REVISITING MY YOUTH AT U.P. DILIMAN

Revisiting my Youth at U.P. Diliman

By

PROF. ROLANDO S. DELA CRUZ
Educating a Nation


RETURNING TO MY ALMA MATER

As the buses entered the University Avenue from Philcoa, memories of the 1980s flowed like rivers in my consciousness.

Those were the turbulent ‘80s. Often, classes were boycotted by the Student Council and other student organizations. Radical and sympathetic students, and even some professors, held classes and staged plays on the streets.

Back then, students were politicized by the socio-economic and politico-military tensions. Many students did not only have to contend with “distractions” to traditional learning, but rather combined both street and classroom learning.

It was common then for the lower and middle classes to moan about Philippine underdevelopment. The decade started with the 1981 presidential elections anomaly, followed by the deafening 1983 gun fires at the tarmac, climaxed with the 1986 EDSA Revolution, and ended with a denouement of disappointments. It was an era of intertwined politics and emotion emulating a roller coaster ride.


CHANGES, CHANGES
I recently visited the University of the Philippines in Diliman with my Basic Education students. Security was noticeably heightened, given the recent reports of rape, theft, and other forms of crimes. I reckoned that it was a more tolerant atmosphere way back. The U-Av before, as people would call the main road to the UP administration building, was not strictly guarded all the time. Anyone and any vehicle can pass through it. Yet, we thought then that the period was already the most dangerous days of our post-war life. The 1980s UP Police force can usually be seen only during fraternity rumbles, amiably tolerant.

Today, UP seems to ape the martial law years with the extensive presence of guards in key entrances and exits which, admittedly, is better than risking the lives of its community members to unscrupulous elements. The crimes today on campus, perhaps, are nothing but symptoms of the overall economic as well as moral decay in society.


THE UNIVERSITY IN NATIONAL LIFE
Indeed, the country has changed a lot, for better and for worse. But there are things that do not seem to change, like the attachment on things one experienced as a teenager.

Entering UP, two and a half decades after I first set foot on it, is indeed a homecoming. There are more buildings, one-way street signs, plants lining up the roads, plenty of space for joggers, academic courses, and a lot more freedom for students to choose subjects for their General Education requirement.

But despite these changes, the essence of UP life seems embedded in the consciousness of its graduates. Thus, the effervescent saying: once a maroon, always a maroon. The pride is in the heart. With this pride runs the tradition of alumni who have become important players, again for better and for worse, in national life.

It was in UP where I personally met people whom I only read in my High School books or in newspapers. Many are members of the UP community, while others came to UP since they cannot afford not to be there. Some have become Presidents of the Republic, Senators and Representatives of the Legislature, Justices of the Supreme Court, National Artists, or giants in the world of science and business.

UP is a very dynamic place where one participates in the dialogue between the past and the future, between the impossible and the possible, and between preservation and change. It is so vibrant that it is quite unlikely not to be infected; so forceful that one is inevitably confronted by the challenge to leave a footprint, one way or the other, through deeds that can have an effect on the lives of others. That is what being Iskolar ng Bayan is all about.


A HOMECOMING
I went back to the fold of my alma mater that cultivated me in my earlier years, the university that is nestled in a 493-hectare prime land - with my Pre-school up to High School students from Bulacan. I brought them there not only for them to see the campus of my youth but also for them to feel the UP spirit as I narrate to them the history of struggles in the minds of its constituents.

But more than anything, I brought them there to dream of entering this top school, or any other high-standard university for that matter, when they reach college. Being in such a place will challenge their capacity to imagine not only their own future, but the possible future of a beautiful, united and progressive society.

One day, I want them to have a homecoming of their own: a time when they would have realized that, like children capable of molding clays into incipient sculptures, they are also capable of molding the institutions of their incipient nation.



An alumnus and former faculty member of UP Diliman, PROF. ROLANDO S. DELA CRUZ is President of the Darwin International School System. He studied in Osaka University (Japan), the University of Cambridge (England) and at the University of Leiden (the Netherlands).

