UMian wins second place for short film, elected as Minda student rep at 3rd PACSA
REPRESENTATIVES of the University of Mindanao took home second place in the One Minute Video Presentation at the 3rd Philippine Association of Campus Student Advisers (PACSA) International Conference held last Nov. 25- 28 in Baguio city.
Arnie B. Grajo, who is in his second year taking up Bachelor of Arts in Communication at UM Digos College (UMDC) took home the award for his short film titled “Pagsubok,” chronicling the struggles and rise leadership of their student body president, Ruffa Mae Talingting. “Before I started filming, I thought of a concept that everyone can relate to it. The theme was 21st century leadership,” said Grajo, and added the journey of Ms. Talingting was one he felt all young leaders could identify with. “Our current CDSG president faced a lot of pressure. Based on what she said she thought that she didn’t have the capacity to become the best leader. There are lot of questions on her mind on why the students choose her as the CDSG president of UMDC,” said Grajo. He added that the film was a collective effort of all the departments and people he approached for help, which were the financial management students of UMDC and the editor-inchief of UMDC’s school publication. “I felt hopeless as well at first, because we did not get any feedback from organizers after I submitted the film,” he said. Grajo and the delegation from UM is composed of students Spencer Ignacio, Angelie Te, Ruffa Mae Talinting, and their adviser Joe Carl Castillo. Grajo and Mr. Castillo were also elected as Student Representative and Business Manager, respectively, of the PACSA Mindanao Core Group. With the theme “PACSA @40: WE ARE ONE: Working Towards Excellence by Advocating Righteousness, Empowerment and Oneness,” it is their mission to develop the intellectual, moral, social, and spiritual strengths of campus advisers and student leaders across the country. Teacher are expected to be role models of morality, values, and good manners and conduct. Teachers are considered “second parents” of our children in school. The role of a teacher has become more difficult and complicated over the years. While they are expected to teach our children, their students, good and acceptable behavior and attitude, students (and parents) no longer take the pangs of discipline sitting down. However, if students turn out misbehaving and become unruly and uncontrollable, we parents are quick to point our fingers to the lowly teacher as being incompetent and inefficient. Child rearing is finest and foremost a family matter. As the saying goes, “A child is God’s gift to man, what comes out of a child, is man’s gift to God”. Therefore, parents are morally, ethically, and spiritually expected not only to nourish but also to nurture their children as they grow up to be morally, emotionally and intellectually upright individuals of society. Teachers on the other hand are mandated by a sense of duty and obligation to teach students, especially in their formative and youthful years the value of responsibility, discipline, patience, honor, honesty, punctuality and a host of other virtues in a classroom where students from all walks of life and upbringing come together… this is where the dilemma begins. When accountability is interchanged with abuse of authority, as in the part of some teachers, or when discipline is misinterpreted as humiliation as in the part of some students – that’s when the trouble begins. Gone are the days when we allow our teachers to let us stand in the corner or sit in the air because of misdeeds, gone are the days when teachers strike our fingers softly with a ruler when we fail to cut our finger nails or when we are caught cheating… teachers cannot do the same anymore lest they want to be accused of child abuse or trampling upon the rights of the child. Children today boast that they know their rights, but it should not end there. For each given right there comes a responsibility and accountability that goes with it. Students, especially the younger ones should be taught that “sa bawat karapatan ay may ka-akibat ng responsibilidad!”. Children should learn not only to be aware of their rights but they should also learn to respect the rights of their significant others like their family, their friends, their teachers, and the rights of every single human individual on earth. If a child’s rights have been violated, parents, relatives and even strangers come to their defense. If a teacher’s rights have been violated she/he immediately gets the ire of the public. Who then protects the rights of our teachers in the conduct of their duties and responsibilities? What if the teachers themselves are being grossly misunderstood, violated, humiliated, or negated, who then will protect our teachers? Mr. President, I am a teacher and an educator myself yes, but to say that being a teacher is a very difficult job and demands 101% patience, dedication, sacrifice and perseverance is truly an understatement. A teacher is a mother of 20 to 60 students in one classroom. Thus, she needs all the help and consideration that she can get. At the end of the day, a teacher retires to a thankless job where she is often accused of being inefficient, inadequate, bad, weak, ineffective and the name calling goas on. Hence, teachers are victims of cruelty and humiliation themselves. But nobody cares to protect them. Who then, Mr. President, will protect our teachers? A penny for your thoughts… we are doctors, nurses, lawyers, engineers, councilors, public servants today because of our teachers. Let me say that teachers, like students are human beings too and like any other, deserve to be treated justly, fairly and humanely.