Topics

1

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Can anyone translate this for me?

« on: November 26, 2009, 12:06:43 PM »

Encountered this passage when I was doing my professional readings:

"Behavior coaching refers to the individualized intervention designed for the adolescent with special needs (ASN) to enable him/her to acquire psychosocial-educational skills and competencies consistent with the normalization perspective."

Now, can anyone tell me what that passage means in plain and simple English?

2

Lounge / Vote for me in the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards: Flippish Viewer's Choice Award

« on: October 08, 2009, 10:50:37 AM »

Hello friends!

As one of the finalists of the Best Personal Blog category in the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards, I am also part of the Flippish Viewers' Choice Award!

Now the viewers get to decide on who wins, by voting for their favorite personal blog. On top of that, they also get a chance to win a Nokia 2330 classic if the blog of their choice gets the most hits!

The winners of the Flippish Viewer's Choice Award and the Nokia phone will be announced during the live webcast of the Philippine Blog Awards on October 9, 2009, 6pm only on Flippish.com.

If you love me, then vote for me.

To vote, go to http://www.flippish.com/nokia-voting-page/ , choose my blog The Free Lancer, supply the needed information, then send your vote away.

Thanks,

Arvin Ortiz

3

Education and Teaching / Avoiding Wikipedia

« on: September 01, 2009, 05:11:11 PM »

Some professors have expressed their grave concerns over the students’ use of Wikipedia as their source in research papers, theses, etc. They dismissed it as unreliable. They suggest instead that students use credible sources like books, journals, and trustworthy electronic sources.

But what if the book one is using cited Wikipedia as its source?

A case in point is the book we once used for our subject Educ M (The Teaching Profession). The book is authored by Purita P. Bilbao, Brenda B. Corpuz, Avelina T. Lagas and Gloria G. Salandanan, all of whom are Ed.D. and Ph.D. holders.

A passage in the book reads: "After you have gotten an idea on the philosophy/ies you lean [sic] let us know more about each of them. The following notes were lifted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_education."

4

Your Thoughts Exactly / Rising above ourselves

« on: August 06, 2009, 02:33:01 PM »

There will come a time in our lives that we have to make a big decision—a decision whose consequences we are uncertain of. It is not easy to make such a decision, so we’ve got to really admire those who have mustered a mammoth of courage and made that decision.

History is strewn with great men and women who bravely made a big decision even if that meant putting their lives and other people’s lives at grave risk. On a wintry day in December 1776, George Washington decided to cross the Delaware River. The supplies and provisions of Washington’s Continental Army were fast running out. The soldiers were hungry and destitute. Some of them were sick; others were dying. And many more would die, including their fight for independence, unless they would cross the Delaware River into the garrison of the Hessians where stores of food, clothing, blankets, and munitions, ran aplenty. On Christmas Day, Washington and his men embarked on a bold move that would, historians say, alter the course of the revolution the Americans waged against the British Empire. They valiantly crossed the river, swiftly defeated their enemies, and successfully resuscitated the revolution.

Corazon Aquino, “Cory” to many, made hers when her husband, the former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., was killed. The feisty senator was among those who were imprisoned when former president Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law. Ninoy spent many years in prison, but was soon allowed by Marcos to go abroad for a heart operation. There, the Aquinos experienced a glint of peace. But Ninoy was a man who always wanted to be on the battlefields. Though he lived comfortably abroad, away from the claws of the dictatorship, he decided to come home. And he came home, only to be killed.

With his death, Ninoy left not only a bereaved family; he left an unfinished battle as well. That battle was to take the power away from the hands of Marcos, the power Marcos excessively bathed himself with. That battle was to bring back to people what was rightfully theirs: freedom.

There were more able and more willing men who could have continued that battle. There was, for example, Jose Diokno, or Lorenzo Tañada, or Jovito Salonga, or Salvador Laurel—all of whom were brilliant and adept of the inner workings of politics. None of them, however, could be considered as a unifying figure.

And so it came to pass that the task fell on the shoulders of Cory, she who was reluctant to accept the enormousness of the task, who knew next to nothing about being a president.

“What on earth do I know about being president?” Cory once said.

