photo by skeptical monkey

Let me be clear. I believe in God. I believe that Jesus is the Messiah and I do my best to live my life following his examples and teachings, but I don’t wear my faith and religion on my sleeve. While I believe that all religions should be taught in schools, I don’t believe that they should be practiced in schools.

A family member asked me if I am going to have mass services at my school. I said without hesitation, “Of course not.” She said, “If the word gets out that you don’t hold any type of religious service in your school, then you will have a difficult time attracting students.”

While I wasn’t shocked about the comment, I was certainly surprised and worried. I stated that the school is not a religious school. She said that it didn’t matter.

In a country of almost 93% Christians, religion is a way of life. In the Philippines, there is no such thing as separation of church and state. Of these 93% Christians, roughly 81% are Catholics and the rest are different types of Christian denomination or cults and about 5% of the people are Muslim.

I honestly don’t have any issues with holding prayer or mass services at any school. My issue is the type of service it will be. Since the majority of Filipinos are Catholics, it will be easy and simple to have the services conducted in Catholic tradition. But it’s not as simple as this.

I grew up in an American Society and in a school system that separates the business of the government and churches. While there’s a distinct separation of religion and schools, I still witnessed how some students were made fun of because they were Jewish, Muslim or Buddhist. I also saw how some Christian students argued on who’s the better Christian denomination.

So my apprehension about religion being practiced in schools is not so much that I don’t believe in organized religion but it’s more like me promoting something that could possibly result into students being ostracized because of their beliefs. Since Philippines is overwhelmingly Catholic, chances are 99% of my students will be Catholics or some Christian sect. But there’s still that 1% who will be left out or feel left out.

For me, that’s 1% too many.

But, if I don’t hold prayer or mass services on special occassions, then I and the school will run the risk of being labeled as an athiestic school. Which means that I’ll probably end up constantly explaining why I don’t allow religious services in my school. However, if I allow it, then I will be going against what I believe in, which is separating church and state or in this case, church and school.

I want my school to have a lot of students, and I want it too succeed. But, I also want to hold on to my beliefs. There must be a solution to this dillema. There must be a reasonable compromise that would respect the culture and tradition of the Philippines and at the same time would allow me to stay true to my values.

Yes, an answer is out there, but I just haven’t found it yet. Do you have a proposition to resolve this issue?

by Harvard

I’m at Haaaaarvard attending a Summer Institute for School Administrators. The last time I was here, I was just sight seeing. This time however, I’m actually attending classes and marinating in the prestigious  educational reputation of Haaaaarvard University, “Ve Ri Tas”

I must admit that I feel kinda special being here. Even though anybody and their grandmother could’ve been accepted to the program, the tiny elitist bone in my body is tickle to death that I’m actually here walking the hallowed grounds of Haaaaavard Yaaaaard.

While basking in the glory of this bastion of education, I can’t help but think how education is so much out of touch from the real world. Consider this. Harvard has a reputation of being one of the best schools in the world. They earned this reputation because they attract the best faculty and the best students.

Now, would Harvard still be a great school if they have below average and average students? Think about it? If I have a school that has a student body of all valedictorians and geniuses, wouldn’t my school  be awesome also?

A school’s greatness should be measured on how it educates its underperforming students. If a school can increase the reading and math competency of traditional low performing students, then the school should be viewed as a great school.

I’m not trying to suggest that Harvard doesn’t deserve the reputation it receives because it does. What I’m questioning is how we currently classify our schools. What I alluded to earlier is that the way we classify school is out of sync from the way everything is classified outside the realm of education. For example, a hospital is viewed as a great hospital because it is able to deal with the most difficult and dire health conditions. Another example would be that a law firm’s greatness is determined by its ability to handle seemingly impossible cases.

Why can’t we do the same thing with schools or education in general? Why is it that the best teachers are usually in schools where the students are going to perform well regardless of who their teacher is? Why is that the state-of-the-art educational  resources are usually found in schools where the students can personally afford the said resources. 

Obviously, the result of this educational misclassification and misallocation are failing schools in poor neighborhoods. Instead of assigning well qualified teachers in these failing schools, you have teachers who are either inexperienced or with too much experience and can’t wait to retire.

So, going back to Haaaaarvard, yes, it’s an awesome school but it will be even more awesome if it decides to accept academically challenged students and turned them into good students.

Enough said, I’m going to contemplate and “philosophize” more and maybe all these greatness around me will soak in my mind through osmosis. 

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On a different note, I will still try to post everyday but my blog visits will be infrequent this next couple of weeks because I’m inundated with Haaaaarvard homework.

by Parenthood in America 

You go to school to learn how to read and do math. To save lives and become a doctor, you need education. To cut somebody’s hair or wax someone’s eyebrows, you need training. Why is it that the most important job in the world doesn’t require schooling? What is this job you ask? It’s parenting.

