Are we part of the 21st century education?

What is the objective of education?

If the answer is "... to get a job" then we should not educate but train for six months and not educate for four or five years. I mean there's even a job that does not even entail education in this context - whoring = )

But of course, one can argue that the reason some of us are in that situation is because they did not receive education thus, their life choices is limited. And the reason they are doing what they are doing is because they want to save money so that they can send themselves to school and get educated = )

So, what's the objective of education? Someone said "...to be educated." I think that was de Quiroz who wrote that.

If that's true then how do I know if one is already educated?

Well, most colleges and university will point to an ability to write a thing called a Paper. To some a practicum paper. To some a research paper. I have no issue on this. My issue is that we miss the point of doing a Paper.

A Paper is a result of a journey of curiosity. And not the end on itself. One must have a journey. If one does not have a journey, one can not write a Paper even if he has all the resources at hand. Even if he has the new MacBook Air = )

One can only write a paper if one is "curious" about something that he is willing to give his life to a journey that will bring him to a place where nothing seems to make sense. To a place where he even start to doubt the very education he dearly paid for.

To be educated is to be open... to be passionate... so passionate that when it's time to write the Paper one could not even stop writing because one could not write the whole truth on a piece of paper in so many pages.

This where I think, we, yes, WE, or more correctly I am mistaken as an educator. I am thankful I have seen the error of my thinking.

To write a Paper is a never ending activity. Equally important to what one has found in his journey is the list of things one suggest to the next pilgrim where to look for the thread of truth.

This limitedly inspired thinking on paper writing has its roots on the 1960s expensiveness of information processing. One has to cut truth (data) to pieces because at that time it is expensive and technologically infeasible to process a larger chunks of truth thus, the batching.

But as technology progressed and developed over time, we forgot the reason why there was a need to increase processing power in the first place or why we did the batching in the first place. That we need increase processing power because we have to process bigger slices of truth at any given time. The long time coming of this technology dulled and lulled us to sleep and made our minds commit to batching and slicing truth to pieces and accept this sliced truth as the whole truth = )

This processing of data in batches has the same dynamics as the current Paper writing. We have to write the Paper before because we need to see the whole truth but at that time when we started writing it, the technology involved was not yet there. Thus, we batched it. But we are batching not because that's how it's supposed to be done but because that was a compromise at that time between our technology and truth. Now that technology has progressed a bit, we have to do away of our compromised way of doing Papers. It's now time we integrate back to reality and not let the Papers gather dust.

Because this the 21st century education, an education that sees and affects reality. Where the concepts shapes the real and the real refines the concepts.

In the end, to write a Paper is not to write a Paper but to see and describe the dance of life as it progresses = )

from a Filipina Eco-warrior

At last a genuine grass-root Filipina on CNN talking about an idea and not a sad story = )

"History will tell us that when there's poverty, people will use the environment to make their ends meet (e.g. turning forest lands to farmlands) in an unsustainable way. Thus an environmental problem is born. There must be a balance between economics and the environment."

We have a long way to go but a journey of a thousand miles start with a single step = )

will

Your will be done, Lord.
It is good.
It is for the best.
Let not my pain and my weakness hinder Your will.

May the pain bring me ever closer to You.

who has done what?

Here we go again, the Philippine politics at its finest - the Lozada version. Crazy. Beautiful. I hope you catch my drift.

I am disturbed, medyo angry lang to a degree, about how things seem to play out on the Senate proceedings. But I am more disturbed about the seemingly nonchalantly reaction of those people who does not have the time to follow the proceedings on the radio or on the net. Maybe they are busy making ends meet and building a future = )

Or maybe, they just do not care anymore.

Here's a snapshot of the audience the Senate's proceeding is trying to reach. The 30-somethings and the 40-somethings. These are the people who at a young age was exposed, without a choice , to the workings of Philippine politics. These are people who was busy doing their homework in Araling Panlipunan by cutting out newspaper headlines of Malaya and of Philippine Daily Inquirer to be submitted and discussed the following day in school. These are the people who watched the bloodied body of Ninoy Aquino on prime time news that fateful week in August in 1983. These are the people who at a young age was swept away by the promise of (the only) People Power. These are the people who sang, with all their hearts and soul, Magkaisa and Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo in school activities. These are the people who memorize the lines of Let's light one little candle. These are the people who watch the principled heavy politicians on TV. These are the people that read the news on liberal newspaper. These are the people who read the Time Magazine's article on the first ever Woman of the Year.

And now all we have on TV, radio, print and web is a story of power and of greed? Seriously, so old news! Can I borrow the remote?

Can we do something different? Instead of the 21st century version of grandstanding - why not pass a law that prohibits Senators, Congressmen and Government official in sending their kids to study abroad so that they really know how sick the situation is down to the devilish details. That is quality news content. Instead of government officials flashing their braces-filled mouth because a senator who had a limited idea about poor economic policy-execution-induced suffering asked a question, can we ask why the Philippines, who largely depends on agriculture for its economic output (GDP), import rice? That is quality news content.

So, who has done what? We did. We are to be blamed for this situation we are in. Let's stop pointing fingers. Everything is in everything= )

Coach NT, Annointed

"We do not need anymore celebrities in this world. We have way too much of them. It's heroes we need..."

2010

Here are my questions for the presidentiables of 2010:

1. Known fact - Philippines have a lot problems. What do you think are the Top Three transcendant issues that will eat most of your 24 hours in a day once elected?

2. What can you do about these issues aside from talking about it?

3. What will you do about these issues?

4. How are you going to proceed in solving these issues?

If we can have this conversation with our politicos and have automated elections, 2010 election would be a something special.