(Source: MANILA BULLETIN, May 10, 2012)

(Source: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/359233/revisiting-my-youth-up-diliman)

REFORM SHOULD BE BOTH RADICAL AND INCREMENTAL

Reform should be both Radical and Incremental

By

PROF. ROLANDO S. DELA CRUZ
Educating a Nation

MASSIVE SUPPORT FOR CHANGE

The administration of President Noynoy Aquino has both fortune and misfortune on its side. It is lucky to be enjoying massive support akin to a post-revolutionary spring of hope. It is in the best position to forward meaningful changes that could have lasting effects, boosted by the trust rating Aquino enjoys. People believe that he is anti-corruption and incorruptible. It is in this context that the K-12, a program which revises the curriculum in Basic Education and extends it by three years, operates.

Aquino is again lucky that he starts implementing K-12 on his second year. The negative impact in terms of additional tuition and other fees on those who will be Grade 7 by June 2012 (1^st Year High School) will start on their Grade 11 which is in June 2016, the month when a new President will take his oath. Any complaints, therefore, for new tuition and other fees for their additional full Grades 11 and 12, will be made when Aquino is already out of power for about 12 months, enjoying his retirement.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS AND PRESSURE

Aquino, however, suffers also from the misfortune of high expectations and pressure. He has to implement K-12 early in his term to harness immediately the support from the people, especially the business sector which looks up to him to implement changes in educating those who will man various industries. He is also pressured to implement a program that cannot be altered immediately by a new President who might be against him or his program. To assure that his program stays, he has to attack the very structure of the educational program of the country.

But implementing the K-12 immediately beginning School Year 2012-13 exposes the program from the same possible problems that all other major reforms had suffered in the past, like the lack of intense ideas and preparation to address the heart of the problem. One really wonders how deep is the preparation of the Department of Education (DepEd) from May 2010 up to May 2012 to implement such a radical reform by June 2012.

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

Some questions are worth noting, however: 1) Why do most, if not all, schools up to this writing have not received yet the K-12 curriculum, at least for Grades 1 and 7?; 2) Where are the books to be used?; 3) What will happen to the colleges which will have no high school graduates to absorb in SY 2016-17 and SY 2017-18?; 4) Are all High Schools ready to absorb the deluge of excess students during these two school years in terms of capability to produce the quality graduates DepEd expects?; 5) Is the preparation of DepEd enough to produce a new breed of Filipino graduates who can all think critically and creatively, instead of being of the same kind as the country produces now but only with two extra years of schooling?; and, 6) How does the Philippines ensure that it executes K-12 in a way that is correct, effective, efficient, national-life altering, and successful internationally when measured?

Absent concrete answers to all the above questions, the nation will probably be shocked after the product of the K-12 starts graduating by March 2018. K-12 could just be the legacy of success or failure of Aquino in our nation’s history.

HOLISTIC AND INFORMED

Reform has to be holistic and informed of the factors that can undermine it. Indeed, the act of reforming education is an explosive political act. However, the essence of reform which is genuine learning of Filipino children ought not to suffer from the politics of haste, insensitivities and un-historicity. Indeed, reforming Philippine education is one of the most difficult to undertake because it cannot depend only on one man, one party or one Department. Reform has to be made in the context of Philippine politics and culture – sensitive to the weaknesses and strengths of the both ordinary and powerful people, and perceptive as well of the way we value and waste educational opportunities as a people.

Reforming Philippine education should be radical, indeed. But its unfolding has to be inevitably incremental: crossing one island to another at a speed effective enough to take root; its pantheon served by one government to the next without fail and without betrayal; its absorption by the Filipino soul undertaken by one generation to the next until such time we are ready to once more overhaul it not because the Filipino soul is changing but because that soul has to thrive and win in an ever-changing world.

  

An alumnus and former faculty member of UP Diliman, PROF. ROLANDO S. DELA CRUZ is President of the Darwin International School System. He studied in Osaka University (Japan), the University of Cambridge (England) and at the University of Leiden (the Netherlands).

(SOURCE: MANILA BULLETIN, April 26, 2012)

IMPLEMENTING THE NEW BY OLD GUARDS

Implementing The New By Old Guards

Educating A Nation

By PROF. ROLANDO S. DELA CRUZ

April 12, 2012, 2:05pm

INTERNAL LOGIC AND ILLOGIC

The lack of quality in the educational system is the target problem to be solved by the Department of Education’s (DepEd) new K+12 system, which adds three years to basic education.