Yes, being a mommy or a daddy is the most important job you’ll ever have. If you don’t get it right, you could possibly ruin plenty of lives in the future.

I would dare to assume that if you poll 100 people, 99% of them would agree that parenting is the most important thing a person could do. Now, with this in mind, why isn’t it required for people to go to school or training before they become a parent?

You read it right. I want parenting to be a required course in school. Think about it. When you went to school, before you can graduate, you were required to take art, gym, and some poetry class where you read poems written by some dead guy a long time ago. Now honestly, when was the last time you were called on to recite poetry by Keats, paint a still life, or demonstrate how to play pickle ball?

Now as a parent, don’t you wish that you’ve taken some courses in high school or college on the basics of parenting? If we make parent education compulsory, then we could possibly reduce the number of children who have “issues” because of bad parenting.

Of course a parenting class is only as good as its curriculum. Thank goodness that I’m an educator who is well versed in curriculum design. And as a coincidence, I have a parenting education curriculum that’s readily available for mass consumption. So here I am putting myself out again for the improvement of humanity. Below are sample courses that will be required for students to take before graduating from high school or college.

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 by environmental action 365 

Every school year I embark on a pet project. This past year, to improve our teacher to student instructional ratio, I tweaked our daily schedule to reduce class size without hiring extra staff and without decreasing student enrollment. And I must admit it was a success. This year I vow to convert our school to a more environmentally friendly school. We’re GOING GREEN!

While teachers and students alike are already enjoying their summers, I’m busy researching and developing a green friendly curriculum and an environmentally conscious school policy handbook for staff and students. To be approved, like my other projects, my green proposal must honor two very important criteria. First, my eco-friendly proposal must adhere to the State Educational Standards. And secondly, it must not place an unnecessary burden on my school’s daily routine and  budget.

The first criterion is the easiest one to accomplish since there are plenty of great green curriculum materials out there that meet any State’s standards. However, the second criterion is the one that will create some challenges. I have to find a way to drum up support from the school’s staff because we all know that the hardest part of combating global warming is our inability to change our set ways. For the school to go green, our staff, students, and parents must buy into the idea and make significant changes with their habits.

Now this is the part where I stop writing and begin listening. I need you to help me come up with brilliant ideas on how I could pull this thing off. Please be creative and think out of the box. Once I compiled everyone’s suggestions, I will design the curriculum and policy handbook. I will then make it available for everyone to read and share.

So let the word out and have the world chime in so that we can create an environmentally friendly school program that’s design by the awesome people of the blogging community.

To get the ball rolling, here’s one of my ideas:

To save paper, I will require all the students to e-mail their homework. Students who don’t have access to computers or internet at home can use the school’s computer lab during lunch and after-school to do their homework.  

Ok, now it’s your turn…

At the end of each year, I often give my words of wisdom to my students. One rule that I always follow when giving life advice is that the advice I give is the same advice I would give to my own children.

Of course because I know that I’m talking to teenagers who pretty much have the attention span of  gnats, I try to break my life’s lesson into a tangible and manageable way.  And since most of my students will have summer jobs this year for the first time, I decided to compare and contrast their school and work environment.

School vs. Work

• A school will give you credit for making an effort, in fact schools might even give you an A grade for your efforts. But your work or more specifically your boss, will ask you why you couldn’t get the job done and gives you a warning.
• Your school will accept a note from your parents when you’re sick and ask if you need more time to stay home so that you can fully recover, but your work will dock your pay when you’re absent.
• Your school will be patient with you when you don’t get the day’s lesson and most of the time, a teacher will stay after school to help you even more with your lessons. But a boss will show you how to do things only once and expect you to know it right away, and if you fail to get it, then your boss will replace you.
• Your school will stroke your ego, build your confidence, and give you candy when you get good grades. But your work will expect you to do your job exceptionally with or without compliments because you’re being paid.
• Usually schools will take your bad attitude and tolerate you mouthing off, but if you do the same thing at work, then you just signed your termination notice.
• A teacher will encourage you to express your opinions freely, but a boss will ask for your opinion only if she or he wants it.
• A teacher will stay up all night thinking of ways how to help you improve yourself and your life, but a boss will stay up all night thinking of ways how you can improve the company.
• Schools have no choice but to work with you. But at work, your boss chooses you if he or she wants to work with you.
• At school teachers will ask the class nerd to help you with your work, at work, the nerd is your boss.

I hope that my students will take my advice to heart. At school, we sometimes forget that our job as educators is not only to have our students reading at grade level, but it’s also to prepare our students for the rigors of the real world. I strive to have my students succeed in school and in the workplace.

So as my students exit our halls of learning and enter the world of earning, I tell them to remember that the world is less forgiving than their school, so they must be vigilant and always be prepared to do their best.