Yet the people launched a signature campaign for Cory’s presidency, convinced as they were that it was only she who could take her husband’s post. The movement, called Cory Aquino for President Movement (CAPM), was headed by Joaquin “Chino” Roces, then publisher of the post-war “Manila Times.” Chino relentlessly worked; he was frequently seen in the streets pushing a grocery cart with piles and piles of papers. And yet Cory remained reluctant to carry on the fight her husband left. Sometime in 1985, Chino recalled, Cory phoned him and said, “Chino, tama na ‘yang kalokohan ninyo!”

But Chino continued with his kalokohan and gathered more than a million of signatures. After the million of signatures were gathered; after Cory witnessed the outpouring of support in Davao City and elsewhere in the country; and after Marcos called a snap election—after all that, Cory finally obliged.

And the rest, they say, is history.

Cory could have led a comfortable life abroad. She could have ignored altogether the idea of assuming his husband’s fight, making it as though it were her own. She could have left the battle to others who were more willing and more experienced and more able than a plain housewife like her. She could have devoted her time to taking care of her fledgling family. But she did not. Although the decision was not that swift, she accepted her fate like Mary who, when Angel Gabriel appeared before her and told her to bear the Son of God, willingly submitted to the will of God.

If there’s one thing that Cory has taught us, it is that we have to rise above our petty concerns, above our predicaments, and indeed above ourselves. This lesson was imparted to us a long time ago by our founding parents. Cory is merely re-echoing, by example, what Emilio Jacinto, the Brains of Katipunan, wrote as the first of the thirteen teachings in “Kartilla,” the primer of the Katipunan: “Life which is not consecrated to a lofty and sacred cause is like a tree without a shadow, if not a poisonous weed.”

Cory consecrated her life to “a lofty and sacred cause”—a cause bigger and better than herself alone. And we must keep on fighting for that cause, so that Cory and those who have come before her shall not have died in vain.

5

Your Thoughts Exactly / The Moonlighter’s Wife’s Lament (A Short Story)

« on: August 04, 2009, 01:48:54 PM »

If you’d look at my face, you’d easily notice the dark circles around my eyes. That’s because I used to spend several sleepless nights waiting for my husband to come. No, he didn’t go abroad. He didn’t leave me for another woman either.

My husband was actually a police. He’s PO1 Ronaldo Cabrera, Jr. of the Regional Intelligence Unit, Police Regional Office 11. I asked him why, of all the professions in the world, he chose to be a police—a far more dangerous profession than, say, teaching. Apart from the fact that it was his childhood dream, he said he also wanted to make the city safer, more peaceful, and more orderly. You’re too idealistic, I told him.

My husband’s handsome. Oh, do you know back when we were in college, he had so many admirers? In fact, I was surprised that he courted me. Of course, I didn’t say yes to him right then and there when he asked me if I love him. But I was tempted to say yes because I was also afraid that he might be disappointed and would turn his attention to other woman more beautiful than me.

In his early years of service, he used to come home early. But when he took another job, he started coming home late. Usually around one o’clock in the morning. He was very vocal to me what his other job was.

“Isn’t it illegal?” I asked him.

“No,” he said. “We’re not deviating from our sworn duty: To serve and to protect. We’re just plucking out the thorn on the side of society, the scum.”

“Will you be paid?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t have accepted this if they wouldn’t pay me.”

“Did they tell you how much?”

“My boss said the pay normally ranges from 5,000 to 50,000 or even as high as 100,000. He said it isn’t really fixed. It depends on our target. The more wanted the target is, the bigger the pay of course.”

Every night I waited for him. I just waited. No questions asked. No confrontation. No quarrel. Nothing. I wasn’t worried at first because I knew he could very well take care of himself. Of what good he was awarded the Outstanding Police Award two years ago if he couldn’t take care of himself?

The night before last night, however, was unlike the other nights. No, he didn’t come home drunk. He didn’t smell of a woman’s perfume either. My husband’s got no vice. That’s one thing I’m thankful for. Last night was different because, for the first time, I confronted him. I was just worried because I heard from the news that a police had been killed for reasons yet unknown.

“Did you hear the news this morning?” I asked him. My voice was calm. I wasn’t angry. I just asked him pointblank.

“Yes. Too bad for him. He’s a personal friend actually.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. Does he have kids? What would happen to his family now?”

“Yes," he said. "Two boys. I heard the mother-in-law’s going to adopt the children. Don’t know what would happen to the wife.”

“When will you quit that other job of yours?” I told him as soon as he put his .45 on top of the table in the living room, and removed his shoes. He cast a sharp look at me, but I remained calm.

