When everyone thought that the United States is really tightening its belt after going through the financial crises and has not fully-recovered yet, an opening of the most expensive school in history is scheduled next month.

The Robert F. Kenney Community Schools that costs around $578 million is expected to house more than 4,200 students.  The school in Los Angeles especially its price tag raised eyebrows instead of praise among critics and educators during a time when many Americans are still jobless and more than 3,000 teachers had been laid off in the past couple of years and the cost of war is taking its toll on the finances of the superpower nation.  Moreover, prodding eyes revealed that this education district recorded as having one of the lowest performances in education tests in the US and suffers a $640 million shortfall on its education budget.

Even without this Robert F. Kenney Community Schools yet, the Los Angeles Unified School District has already been dubbed as the “mogul of Taj Mahals” with other expensive schools also under the territory of LA.  These are the $377 million Edward R. Royal Learning Center and the $232 million Visual and Performing Arts High School.

But it seems that all system go for this new school next month for this P26 billion school, more than thrice the budget of the University of the Philippines System for 2010.

Image from LA Times

This is not the UAAP rivalry between the De La Salle Green Archers and the Ateneo Blue Eagles inside the playing court.  But top men from the two prominent schools have different takes on how to do the reforms on our basic education system and clash of ideas has been seen by the media.

Br. Armin Luistro FSC of the De La Salle Brothers and now the secretary of Department of Education under President Aquino defended his plan of adding 2 more years to basic education making it 12 years of education from its present of 10 years.  He said that it aims to keep up with the international standard of 12-year basic education which the Philippines now lags behind.  Further, the former president of De La Salle University – Manila has ordered DepEd to have a general review and overhaul of the basic education curriculum which is expected to be finish in two years.

This plan of Sec. Luistro has been assailed by Jesuit priest Beinvenido Nebres SJ who worked as the head of former President Arroyo’s Presidential Task Force on Education. Nebres SJ said that what is badly needed to be addressed by the department right now is to address the school backlog.  Nebres SJ explained:

“Quite frankly, while you can look at the curriculum, at the end of the day, what counts is what happens in the classroom…If you have a classroom filled with 80 kids for 40, you can do whatever is in the curriculum and not much will happen…the heart of the problem is not so much changing the curriculum.  The heart of the problem is to make it possible for the teacher to teach well.”

But the archer shot down the eagle’s opinion saying,

“Why?  Is it not possible to do both?  They always say it’s either one or the other but this is a good time to bring the components together.  Whatever changes we want to do, this is the best time to do it.  Rather than put old win into wine skins, we will start with new wine skins.”

It will be recalled that during the brief moment when Pres. Aquino and former Pres. Arroyo took a short travel together inside the presidential car for the Inauguration, the latter said to have endorsed to the new president the recommendations that Fr. Nebres SJ on the issues surrounding our basic education in the Philippines.

Off to you guys.  To whom are you betting on what to do with reforming our basic education, Br. Luistro’s “doing both” or Fr. Nebres’ working first on school backlog?

While the Department of Education has already declared an all-out war against the “jejemons” especially with the opening of classes only weeks from now; these lovers of incomprehensible and funny language found an unlikely ally from a Catholic bishop.

Legazpi Bishop Joel Baylon, Chair of the Episcopal Commission on Youth of CBCP said that values are more important than language like the values of decency, chastity and honesty.

Bishop Baylon expressed his thoughts about the “jejemon” invasion on Radio Veritas saying,

“Language is merely an expression of experience and what is more important are the values behind the language and the principle that shapes the person’s character.  I am more worried of how the youth reacted to the recent political exercise which was (allegedly) characterized by vote-buying.”

So how will the teachers face the tsunami of “jejemon” language inside the classroom”?  This is what our “jejemon” bishop said,

“They should keep, maintain and if possible improve the standards as the youngsters today are not setting standards and they are not telling us how to speak and write.”

He said that being a “jejemon” is just one of the many ways our youth are expressing themselves.

Will this not only open the windows of the Church but also the doors for a Vatican Council III to usher in all the “jejemons”?