Yet, this problem could also be the very Achilles heel of K+12.

Policy crashes are not all functions of haphazard implementation or lack of planning, but also of failure to directly address salient factors that are systemic. Sometimes, policy makers focus only on the internal logic of a solution (e.g., There is so much to discuss in class, therefore, additional three years will solve the problem.), unmindful of the illogic (i.e., The teachers do not teach well with a shorter period, therefore the teachers will teach better with a longer period.) within which a new policy operates.

Consequently, we could just be repeating the litany of missteps in Philippine education. There is a policy instance when the government solved the quality dilemma by improving the wrong solution even better! This is the case of the Makabayan subject, which is part of the new Basic Education Curriculum (BEC).

MAKABAYAN AS EMPTY PROMISE

The BEC reform started in the early 2000s which included the streamlining of subjects lumped together under the nomenclature Makabayan. Such subjects include Civics and Culture, Geography, History, Arts, Music, Physical Education and Health.

Makabayan is supposed to be “the laboratory to train students in life.” Recognizing the clutter in the curriculum, education experts and policy makers thought that recombining and adjusting the ingredients of a recipe will create a pièce de résistance that would alter the nature of a party.

But revelry participants realized late that it was the same recipe that was just made half-baked; it was the same party that remained dull as ever. In short, the areas of Makabayan remained mini-subjects within a subject.

One decade later, no clear proof could be presented that those who underwent the Makabayan training were prepared to reach the top of the world.

Curiously, the same congestion argument used to justify the BEC reform is being utilized as argument for the K+12 system. It now remains to be seen if the K+12 innovation will solve the congestion problem and bring out the best in the Filipino student.

REHASH OF THE OLD

Real and effective reforms take a long time to bear fruits. A single reform may take generations to become a way of life.

And then there are reforms that look massive but cannot radically alter the system because it is merely a rehash of the old. Such is the nature of the Makabayan solution.

Makabayan suffered from the fear to let go of everything in the old curriculum. It sought to be better at doing what was not working.

The problem of the BEC is its being too rigid, instead of simply being a framework for schools and teachers to freely explore and lead students. This rigidity does not solve the bigger problem of teachers, with low level of content and skill,  to harness students’ critical and creative thought.

ROOTED MISTAKES

The Aquino administration must be so careful in implementing the country’s greatest educational experiment to date. It ought to repeat and propagate no more the mistakes.

The K+12 program definitely deserves a chance. It seems to be radical in nature and shows promise; but one should never assume that mere radicalism will automatically benefit the people.

Vital questions remain: How does the government seek to radically improve the educational system through K+12, when this system will be implemented by the same teachers who are products of the same educational system? Will students become better if we continue teaching the wrong way - for three additional years?

This sounds like BEC 101 all over again.

An alumnus and former faculty member of UP Diliman, the author is president of the Darwin International School System. He studied in Osaka University (Japan), the University of Cambridge (England) and the University of Leiden (the Netherlands).

(SOURCE: http://mb.com.ph/node/356848/implementing-the-new-by-old-guard#.URKVzI6Gndk)

NOTE: THIS IS A REPOSTING OF AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE MANILA BULLETIN ON 12 APRIL 2012. 

JESSE ROBREDO: PUNLAY UPANG BUMANGON SA KAMATAYAN SI LAZARUS

by

PROF. ROLANDO S. DELA CRUZ

Isang bayani ang muling isinilang sa kamalayan ng bayan. Namatay di sa sakit kundi sa mekanikal na aksidente ng isang eroplano.  Isa itong patunay na ang pagbabasbas ng kabayanihan ay di isinasagawa ng lehislatura at di lamang ng matrahedyang pag-aalay ng buhay. Sa huli, mga ordinaryong tao ang nag-aalay ng mga petal ng pagtingala mula sa tuntungan ng isang pedestal. 

