Education – Page 2 – PATHLESS TRAVELS

2020-04-232020-05-02

‘No classes until December’ shows black-and-white thinking

Since the Covid-19 pandemic and a nearly nationwide extended lockdown hit the Philippines, I’ve been repeatedly noticing a deep malaise of black-and-white, dogmatically rigid thinking, not just among the country’s elite ruling class but also among its middle classes and working masses–including quite a few among the enlightened progressives. More about this black-and-white thinking later, but for now, let me just focus on the “no classes until December” proposal or variants thereof–as if keeping the youth away from schools would automatically reduce the risks of getting infected with the Covid-19 virus.

2019-09-162019-09-22

Crying need for textbooks on martial law abuses

A One News story (https://onenews.ph/martial-law-to-be-taught-as-new-subject-at-up) reported that starting “next semester, students at the University of the Philippines Diliman may enroll in a subject that will tackle language, literature, and culture under the martial law.”

2019-03-192019-03-30

Bamboo shoots

Poems like this are like a bamboo grove, planted and nurtured by half-forgotten old folk, relentlessly tossed by the wind and rain, their foliage shed in the worst seasons of drought. But hopefully they’ll endure, for children to discover the ancient nooks and crannies where they will play and build their own dreams.

BAMBOO SHOOTS

Many years have carved these slopes.
It was around this time in March when
North Wind tarried on, defying summer thirst,
and a thousand shoots of green rejoiced.
They’d passed the test, and cried for joy, and raced uphill.
And we, who nurtured them, were about to shout
our wildest greetings when the thought struck us: Continue reading “Bamboo shoots”