#100daysofmusings 1/100

We need fire to forge, shape and reshape.  Raising the young requires passion, determination, persistence and devotion, courage and en"courage"ment.  Let us sing 'em no more lullabye as it will only put them to sleep. They have to be awake to realize their dreams.

So that afternoon of April 25, during our commencement exercises sending off the graduating elementary and high school students, I changed course.  No adoration and sweet talk as this special batch of potential achievers needs to reflect on things that should matter.

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Opening Address

April 25, 2015

“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future” – J.R.R. Tolkien

Congratulations...

To note, for the school year 2014-2015 that is ending, there are 32 candidates for graduation in Grade 6 and 31 in Fourth Year.

This year’s grade 6 is 1 year short of the prescribed 6 years of elementary.  If the K to 12 program  will not go awry or kaput, they will have to go through an extra year as G12. 

Is this batch ready for High School?  They should be.

Let us take a look at the seniors.  Nothing was altered.  6 years in elementary and 4 in high school, but before that,  two to three years in Preschool.  Are you ready to face the world?  This world that will tempt you to try to be different or be like everyone else except yourself?   That is precisely the purpose of your education but how you are going to use it to arm you is something I cannot predict.

One more question:

Will you be a wonderful contribution to your country and fellowmen?   I hope so.

Honestly, do you think that your HEDCen education will matter when you go to your respective universities or to a different high school?

In the years that you were in HEDCen, what was your greatest challenge? Your all-time difficulties?  Whatever it is or was, are or were,  there is only YOU at the bottomline. No devil.  No other reason other than the failure to understand and respond to who you are, your compulsions and demons.  Your nature.  You are your greatest ally or nemesis.  Spiderman knows that.

Another question:  Will you buckle down at the slightest sign of difficulty or will you own up and get up and revise, reinvent or re-align if needed? Will you desire nothing else but to learn from your valuable mistakes to become a better person? a changed individual?

I have endless questions but meanwhile I am not giving you any accolade yet,  just  because you are graduating today.   

Dapat lang. (That is to be expected.) 

Dapat lang na makatapos ng pag-aaral.  (It is to be expected that you finish your studies if you have the resources.)  

Dapat lang na maipagpatuloy sa unibersidad.  (It is to be expected that you continue to tertiary level.) Dapat lang maging college scholar. (It is right to expect that you rise to the highest form of achievement like getting a college scholarship if you try hard enough and if you set your goal high enough.)   Have an ambition.  Do not fear hard work and adversities.

Dapat, ang pag-aaral ay buong buhay – o ika nga “life-long, sa paaralan man o labas nito.  (Education should be life-long whether it be inside a classroom or out of it.)  

Dapat ding umiwas sa masasama, sa pang-aapi, sa pandaraya, katamaran o sa pag wawalang bahala.  Anong tawag dun?  ++++++ (Habitual callousness and  insensitivity to the needs around you should be shunned especially those that take the form of cheating, indolence, or simply the devil-may-care attitude.)

Wag mayabang.  Wag mamili kung sino ang irerespeto. Irespeto ang lahat ng nilalang. Di lang kayo ang maalam.  Huwag maliitin ang inyong mga makakasalamuha.  (Don’t be arrogant.  Don’t choose who to respect or disrespect.  All creatures and beings, including everyone here, YOU deserve to be respected. The lowliest and the greatest share the same air and place under the sun.  

For the people you have hurt or have taken for granted, now is the time to look back with gratitude and to seek their forgiveness, for we must start fresh and clean to be able to carry their blessings on our back when we seek our adventures outside this school.

This is after all,  the essence of the graduation theme that  you have chosen:  "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future".

Enough said, these final notes however, are not by Tolkien...

“May the Force be with you.” and “may you live long and prosper”!   

Have a wonderful life ahead of you Graduates and congratulations!!

Adieu!

 thank you.

my other space

This is my 4th office.  This is where I work as a reseacher and writer.  Right outside are children talking about projects, girls whispering about the boys in their class and birds chirping the latest in air and landing spaces just further beyond the corridor.  I am surrounded with books and children making noise while their teacher tries to keep them on their task.

The best place for distraction and focus is within this four walls of the Discovery and Learning Resource Center where I hole up to concoct and write ideas. At the moment,  I have French Musique playing in the background and it can be very inspiring. 

I see a quaint cafe someday, serving iced coffee and chocolate, biscuits and scones just right outside where some girls are sitting on the floor.  That is a very yummy idea.

a very decent space in one corner of a very busy library

photo take by Brianna Abellera G3

a regular day inside the library

the grill work outside my window

I have been trying to tell you

There have been many instances when I would catch myself saying the same things over and over for the last 30 years or so.

That gives me the validation that I have firm resolve on principles or ideals that I have lived by in my life as a mother and a teacher.

It is good to know that I have allies and if no one will believe my words, here is Einstein:

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted" 

 "Learning something means coming into contact with a world of which you knew nothing.  In order to learn, you must be humble." -Paulo Coelho

"The planet does not need more successful people.  The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of all kinds." Dalai Lama

Our planet also needs not only social workers but soul workers.

"Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think."  Albert Einstein

It is learning from one's own experiences not only to benefit the self but to offer these lessons as guideposts to others.

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 Just a few thoughts I have come across that I find might be useful more than the perfunctory "Congratulations!" to the awarrdees in the Recognition Rites tomorrow at HEDCen.  

So many parents look for schools that will give their children awards at the end of the year regardless of the rules of the game.  I find students who have gotten the honors and awards every year and still are empty inside.  Worst is when they get used to it and cannot therefore humbly accept when they lose in the "race".

Life is never a 'race'.  It is the slow trickling of water in an almost dying river or the rush of colors in the sunset.  It is something that one must personally experience and authentically live.  It is setting one's own benchmark in the effort for self-improvement.  Life is breathing the way one breathes not to benefit someone else's lungs.  Life is also about extending one's arms and hands to make a contribution to others.  It is so much more about knowing one's soul, healing one's hurt, getting up to try again and applying the lessons learned from having a life and from making big and small mistakes.  

These awards that I will confer tomorrow do not define the person or the child.  It must not be coveted for the honor and award as the end in itself  but moreso for its significant contribution to learning some life skills.  

I salute the children who have tried in spite of limitations, who have learned to laugh at their silly selves, and who at the end of the day, have a firm grasp of who they are and who they are not, what they did, and what they want to do when the next morning comes.

I love the children who have cried in desperation and have openly grieved for a goal unattained, I love those who have other "important agenda" and are seeking their own venues,  I love those who make me laugh and those who are alive because they are free from the shackles of (wrong) expectations.