LEARN­ING WHILE EARN­ING

Sun.Star Pampanga - - PER­SPEC­TIVE! -

Poverty is con­sid­ered as the big­gest hin­drance in the ed­u­ca­tion of the stu­dents who are en­rolled in the en­tire ar­chi­pel­ago. Even though the en­rol­ment in pub­lic schools is free, stu­dents still need to spend some amount in com­plet­ing their ba­sic ed­u­ca­tion. It is be­cause gov­ern­ment can­not pro­vide ev­ery­thing that the stu­dents need.

It is a com­mon no­tion that money mat­ters in eco­nom­ics. This con­cept is also ap­pli­ca­ble in the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem. Money mat­ters in ed­u­ca­tion. There are things that the stu­dents need to buy in or­der to con­duct per­for­mance tasks. This is ap­pli­ca­ble in the sub­jects TLE.

As the TLE of­fers ex­ploratory cour­ses and spe­cial­iza­tion such as com­mer­cial cook­ing and other, it de­notes that ma­te­ri­als to per­form tasks and to mea­sure com­pe­ten­cies should be avail­able in or­der for the stu­dents to do such tasks. This is where the teach­ers should find way in to pro­vide the needs of the stu­dents.

“Learn­ing while Earn­ing” is a sim­ple phrase but im­plies a big im­pact. The sub­ject TLE fo­cuses on vo­ca­tional course or en­tre­pre­neur skills. This op­por­tu­nity should be seized in or­der for the stu­dents to learn while they earn. The learn­ing be­ing pro­vided in TLE can be used for busi­ness or source of in­come for each fam­ily of the learn­ers en­rolled in their re­spec­tive schools. Stu­dents who are tak­ing up les­sons re­gard­ing on how to clean fin­ger nails may use this op­por­tu­nity to ap­ply their learn­ing in to their com­mu­nity. Stu­dents may earn cer­tain amount which can be added to the in­come of the fam­ily for their needs.

As the De­part­ment of Ed­u­ca­tion is striv­ing to have a strong part­ner­ship with TESDA and other pri­vate in­sti­tu­tions re­gard­ing pro­vid­ing source of in­come for the stu­dents and their fam­ily, teach­ers have also their part to seize this op­por­tu­nity and make the stu­dents re­al­ize that poverty is not hin­drance any­more in com­plet­ing their ba­sic ed­u­ca­tion. To­day, as­sis­tance, and op­por­tu­ni­ties are open for the stu­dents to over­come the so called big­gest hin­drance – poverty. Make them re­al­ize that LEARN­ING WHILE EARN­ING is pos­si­ble.

— oOo— The au­thor is Teacher III at Mex­ico Na­tional High School

In the field of ed­u­ca­tion, char­ac­ter for­ma­tion is al­ways de­fined as the har­mo­nious de­vel­op­ment of all di­men­sions of the hu­man per­son. It is one of the vi­tal pil­lars of the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem as it aims to cre­ate bet­ter in­di­vid­u­als into stu­dents’in­ner be­ings.

School is not just about learn­ing con­cepts; it is also a place where a foun­da­tion can be built for be­com­ing up­right in­di­vid­u­als. As what ed­u­ca­tional philoso­phers would al­ways sug­gest, learn­ers are ‘em­bod­ied spir­its’. Then, it is al­ways an aim to not only de­velop the skills and com­pe­ten­cies or even widen the hori­zon of knowl­edge of stu­dents but also touch their hearts by de­vel­op­ing their char­ac­ter as an ‘em­bod­ied spirit’. De­vel­op­ing learn­ers’char­ac­ter in the schools would al­ways start in­side their class­rooms. Teach­ers then know their learn­ers in a more per­sonal way. In such a way, teach­ers would have the ease to at least de­velop pos­i­tive char­ac­ter to learn­ers.

Ev­ery school should set a tone of re­spect, hon­esty and gen­uine kind­ness for all stu­dents. Whether they like it or not, teach­ers are role mod­els for stu­dents and can pro­vide ex­am­ples of good char­ac­ter ev­ery day in the class­room.

It goes even be­yond the in­te­gra­tion of val­ues in the dif­fer­ent learn­ing ar­eas. Though there is a sep­a­rate sub­ject of Edukasyon Sa Pag­pa­pakatao (ESP) that pro­vides value-laden in­struc­tions in prop­a­gat­ing good man­ners and right con­duct to pub­lic sec­ondary schools, teach­ers in other learn­ing ar­eas are as well be agents of char­ac­ter for­ma­tion by pro­vid­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties to im­bue pos­i­tive traits and at­ti­tude.

When we think about the kind of char­ac­ter we want for our chil­dren, it’s clear that we want them to be able to judge what is right, care deeply about what is right, and then do what they be­lieve to be right— even in the face of pres­sure from with­out and temp­ta­tion from within.”

How­ever, char­ac­ter build­ing can also be done proac­tively through planned ac­tions and ac­tiv­i­ties within the class­room. Th­ese class­room ac­tiv­i­ties will en­cour­age stu­dents to de­velop and adopt qual­ity eth­i­cal prin­ci­ples and be­hav­iors that can last far be­yond the class­room. In such man­ner, teach­ers who act char­ac­ter for­ma­tors in the schools pave the way for the learn­ers to find their own iden­tity and aid them of what they need and even­tu­ally pos­sess to be able to cope with all the de­mands of the world.

As one of the Pre­fects of Dis­ci­pline in our school, my ar­dent de­sire is to pro­vide pos­i­tive dis­ci­pline to stu­dents who may deal with some is­sues about their char­ac­ter and at­ti­tude. This may shape a good la­bel of char­ac­ter ex­cel­lence with the stu­dents. We can all be cat­a­lysts of char­ac­ter for­ma­tion in the schools by merely set­ting our­selves as role mod­els of good­will and in­te­gral ex­cel­lence.

As what Dr. Marvin Berkowitz, ““Ef­fec­tive char­ac­ter ed­u­ca­tion is not adding a pro­gram or set of pro­grams to a school. Rather it is a trans­for­ma­tion of the cul­ture and life of the school.”

— oOo— The au­thor is Teacher II at Betis High School

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