Dati, pinaparangalan si Jesse Robredo ng kanyang mga kababayan sa Naga. Sumunod dito ang pagkilala ng mga institusyon na nalirip ang kanyang pagiging dyamante. Ngayon, buong bayan naman ang nagbibigay-puri: isang bayan na nangangailangan ng mas marami pang bayani. Ang pagpupugay sa kanya ay di lamang pagpapasalamat sa pagiging mabuting halimbawa ng pamumuno. Ito ay pagsasabi na mas marami pang tulad nya ang kailangan ng mga mamamayan ng bayang Pilipinas: Kulang pa, kulang pa, sabi nila. Mas marami pang tulad mo ang nais namin.

Ito ay isang uri ng pag-aalsa ng bayan na tila naiinip sa pagdating na isang tagapagligtas. Isang uri ng pambansang diskurso na sumusubok paigtingin ang mga alon sa dagat ng desperasyon. Isang uri ng pagpapahiwatig na sa katunaya’y nag-aantay ng isang tsunaming magbabago sa takbo ng isang nakababagot na kasaysayan ng  kasinungalingan, pagnanakaw at kataksilan sa bayan.

Maaring walang armas ang bayan sa tulad nitong buhos ng damdamin. Maaring walang kamalayang rebolusyonaryo ang mga ordinaryong nagtitiis sa ilalim ng araw o ulan upang silayan ang kabaong na naglalaman ng isang ideya ng pag-asa. Ngunit sa katotohanan, ang pagkakabalot sa kabaong ng isang bandila, pati na rin ang kalahating-tagdang pagwawagayway nito sa isang Palasyo tulad ng sa buong bayan, at ang pagpuprusisyon ng kanyang pagiging ordinaryong tao sa mga bakubako at balubaluktot na mga kalye ay isang uri ng edukasyon para sa bayan.

Ito ay edukasyon di lamang sa pagiging pinuno, kundi sa pag-uugali ng isang indibidwal; di lamang sa pagiging ideyalista, kundi sa pagsasakatotohanan ng mga balakin; di lamang sa pagiging makabayan, kundi sa pagiging halimbawa sa lahat na naghahangad yumakap sa kabutihan; di lamang sa pagiging isa sa mga pinakamababa ng lipunan, kundi sa pagsasabuhay din ng pamamayani ng batas; at, di lamang sa pagiging maka-Diyos, kundi sa pagiging makatao rin. Ang pagkakatutong tulad nito ang tangi, pinakamahusay, at pangmatagalang sandata ng bayan para mamayani sa tunggalian ng mga interes sa lipunan.

Ang dalamhating bumabalot sa pagkamatay ni Robredo ay uri rin ng edukasyon para sa kabataan at mga darating na henerasyon. Ito ay isang aral na di lamang dapat isinasatitik sa mga aklat kundi isinasapusong dapat tumibok sa pang-araw-araw na buhay . Ito rin ay isang aral, na tulad ng dugong umaagos sa ugat ng bawat bata, ay dapat umagos sa kamalayan – kamalayan di ng bawat idibidwal kundi sa bansa bilang isang organismong nangangailangan ng pagkain sa isip at pagkalinga sa damdamin.

Pinapahintulutan ng Diyos magkaminsan ang kamatayang tulad ng kay Robredo upang tumugon sa pangkasaysayang mga pangarap ng nakararami.  Gayunpaman, di sana kitlin makalawa ng sakit ng maikling memorya ang makinang na halimbawa niya. Maraming bayani na ang iniluklok sa mga pedestal ang nangamatay makalawa matapos muling maidlip sa bangungot ang bayang nasanay na sa pang-aabuso at pagiging alipin. Ang paulit-ulit na kamatayang ito ang requiem sa halos  limang-daang taong burol ng bayang Pilipinas.

Kung kailan magiging tulad ni Lazarus ang  bayang Pilipinas, kung kailan ito magbabalikwas upang lumaya mula sa kamatayan sa kasaysayan, ay isang panaginip na sana’y basbasan ng langit. Subalit ang pagbabasbas ay ibinibigay lamang sa mga bayang karapat-dapat kamitin ito. Dapat maging karapat-dapat ang bansa na tumindig sa daigdig ng mga buhay at tunay na malaya. Ang pagiging karapat-dapat na ito, tulad ng pagsisilang kay Robredo sa sinapupunan ng langit, ay kailangan munang isilang sa puso ng bawat mamamayang Pilipino. Kapag ang tibok ng bawat isa ay sumaliw sa tibok ng iba pa upang bumuo ng pangkalahatan, kikibot ang bawat selula, didilat ang mga mata, gagalaw ang mga daliri, muling tatakas ang pawis sa bawat paghinga, pupusyaw ang mukha, babalutin ng katuwiran ang isip. Kapag nangyari ang mga ito, babangon ang Pilipinas.

