The Unpopular Opinion

Whenever there are children asking for alms within the Metro, and I happen to be the one they ask from, I never give them money. Instead, I always find the effort to buy something instead of giving them money, like buying bread from a nearby bakery, biscuits from a nearby sari-sari store and others. Since I am one those who believe that all the proceeds of their alms would go to rampant syndicates anyway.  But still, I find it absurd.  Albeit being one with a temper, I never built on the premise on blaming these children's parents, since jobs nowadays are so hard to find. And assuming these children have come to that ultimatum of being used and to "work" for their families to have something to eat (not earn), their parents must have not finished schooling. Thus making it achieve a decent livelihood even more difficult.  I was one of those who experienced being spat on by a child whom I have assumed to be under the influence of drugs. I could even smell the ru...

Introduction: In Ryunosuke Akutagawa's Rashonon , one of the most relevant pieces in Japan during the epoch of modern literature, the story suggested that truth is unreliable; in fact, it is subjective. It is through the grasp of personal maneuvers that made it so subjective and ought to be changed through a leeway in personal ideals. Putting it relevantly in Filipino culture, we have a certain cling to orthodoxy— always limited and hindered by cultural beliefs, myths and tradition. The divisive culture in primitive-communal times was strengthened and made stagnant by Spaniards through their indoctrination of Christianity among the locals. The Americans found even greater benefits of the Spanish religion and was eventually kept it and used it to pacify progressivity and unity— reason for toppling the remnants of the Katipunan and performing one of the biggest unrecorded genocides in human history with deaths numbering to 1.5 million. Up to this date, Filipinos remain di...

Three years practiced in the university, yet the Outcomes-Based Teacher Education Curriculum (OBTEC) is still barraged with negative critiques and feedback. Students rant about the laborious nature of OBTEC to a point where the pressure to comply with the requirements can lead to suicidal thoughts which is dangerously realistic. In a learners' perspective, the curriculum is now considered aberrant and futile, since it is realized that the toll of the workload does not lead to academic mastery. Put shortly, the curriculum, as described, has a stubborn empirical nature. Lawson et. Al. (2007) explains that the contextual practice and application of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) occurs in various forms, for it 'has different versions practiced in different ways and different places'. Relative to the university's case, OBTEC is an OBE curriculum that has been constructed in consideration to the country's pursuit of the K to 12 curriculum as imposed in the En...

"Education is to prepare people to participate in a democratic society." (Dewey, 1916; Freire, 1970/2000, 2004; Giroux, 2005) Democracy can only be enshrined through the voices of a determined majority. Literacy and numeracy bedrocks social determination wherein a people recognizes their relevance in changing society. A "determinist," redeless government that is grounded on fascism goes against this people power. Cammarota and Fire (2008) exclaims that conditions of justice are produced, not natural; that the justice system is designed to privelege one and oppress another, but still it is "ultimately challengeable and therefore challengeable." Ergo teachers bear the responsibility to stand as the voice of moral and political sanity, to teach critical thinking and prepare citizens against advantageous influences and stimuli; to challenge a primitive and oppressive social construct. And again, a fascist government goes against this design. ...