality of our education, and yet this is what we became teachers for: to fill in this serious lack. I believe we chose to be in the teaching profession because although we are all selfish by nature, we fight it and try to serve others.

Clym Yeobright says in Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native, When the instinctive question about a person is, What is he doing?, it is felt that he will not be found to be, like most of us, doing nothing in particular. There is an indefinite sense that he must be invading some region of singularity, good or bad. The devout hope is that he is doing well. The secret faith is that he is making a mess of it… if he were making a fortune and a name, so much better for him; if he were making a tragical figure in the world, so much the better for a narrative. I live a bum life now, but it’s a great view from here. Standing outside the ring gives you a great perspective on what is going on inside.

I, standing outside the ring, and getting to talk about it

            I believe there is a reason we don’t accept perfectly reasonable, perfectly satisfactory job offers. There is a reason we do one thing, and not the other.

We are more needed in our backwoods towns. If we are going to do better, if we are going to fill in the serious lack in Philippine education, we must start at the beginning, in basic education. We must do a very fine job of building the child’s foundation so that his future teachers can do their job properly, and not do it only halfway through because he had to fill in the gaps before. And I believe if we want to, we ought to do it now, now while we are still young, now while we can still accept all that life can throw at us and not be disillusioned enough to be bitter, now while we are still strong and committed and idealistic enough to want to make a change, and to make that change. We enjoy today because all the people who are gone helped to make this day possible for us. We owe it to the next generation to make their education as good as or even better than what the previous generation gave us.

Seated are some of the faculty members of the Languages and Literature Unit,
our second home in the university

To our teachers, some of us may not have trod the path you hoped we would, but then a little detour makes a homecoming even richer, even more compelling. It took the forces of wind and sea to make us see that although we hold the steering wheels of our lives, we do not know the road. The most that we can do is to do a very good job of driving in whatever road we have under our feet. And driving well does not only involve theoretical knowledge, it requires us to get in the car, or the motorcycle, and practice. To my fellow LET passers and to all of us here tonight, let us give ourselves the gift of courage. To fathom our depths, to test how much they can hold. It is only when we have this gift that we can give it to our students, to others, to not be afraid of not treading a straight path or a smooth one, because driving on a rough and winding road teaches you a lot about driving more than driving on a straight and smooth one.

Being a good teacher is about more than having cognitive gifts, it requires affective maturity and psychomotor efficiency. We won’t have these last two if we don’t know what makes life tick, the life outside the classroom, the world outside our walls. And we will not know the answer unless we chuck the fear. Whatever road we are driving now, let us always be liberal, be open to other detours, other possibilities, so that as we move onwards, we are going to have with us the wisdom that those detours give. Let us think outside the box because why ever would be confine ourselves to the four corners of the box when there is an infinitely wider space outside? Excellence does not give space for mediocrity. Let us not be generic products of Philippine education. Let us all do better. Because the good news is, we still can. Thank you and congratulations to all of us! May God bless us all.

Us, and the University President :)

                               Credits to LNU- An Lantawan for the first four pictures :)