The Construct

One of the huge reasons why I’ve become so jaded teaching in UP is the shifting demographics of the student population.

Usually, a discussion of starting salary’s one of the most interesting portions of my English 30 class. Everyone was keen on sharing their opinions on the matter.

Not these days. Today, it’s one of the shortest since the shared opinion is that “We don’t really have the pressure to earn so starting salary’s not an issue.”

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It’s graduation time once again and I wonder how many kids will be walking tall just because they’d be graduating cum laude or its higher variants.

This might be a bit of sourgraping but it seems that it’s just so easy to get honors these days. The Revised Genereal Education Program (RGEP) has been the subject of controversy over the past few years.

Ever since students have had the “freedom” to choose the general education subjects, grade inflation has appeared to be a problem. We’ve seen it all over the Internet. What was once a Peyups.com phenomenon can be seen over many a social network – fora that discuss the recommended classes and professors mostly based on the “petiks” workload and “unoability.”

I’ve had my fare share inside the classroom and I’m pretty sure that my previous students would classify me (based on today’s grading standards) as “kuripot.” I can still count with my fingers the students to whom I’ve given the grade of 1.0. Barely scrape by in my class and you get a 3.0. Do a good job, 2.0.
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One of the final touches a thesis writer puts on his thesis is the acknowledgements page. I find it interesting how many others (particularly the undergraduates) find it so sentimental to express their gratitude to people. And I do understand.

Much like long-winded Academy Awards acceptance speeches, acknowledgement pages would list all the people the writer considers “instrumental” (even those very remotely instrumental) to writing their thesis, religious deity, parents, siblings, clan members, advisers, panelists, teachers, lovers, friends, and pets included.

In my case, unlike my 150-page exposition, my acknowledgements page is made up of only a few lines. Just about a third in length of my BA thesis’ ack page. And I can think of a number of possible reasons why but I can’t pinpoint the exact one.

Maybe it’s the nature of the study. The graduate degree is basically “optional” and it isn’t what I would consider my “greatest achievement to date.”

Maybe it’s because there aren’t really many people who helped me finish my degree in the first place.

Maybe it’s my own devolution as a social creature for the past five years. God knows that many of the people I thanked in my BA thesis aren’t my friends any more.

Still, I feel that I have to give credit where credit’s due. That even if I refer to some people in vague generalities, my heartfelt thanks will always be sincere.

It’s quite interesting how people view the Quezon Hall paint throwing incident yesterday. Facebook was practically a warzone between those who lauded the students’ move of throwing paint at a school official and those who believed that UP has really dumbed down.

As I’ve mentioned in a Facebook status post:

I wonder based on what “standards” are we judging these kids. Some of us call them “walang modo” and “bastos” but isn’t it just part of student activism? How far we you willing to go for our convictions? There will always be “better” ways of resolving things if we contemplate on the ifs and buts. Still, if most of us simply stand idly by, then who are we to judge a few hurled paint bombs?

Part of me appreciates the mischief and playfulness displayed by the kids. Activists elsewhere have done more “radical” things. Part of me thinks that there could’ve been better ways of addressing the issue. On a grander level, we can all debate about whether or not dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was the best thing the Allies could do.

We could just hope that we can get sidetracked by the issue. It’s simple strategy and tactics though. Never let your enemy exploit what you do to his/her advantage. I’m sure this will be used to direct attention away from the real ugly underlying issues that needed to be addressed.

How do you put out an oil fire? Start a bigger fire next to it. Self-immolation, anyone?

I’m getting sick and tired of the “excuse,” “Kaya nga ako nag-English” as an excuse not to know basic math concepts and technology concepts.

I’ve been involved in IT education as writer, editor, trainer and consultant largely because part of my personal advocacy is the importance of IT. I do think that technology education should be given as much weight as math, science, and English courses in basic GE. However, since that education policy is still non-existent, we must do something about our current generation of learners.

It is frustrating that in terms of research methodologies, we language scholars are still stuck to early 90s qualitative approaches. Especially in today where research tools for doing corpus-assisted research such as textual analysis software are now widely available. It’s not because the software is too expensive as freeware versions are already coming out. It’s because of students’ limited knowledge on computing.

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