Embittered over 'tweets' in Twitter, or How not to deal with controversial digital speech?

You updated your Twitter. You made a comment about your school. You are sure your school administrators wouldn't like. But, you think, it's a fair and valid comment. And to be scientific, it's a comment that is based on empirical evidence.

Then somebody print-screened your and your friends' tweets. The print-screened tweets found their way to your school administrator's table. The next day, you and those who made "negative" comments were called by school administrators.

You asked why. Nothing, they replied. The admin just wanted to talk to your group. Then you found out why. The admin was disappointed, nay, offended by you and your group's tweets. You were reminded not to do it again and to be careful with your tweets.

Worse is, just when you thought it's over, you found out you were punished. Your conduct grades were decreased. Why? For making such comments.

Too often, students find themselves embroiled in this situation. And too often, school administrators take punitive steps to respond to this.

It can't be denied that the Internet and the social networking sites are now the new plaza. That's where most of the young people stay and hang out, though they don't necessarily have to leave their homes. That's where students talk, send Private Message, Comment, Like,  Tweet and Retweet, search, select and invite Friends, and Share stories, photos and links.

Indeed, that's where everything gravitates towards, at least for the "Digital Natives."

The pervasiveness of the Internet and especially the social networking sites in the lives of young people poses several challenges, among others, to the school administrators.

The Internet has given young people another venue where they can exercise their freedom of speech and expression. Through the Internet, they voice out their opinions. They comment on issues which they think matter---the impeachment trial of CJ Renato Corono, the deluge of concert by foreign artists this Valentine season, the death of Whitney Houston, and, yes, the improvements or lack thereof in their school. They express their disgust over everything else they find disgusting.

No less than the Constitution guarantees and protects that freedom. And the students can enjoy that same freedom, and indeed a robust exercise of that freedom must be encouraged, provided they are forewarned not to go beyond the ambit of the law. As Justice Dante Tinga said, in his separate opinion on Chavez vs. Gonzales, "For as long as the expression is not libelous or slanderous, not obscene...it is guaranteed protection by the Constitution. I do not find it material whether the protected expression is of a political, religious, personal, humorous or trivial nature - they all find equal comfort in the Constitution. Neither should it matter through what medium the expression is conveyed, whether through the print or broadcast media, through the Internet or through interpretative dance. For as long as it does not fall under the above-mentioned exceptions, it is accorded the same degree of protection by the Constitution."

This freedom of speech, however, like all other freedoms, can be potentially abused. And if it is abused or seem to be abused, how then should we deal with it?

Should we punish students or threaten them with suspension or deduction of grades for posting innocuous remarks in Twitter or Facebook? Should we berate the students and give them a mouthful of reminders?

The valedictory speech I never gave

(Graduation is drawing near. When I was about to graduate from college, I dreamed of delivering a valedictory speech, but that dream would remain just that: a dream. If I were to deliver the valedictory speech, however, I would've given this speech.)


I wish I could talk about how our government manages the public money, so that the accountancy and commerce students could relate to me. I wish I could talk about our criminal justice system, so that the criminology student could relate to me. I wish I could talk about our health care system and child abuse, so that the social work students could relate to me. I wish I could talk about the use of psychology in preventing crime, so that the psychology students could relate to me.

I wish I could talk on those different fields, so that everyone present here could relate to me. But I could not because I don't know any better. And if I do talk about the things I know better, I'm afraid you could not relate to me. If I would talk about Multiple Intelligences or Learning Styles or Teaching Strategies, nobody but the education students would listen to me.

I'm not even sure if they would listen, and listen like their grades depend on it. They've heard enough of them in the classroom. Surely they don't want to recall their harrowing experience in the classroom, not even now that they are wearing toga whose origin they barely know.

So I will talk about my own experience in college. After all, we human beings are by nature chismoso. We always wanted to know something about other human beings.

Yet I won't try to please everybody because I'm afraid that if I try to please everybody, I just might end up pleasing nobody.

Thank you for listening to the introduction. If you have one more minute to spare, do spare it.

Sample Essay Format

Sample Essay Format

Follow the format. For the additional guidelines, the Project Plan is posted on the wall of your classroom.

Deadline of the final copy of the essay will be on February 21, 2012.

Musings while I'm on my way to the comfort room

I have known Stella Maris as a rich school where the rich students study; where most of the students have never taken a PUJ; where students seldom eat kwek-kwek; where most of the students' shoes have never stepped on muddy and rocky road; where students speak the language of iPhone, iPod, iPad, Twitter, etc.; where students most of the time do things their way; and where the sons and daughters of business tycoons, top government officials, and the elite study.

Now I'm one of the teachers of Stella Maris, handling Araling Panlipunan. Never have I thought that I will, one day, be teaching there. Not even in my dreams, nor in my beautiful nightmare, as Beyonce puts it.

So far, my teaching experience in Stella Maris does nothing to change my view of the school. Stella Maris, as I've known it before, is still a rich school where rich students study.

At times, I feel that I am betraying myself. As a student, I was an idealist. I used to style myself as a conscientious individual, one who is aware of the plight of his countrymen and one who will one day roll his sleeves up and help those who are in need the most; one who is, in short, going to teach in the public school.

Yet I am here now, enlisted to serve as a teacher of students whose families are a million times richer than the ones found in public schools. This is, frankly speaking, not the life that I want to have.

But I realized that this is, in fact, a great opportunity for me to let my dreams and aspirations come to pass. As Kipling says in his poem If, "meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same." And treat triumph and disaster just the same I did.

My students now will soon become owners of business establishments, entrepreneurs, public officials and bureaucrats, and even some of them will become politicians. If I can make them acutely aware of the problems of the society and teach them that to whom much is given much is expected, then I have already triumphed in my own little way.

Barely a month from now, my fourth year students will be graduating from high school. Did I succeed in making them students who are conscientious ? Did I and the rest of the teachers succeed in making them aware of their crucial role in the society?

Only time can tell.