The Philippine's Reach is Too Short to Grasp

My news feed pick up science articles. It has been an interesting week. A probe to Jupiter launched; it will take years to get there. Solar flares putting sensitive electronics like satellites and electricity grids at risk; activity will peak in 2013. Boeing showing off its private spaceship capable of ferrying seven people to the International Space Station. Evidence showing that the DNA requirements for life exist on meteors. Evidence showing that Texas and Antarctica were once joined. Hints that briny water may flow on the surface of Mars, giving hope for life there. A ring of antimatter particles discovered circling the earth.

America plays a lead role in discovery. It's many top-quality universities push knowledge inexorably forward. The military plots and plans for new ways to be powerful. American companies seek new ways to compete.  Germany also pushes innovation. Russia is there. Japan rode on the backs of American discovery, and improved upon it. China is now trying to catch up by stealing the discoveries of the rest of the world and blustering about how important the Chinese are in the New World Order.

Scientists share passions with the great explorers in history, the sailors who set off to go around the world on small wooden ships, the determined men who scaled Everest [recommended reading: "Paths of Glory" by Jeffrey Archer] and trekked across Antarctica, the spacemen who risked getting blown to bits or stranded in space to walk on the moon, the men and women who built and run the experiments on the International Space Station, deep sea explorations . . . solo this, a first at that, higher, faster, deeper; new understandings of life and tragic ways to find death.

A passion for knowledge. That is what drives scientists and explorers.

Cast that against the Philippines. A broad-based public educational platform that teaches by rote and demands order and obedience, not innovation and ambition and discovery. A relentless drain of brains to other lands. Careers determined by favor, not accomplishment. A clear view that introspection is shameful; look around town and see if you can find a psychiatrist or therapist.  Criticism directed toward those who do seek knowledge; a youngster with a book is disparaged by his peers as a "librarian". Jealousy of the success of others and an unending tear-down mentality to level the playing field at the absolute lowest common denominator.

The nation is a cat bound tight in a tangle of yarn, a trap of its own making.

The richest seas in the world are not a platform for discovery or production. They are a platform for plunder.

The richest soil and climate in the universe is not a platform for agricultural might. It is a platform for abuse. For bickering. For giving to the poor. For self-advantage, not stewardship.

Where is the flame?

Pride is a boxer, a singer, a Miss Universe contestant. Artistic expression is found in an obscene rendition of Jesus.

Where is the passion for knowledge, for discovery, for risk, for growth?

I don't see it.

"Joe, we are a poor country. You cannot expect us to keep pace with the US. Many Filipinos are engaged in cutting-edge technology and science around the world. Cut us some slack."

No.

Here is my "far-out" curriculum for grades 7 through 12, under a 12 grade school system:

Track 1: Trade

Track 2: College

• Mathematics
• English and Chinese (Mandarin)
• Discovery
• Aspiration
• Computers

I'll deal with the trade track, as well as real-time curriculum administration and teacher development, in separate blogs.

For the college track:

Forget Tagalog, except in the home. It is not a language of national unity or discovery or global competition. Imposing it on Visayans is as artificial as imposing French. Students who attend private schools that teach in English are leaving public school graduates behind. Forget history, other than as a footnote to discovery.  Forget memorizing Rizal; let kids write their own wisdom. Forget PE; kids are naturally active. Offer extra-curricular sports and intellectual competitions.

Within the Discovery subjects include self awareness and sex education (tell the priests of the Catholic Church to kindly sit down; this is a secular school dealing with the mind, not spirit). Also the rudiments of oceanography, geology, astronomy, agronomy, sociology, biology, chemistry and physics. Give kids an understanding of what practical jobs are available in these areas. Give them a grasp of areas of new exploration as the foundation for career planning. Teach them how to think outside the box while understanding the limits of real life (budgets). Don't make them memorize species or the elements table or even multiplication tables. In the Math subjects, give them a calculator and move on to algebra. Assign them to a shared computer.

Within Aspiration subjects include self awareness and confidence building, public speaking, debate, competing within the law, problem solving, government structure and business fundamentals.

Within Computers include word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software, internet research,  rudimentary programming, and call center fundamentals (both operator and management perspectives).

Look at students critically and help them find subjects that they are passionate about. In the 12th grade, focus their energies on a self-study program aimed at their anticipated college major.

In 20 years, Filipinos will compete at the leading edges of knowledge. In 50, they will be hauling in Nobels and Pulitzers . . .

Think AHEAD of other countries. LEAD, for chrissakes. Stop trailing behind like a beat-down beggar kid pleading for handouts.

Or what's a heaven for?

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Amendments to Curriculum: 

(1) Within Aspiration, add "Values".

(2) Within Discovery, add "The Relevance of our Roots."

(3) Strike "self awareness" from the Discovery subjects as it is properly addressed within Aspiration

(4) Within Discovery add "The Professions (Legal, Medical, Financial, Business, Technology)"