Personally, I don’t like…wait, I am pissed off with all “jejemon language” especially when I am checking reflection papers of students and reading text messages and reading paperworks to grade.  It is like me trying to read the love letter of Queen Nafertiti with the hieroglyphics and all.

How about you guys?  What is your thought about the “jejemons” and the “jejemon language”?

Image from CarloBlog

It was once the career that everyone was heading to, but just like the global economy, the boom seems to be over now as reports indicate that the demand for nurses more particularly from the United States continues to steadily spiral down.

The concern was shared by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) through Ernest Herrera, as nursing schools has given some reports of a decline also on their enrollment.

“Nursing schools have aggressively expanded their capacity in the last 12 months, but realized that fewer first-year students are actually entering nursing programs compared to figures for the past two years. Only 3,024 Filipino nurses took the NCLEX for the first time from January to March, down 1,170 from 4,194 in the same quarter of 2009.”

The global economic crunch has forced hospital in the United States not to hire more health workers but just extend the working hours of its employees instead.

Many academicians and pundits had already warned years ago the temporary boom of the nursing demand from the United States and the surge of students taking up the nursing course and the mushrooming of so many nursing schools in the country.  This has resulted to the low passing rate of nursing licensure board exam takers.

Will we be seeing the death of the nursing course in the Philippines soon?  What will be the next career boom?  If only facing Facebook all day is a career, surely Filipinos will no longer work abroad.

I am guilty of this most of the time here at Pinoy Sounding Board.

But today, I would rather want to have some shifting of paradigm.

For many months now I have been posting here my commentaries about some of the nastiest politicians, socio-political issues and personal rants.  These issues and discussions could most of the time only bleed our minds and wound our hearts knowing and seeing how our beloved nation and collective dignities are raped by callous and selfish few.

In sharing all these things with passion, I must admit that I have forgotten that not all are too bad; it is not always a cloudy day; that there are still so many good men who are working so hard in our government worthy to be indeed called “public servants”.

These people may not always be visible on our eyes as they are working diligently, faithfully and honestly on some silent cubicles and corners of dilapidated government buildings.  Some of them may not be enjoying the lofty positions being raided by some but certainly are giving their all to serve the people on their own small special ways.  They cannot be bribed; they don’t succumb to greed; and strong-willed not to get eaten up by the system.

Any particular public servants that come to mind?

This question particularly leads me to give proper respect and honor to all our diligent, hard-working and simple public school teachers.  They are the silent nation-builders who may not be financially rewarded by the government as they ought to be but continuously try to save this nation from the brink of intellectual decay.  They lead, teach, listen, cry, laugh and sacrifice even their own personal dreams for all their students, that these young people may become good citizens and future leaders.

Unfortunately, these are also the same simple people who are neglected and abused by the government.  Despite of this human degradation they are made to daily suffer (in terms of meager salary, benefits and all from GSIS, no proper health insurance, etc) they remain steadfast to their vocation to “teach”.

Maybe, these are also the unsung heroes of EDSA. We may not actually say that they were the ones who visibly stopped tanks and forced Marcos to flee the country and hand back to the nation our democracy; but they were the ones who guided us inside the humble classrooms on the darkest of days and the triumph of the light to make this nation embrace the last streaks of hopes emanating from the east.

And if there are evil people trying to bring down this nation into the cliff of moral and economic decay, these simple teachers are the good men continue bravely and diligently continue the noble fight…diligently, silently, outnumbering those who steal from the public coffers and cheat the democratic processes.

Help me out, let us put this time around to the true, honest and steadfast public servants.

Any particular person/public servant or groups of people serving in the government that you know who remains good, honest and true to their work?

Image from Artcle WN

One of the most crucial issues that Presidentiables will have to strongly face is regarding sex education that has obviously been ignored for so long a time by politicians who easily gets terrified from getting the ire of the pharisaic clergymen of the Catholic Church side-by-side the issue of Reproductive Health Bill which is also still in legislative limbo (this deserves a separate post though).

With our national population projected to reach 92 million this year, presidential aspirants, national institutions and individual families are faced with more complex challenges regarding food security, affordable quality education, health care, social services, employment, poverty, housing and national security.  But because the Catholic Church has since been exerting undue pressure threatening like an old powerful Italian mafia on lawmakers and top leaders of the government, sex education has not been given much attention and priority; letting it breed into pure ignorance of many uncontrollable forms.