“What are you saying?” he asked me, his voice louder than his normal voice.

“Do you need to raise your voice? Can’t you see the kids are already sleeping? I just asked you when will you quit.”

“All right, you want me to answer you? I don’t have a plan of quitting.”

“What? You mean you will forever stay with your boss?”

“Why not? Had I not met him and stayed merely as a police, we wouldn’t be able to send the kids to a good school; we wouldn’t be able to live in this house today.”

“But I’m just worried, Ronaldo, I’m dead worried. What if you would suffer the fate of your police friend? What if one day, we will just find you floating on the river? Where will we go? What would happen to your kids?”

“That won’t happen. My boss told he’s gonna take care of me.”

But it did happen. It was his compare who broke the news to me. They found him lying face down somewhere in Cabantian, where his police friend was also found. His eyes were bloodshot, there were bruises all over his face, and his hands were tied behind his back—proofs that he was tortured before he was killed. Investigators found sixteen gunshot wounds in different parts of his body. The way he was killed was really brutal.

When I asked him who could have done this, he said he didn’t know. But I knew that he knew who, because they have the same boss. In fact, it was he who asked my husband if he was interested to join.

“Tell me, please,” I told him, almost kneeling.

“I’m sorry, comare, but I didn’t really know. All I know is that compare already knew a lot about the group.”

We left the city after we buried my husband. We are now living with my mother. It was hard, especially for my kids. I have my job here. I grew up here. The kids grew up here. Before we left, one human rights group approached me and broached the idea of bringing my husband’s case to the courts of law. They told me not to worry about the expenses. They would shoulder all that. All I have to do is to cooperate with them. I almost accepted the offer, but I declined. Of course I want justice for my husband’s death, but God’s justice, not man’s.

Call me a coward, but I’m just doing what I think is best for me and my kids. I’m not that brave. I don’t want to gamble. I know that if I would carry on this fight, it would be a fight between David and Goliath. True, that in the bible David won. But my life’s no story in the bible, and I certainly am no David. So I leave this fight to others who are braver than me.

6

Your Thoughts Exactly / Like flowers from the rubble

« on: August 04, 2009, 11:17:49 AM »

We never ran out of witty phrases by which we call, or give tribute to, our teachers. We call them the molders of the minds or the movers of civilization. Former President Jose P. Laurel, himself a teacher, once called them “the meek molders of man’s characters.”

But how can the teachers meet so daunting a task with so meager a supply? Indeed, how can they mold the mind of others when their minds, too, need molding? How can they move a civilization when they scramble to persuade their students to follow their instructions? How can they mold someone else’s characters when they are sometimes looked up to with little respect?

I have seen how horrible the situation is in public schools. There, teachers handle four sections of more or less 75 students crammed into a small, oftentimes shabby, and poorly-ventilated classroom. The students don’t have books, and on the rare occasions that they ever got hold of a book, a dilapidated one at that, they have to share it with what—four other students? And for subjecting themselves to what some may consider as self-flagellation, they receive only about 12,000 pesos per month.

Yet what fascinates me is that they are like flowers from the rubble. Amidst the flutters of discouraging things around them, they still manage to keep their groove. Despite the very many odd things that they have to wade through, they still teach. Despite the paucity of books or the low salary, they still teach.

Perhaps the reason why they persist is that they continuously cling on to the romantic idea that in their hands, lie the noble task of molding the minds, of building up characters, of helping a fledgling fly. Some people call it madness. I think it is not.

It is, I believe, a normal response of people who have accepted the challenge of teaching and meekly resigned to the fact that “In teaching,” as Jacques Barzun said, “you cannot see the fruit of a day’s work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.”

7

Lounge / Even Remoto commits mistakes

« on: June 18, 2009, 04:27:55 PM »

I was surprised when I found out that the passage Ed Maranan sent to Sir Joe, and Sir Jose discussed in his piece--"Grammar imprecisions, semantic near-misses"--came from Danton Remoto's work, "Wings of Desire."

Here's the link to Sir Joe's piece: http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/aug/02/yehey/opinion/20080802opi6.html

And here's the link to Danton Remoto's story: http://oppositeofapathy.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/wings-of-desire/

8

Lounge / 'Strictly speaking'

« on: June 05, 2009, 09:56:30 AM »

Recently added to my mini-library is Strictly Speaking by Edwin Newman, which I bought last night at the Bookshop for P60.

