More fundamental
Pandemic blunders
There ia yet another high-ranking government official who has committed blunder and is now the subject of criticisms. Presidential spokesperson lawyer Harry Roque is making waves after he played with dolphins in a marine park inside Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
For him, he sees no wrong with swimming with the dolphins since they are not humans and are not carriers of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19). He however tickled the ire of netizens and members of the Earth Island Institute (EEI), a non-governmental organization, for indulging in "captive animal entertainment".
On social media, Roque has been bashed with netizens expressing their ire. He was also compared to people in community quarantined areas who are not allowed to go out their homes except for some emergency or essential activities. Roque
was on a leisure trip amid the present pandemi c.
The presidential spokesperson was slammed by netizens for “living the life”while most people are enjoined not to go out and stranded individuals endure restrictions under community quarantine. He was enjoying while many are living in anxiety, hunger and fear of the virus while the
pandemic is still extant.
Due to thousands of comments and adverse reactions, Roque has apologized for his jaunt while rationalizing that he did not violate anyl health protocols. Netizens were quick to retort and posted his photograph talking to employees of the marine park without any protective mask mask.
He likewise apologized to those who might have been "offended" by his foray into a marine park while claiming that it was a mere "side trip" after visiting his family's agri-business in Bataan. There seems to be nothing wrong with the visit except that his "side-trip" is not warranted in this time of the Covid-19.
Meanwhile, the EII said that Roque should be held accountable for his play with the dolphins which is violative of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), of which the Philippines is a signatory. In addition, the said organization said that he has also violated the Fisheries Code of the Philippines which says that it is unlawful to fish, take, catch, gather, sell, purchase, possess, transport, export, forward or ship out aquatic species listed in the CITES that includes the dolphins.
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During the height of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), Gen Debold Sinas, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) was caught off-guard when he had a birthday party with his visitors violating quarantine protocols.
Some of those who were "pictured" were without face masks while violating social distancing measures. He was quick to justify such untimely activities that it was a mere mananita and that he did not anticipated his visitors coming. Such lavish and wrong-timing activity was bashed.
IT IS admittedly urgent that educators come up with a system of holding classes online. Thus they can hardly be blamed for fussing about nothing else these days. Still, I wish they would take the time to address a more fundamental education issue.
The problem to tackle in virtual classes is mainly connectivity; one can simply teach the same subjects online, and in the
same rote manner, as those in a real classroom. But barring a financial miracle there is no way we can afford to provide millions of poor children the needed gadgets. In that case, we might as well take one step back and ask the more fundamental question of how to educate the Filipino youth from here on, online or off.
Take the newly restored (thank God!) subject, GMRC (Good Manners and Right Conduct). How does one teach good manners? Having pupils memorize GMRC do’s and don’ts won’t cut it. GMRC is taught by example which, in either virtual or real classroom, only parents and/or guardians can provide.
Inhuman living conditions in the country indicate a need for a values-oriented education. But how do we inculcate values? Online or offline it cannot be done by memorizing textbook definitions. Our government officials graduated from the country’s best schools; but look where they are, at the bottom of the value scale causing people to suffer from their greed and corruption.
The pandemic-enforced break presents us with the rare opportunity of promoting and encouraging creative and critical thinking like by doing away with true-or-false and fillingthe-blanks tests. Online teaching is the best place to require students to research the answers to questions and express their findings in a complete sentence or paragraph of their own words. That way we know they can think their way through a problem.
I breezed through elementary, high school and college on the wings of my memory because the idea was not so much to learn as to get good grades, pass final exams and move on to the next level. I didn’t start using my mind until I went to a school that informed you of your grade only if you fell below standard and needed to step on the gas mentally.
Grades kill the mighty dragon of creative and critical thinking and should be de-stressed if not taken out completely. To get good grades, obviously the be-all and end-all of our educational system, one doesn’t have to think but only regurgitate what the teacher has pounded on our memory cells.
We need creative and critical thinking Filipinos with sound moral values. Hence, more than answer how to conduct classes online, we should answer the more fundamental question of how to educate, online or offline, for creativity, critical thinking and a robust sense of moral values.