12:14 nh

26 Agosto 2012

CHIEF JUSTICE MARIA LOURDES A. SERENO: THE JOB TO MIRROR IN HER WORK THE JUSTICE OF GOD

by

PROF. ROLANDO S. DELA CRUZ

God has spoken. President Noynoy C. Aquino appointed a new Chief Justice in the person of Maria Lourdes Aranal Sereno.

Let us not be consumed by the fact that she is the first woman CJ of the land; that she is Valedictorian of her class; that she is well-educated in the Philippines and abroad; that she will serve one of the longest terms in judicial history; and that she is one of the youngest to be appointed in the highest post of the magistrate. More important than all these is that Sereno was the anti-thesis of the legal bandits whom she met when she arrived in the Supreme Court. She will continue to be that anti-thesis until the old has been relegated in the dustbin of history. The underdog is now at the apex of an institution needing a wave of fresh justice. Truth to tell, the Corona camp always ganged up on her. They did that when the majority (through Corona's henchmen) tried to suppress her dissent in the GMA Travel Abroad TRO case. But she did not relent; she did not put down her pen. She issued again another dissenting opinion that explained how the majority tried to hide the truth from the people.

CJ Sereno is no politico. She is a woman with simple needs and and simple life. But she is no ordinary fighter. She knows how a petite woman could get things done in a system dominated by bullies. She works very hard, setting an extremely high standard for her beautiful legal mind to resolve piles and piles of cases assigned her. She does not mingle with people who would try to influence her judicial decisions: no partying, no lavish shopping, no showing-off in society pages to increase her power.

She knows what power means, but just like the great George Washington, she was not interested in power per se. She is more interested in honoring God who is the source of all powers. She simply accepts power as an appendage of a greater Force. Thus, her idea of justice is one that mirrors the justice of God. No wonder, she can never be bought: not even PNOY who, obviously, respects so much the the intellect and the person of Sereno. Upon assumption to office, she immediately voted against the interest of Hacienda Luisita. She was against the majority opinion which initially favored stock options. She was for outright distribution of the land to the landless. It was only after the appeal that the majority set aside stock options, and Corona shamelessly tried to steal the credit by pandering on the poor farmers. From the very start, Sereno was a maverick in a court that lacks independence, always open to lying, always beholden to GMA, always open to clinging on to naked power without accountability.

It was a lonely life for her, away from friends as well as enemies: she devotes herself to dispensing justice without favor and without fear. She even refused to inhibit herself in a case where the accused kept on hounding SC justices through threats and senseless demands to whoever would get the case when raffled in order to inhibit themselves - just so the case would drag on and on. The previous justices who inhibited themselves simply showed cowardice. But not Sereno. She is the epitome of courage that is without any pre-conditions - plain, simple, natural courage that comes from a dignified and principled life guided daily by the words of God! Truly, the mark of a person to head the Supreme Court.

PNOY is on the right track. He knows there is so much to reform from top to bottom in the judiciary. But with CJ Sereno around, PNOY in four years can retire with peace of mind and historical awareness that the CJ he appointed will do her share of reforming our country in the area of justice. There is so much pain in the untimely death of Jesse Robredo that burns our desire for change; but the pain should today be washed away with an ardent hope that change is, indeed, possible: a possibility to give flesh to the essence of political democracy, which is genuine economic and social justice.

I see a country devastated by corrupt people. But today, I salute the Filipino people for producing a daughter capable of loving and serving this nation with truth and justice. If Jose Rizal were alive today, he will not even think of making this country a province of Spain. If he learned of Sereno's appointment, he would not have gone to Cuba to serve the Spanish soldiers. For today, he would know that heroism is so ordinary in this country. As ordinary as serving well the interest of the former Indios he knew. As ordinary as being real Filipino. And Sereno is Filipino. There is so much to be proud of in being a Filipino.

6:37 pm

24 August 2012