Based on its introduction---the only part I managed to read so far---that a presidential spokesman opted to say he must be given enough time to make an "evaluation and judgment in terms of a response" than simply say "he'll think about it," is a commentary on the state of language. And the state of language is a commentary on the state of society.

"Language," Edwin Newman says, "is in decline." Does it mean society is in decline, too?

Newman says we have become a society when people say "at this point in time" instead of the more concise "now" or "today." Ours is a society where everything done "before" is done "prior to," and everything done "after" is done "subsequent to."

Newman's message, then as now, remains valid. It also hit close to home. "As with fiscal and food challenges," said GMA in her 2008 SONA, "the global energy crunch demands better and more focused resource mobilization, conservation, and management." In the same speech, GMA said, "More advanced corruption practices require a commensurate advances in legislative responses."

I feel that there are far better ways of saying what GMA said. I just can't do it myself. Still, the fact remains. GMA delivered her message without bothering to get her point across. George Orwell in Politics and the English Language launched a scathing remark on how politics corrupts language---and vice versa. He said: "Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

GMA's speech, and indeed most speeches of today's politicians, are no different from the kind of politico-babble Orwell and the many language mavens like Edwin Newman condemned long time ago.

I hope (Newman advised against using "hopefully"), politicians would pause for a moment and ask themselves, "Do I make my point simple and clear?" Or better yet, get a copy of Edwin Newman's Strictly Speaking or Sir Jose Carillo's books. 

9

Lounge / The gobbledygook of love

« on: May 29, 2009, 01:15:31 PM »

I found this outrageous definition of love somewhere in the web:

"Love is a heterogeneous conglomeration of absurdity calculated to bamboozle the anatomy of the individual who becomes intoxicated with its abominable and irresistible power."

10

Your Thoughts Exactly / Everyone should learn to write well

« on: May 21, 2009, 02:43:19 PM »

Judging from the book card—it’s usually found at the back of the book—of On Writing Well, I am, at least in our school, what you might consider its most frequent borrower. Written by William Zinsser, it’s a valuable book for people who want to learn to write well, with lessons ranging from the principles of writing to the methods of writing a memoir, an interview article, a travel article, a science article, etc. In fact, I have borrowed it for four times already, while some borrowed it only once. And still others haven’t heard of the book.

My female friend once noticed my fondness for the book. She wondered why I always borrow it. Then she asked me, “Do you want to be a writer because you seemed hell-bent on learning to write well?” I didn’t know then what to say. It wasn’t until several months after my friend asked me that I came up with an answer.

Yes, I want to learn to write well. But no, I don’t want to be a writer. That is to say, I don’t want to earn my living just by writing though I want to write just like professional writers do.

It’s true that to learn to write well is what professional writers badly need. Their very survival depends on their ability to write lucid and readable product—either in the form of a newspaper article, or a feature story, or a short story, or a novel. Otherwise, they’ll find it increasingly difficult to survive—financially and professionally. But it doesn’t mean other professionals should be exempted from learning to write well.

But, one might ask, is there a need for others to learn to write well?

I posed the same question somewhere in Jose Carillo's English Forum. Moments later, Mr. Jose Carillo, the moderator of the forum and writer of the weekly “English Plain and Simple” column in Manila Times, responded positively:

“Yes, absolutely! Of course, not everyone may possess or be able to develop the ability to write pieces that others would be willing to pay for to read, but it’s important to at least write clearly, accurately, and convincingly about one’s day-to-day needs, wants, and desires. In short, everyone must learn to communicate effectively in writing–not as an exercise of craft or art but as a means for getting oneself understood and for getting things done in a social setting.”

I couldn’t agree more. In my case, whenever I read our textbooks in professional subjects like Principles of Teaching, Curriculum Development, and Evaluation and Measurement, I often find myself bewildered. It’s not that the concepts are hard to understand. It’s just that the textbook authors' language is so full of jargon that you can’t help wondering if the authors really want to communicate with the reader or if they just want to sound academic.

As a future teacher, I won't follow those authors' lead. I will communicate—either in writing or in speech—using the clearest, simplest, and most understandable language possible. But to do that, I must learn first how to write well. I believe Jose Carillo's English Forum is one of the many places where I can learn how to write good English, which is what good writing is about.

11

Lounge / Should everyone learn how to write well?

« on: May 19, 2009, 05:42:47 PM »

Aside from professional writers, should other professionals learn how to write well?