Let Paris Hilton And Dr. Hayden KhoTeach Sex Education

Today, almost all of our youth have the easy access to the world wide web and many other forms of media.  Adult magazines, sexy and pornographic websites, cheap sexually-explicit tabloids, pirated pornographic CDs and pornographic videos on mobile phones are right at their fingertips.  Just a few buttons and clicks away.  These stuffs thereby expose them early into the wide array of pornography and the detailed human anatomy lessons on vivid amateur videos by Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Britney Spears, Hayden Kho, Katrina Halili and Mahal.

Curiosity, hormonal exhilaration, personal emotional void and a clouded understanding of sex and sexuality ultimately lead many to unchartered sexual encounters and regrettable situations:  sexual diseases, teenage pregnancy, sexual addiction and an erroneous understanding of personal sexuality.

But who are there to teach the teens about sexuality and sex?  Or process their feelings towards themselves, towards the opposite and same sex and all the funny natural changes that are happening in them?

Well, the Catholic Church is quick to preach that sex education is the primary and sole responsibility of parents to their children and not of the government saying that parents know how and when the right time to teach sex and sexuality is.  Sex education in the curriculum according to them will only teach the youth to engage into pre-marital sex and sexual perversion.

But this idea of sex education from the ranks of those in robes who by the way should have never experienced sex after professing their vows and ordination (crossing fingers) is very simplistic.  And a simplistic understanding in a complex times will always not fit together but cause more problems.

What they have forgotten by appropriating sex education as the sole responsibility of parents is:

1.  Teenagers at this stage are mostly confiding to their peers instead of sharing thoughts to their parents.  There is somewhat some tension at this stage on this relationship with the teen wanting to be more independent and discover the world while the parent wants to exert some level of authority.  Topics like sex, feelings towards opposite sex, love, identity are quite a difficulty for the teens to share to their parents.

2.  Here in our province, many students have absentee parents who are either separated or working abroad giving no chance for parents to say to his child:  “Hey, come over here.  Want to talk about sex and what you are feeling?”

3.  Teens at this age spend more time in school, with peers and many forms of media than actually spending time at home or have a good conversation with parents.

4.  Most parents do not even know what is sex and sexuality with many of them afraid to talk about it with their children.  Proof is:  many parents turn off the TV or tell their children that it is bad or it is a sin when two people are kissing on a TV show and are quite afraid to show their marital affection to their children.

5.  The Church has instilled in the consciousness of many Filipinos that sex is a sin and talking about it is unbecoming of a faithful warranting you a seat on a confessional box for entertaining impure thoughts.

Then who is going to teach the young about sex and sexuality without sex education from school or from parents?  Surely, it is Ms. Paris Hilton and Dr. Hayden Kho.  Can we turn on now the aircon?

Political Will Against Coitophobic Churchmen

Sex education is very important to a society that wants to live in prosperity, order and security.  Waiving the right of the state on educating its citizen on key issues about sexuality, sex and responsibility to a prodding institution that is actually outside the active dynamics of governance is like swallowing a pill given by a quack doctor that will only give more problems than putting a cure to one of the biggest ill of the nation.

Presently, many top leaders of the Church in the Philippines are trying to discredit and withdraw their support from presidential aspirants (Sen. Noynoy Aquino and Sec. Gilbert Teodoro) who are supporting sex education and the Reproductive Health Bill like old traditional politicians in robes, staff and miter doing their own political manipulations and black mailing.

The Church and the state are separate; and it is the primary duty of the state to educate and lift its people from the pit of ignorance back to a responsible understanding of himself, his surroundings and world.  It will be a great opportunity of nation-building if parents and the educational system will help each other in giving the proper education and guidance needed by the youth.

Well, maybe our padres see Paris Hilton and Dr. Kho doing a great job on teaching sex education by sowing sexual ignorance and perversion instead of trained teachers doing it.

It is up to the presidential aspirants now to have the political will or political yield.

Image by Babble