Saturday, August 28, 2010

A non-mind-boggling question that boggles my mind

There are questions that are difficult in themselves like does God exist, or what is beauty. But there are questions that are difficult because the teacher made them out to be. This is a case in point:

During our Social Dimension in Education review class, there's a question that goes this way: "A teacher discovers that a product of a certain bottling company brings about a damage to teeth. Much as he wants to share the products of his research, he could not because of harassment from all sides. Which teacher's right is violated?" The choices are: (a.) Right to make a livelihood, (b.) Academic freedom, (c.) Right to one's honor, (d.) Right to property.

The answer, according to the teacher, is (a.) Right to make a livelihood. I stood up to protest and defined what academic freedom is. "Academic freedom," I said, "is the right of the teachers to determine what to teach and how to teach, and to conduct a research and share the findings of his research. If he is prohibited from sharing his research because of outside pressure, then his academic freedom is being stifled."

"No," the teacher said. "The more appropriate answer is letter "a." Why is that so I could not truly, madly, deeply understand.

I did not, however, push the argument a bit further, and so I sat down, and went back to sleep.

I rest my case.

Friday, August 20, 2010

I blog---still.

When I was still working as a student assistant in the high school library of Holy Cross, I get to read almost all of the major broadsheets every day. I get to read a book a week. I get to update my blog. I get to surf the internet and research on just about anything.

Now that I'm working as a teacher, all the things that I used to do, I no longer do. It's frustrating, but the upside is that what I'm experiencing right now is something that working in the library cannot give.

I will write more of it later when I'll be able to find my rhythm.

Fog and sunflowers

[caption id="attachment_1859" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="A shot at our neighborhood. Rarely does this happen. A fog hanging so low. As if someone is burning dry leaves. [Image003"] [/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1861" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="This one, too. The sunflowers of our neighbor are in bloom."][/caption]