We definitely need more than just singing and dancing

by Vic A

When I found out that there is already a Philippine Science High School in Region I, I was short of ecstatic especially that the campus is just next door in San Ildefonso.

But when I learned that only a small percentage of the student population comes from Ilocos Sur, my heart sank.  Apparently, most of the students come from other provinces in Region I.  I am not sure if there is even a single student who hails from Magsingal in this prestigious high school system that is meant to cater for gifted kids with high aptitude in science and math (I learned later on that the daughter of my niece, Florfina Ponce, is actually a scholar in this campus).

Whereas before, gifted kids from the provinces who qualify in the Philippine Science High School system have to go to the Manila campus and be separated from their families during their whole high school years, now we have it in our doorsteps.

The question is, do we have Magsingal children ready for the Philippine Science High School system?  Are our children smart enough to get through this system?  Are our elementary schools preparing their pupils for a more rigorous training regime and developing the children’s higher order learning skills?  Do they have what it takes to compete with other schools in Region I for those very limited spots?  Or is this school going to be the monopoly of pupils from more progressive towns and cities?

A typical classroom in the Philippines with 50-60 average number of students

I am not sure what the situation is these days in our elementary schools in Magsingal.  I could only recall what I experienced during my time, which is over 3 decades ago (that’s a give-away on my age).  The method then was very much teaching kids how to memorise and remember facts.  The teachings centred in making sure that we know the rules, principles, terminologies, techniques and procedures.  From what I could remember, the focus was very much on the ‘what and who’ and the occasional ‘how’ but hardly on the ‘why’.

It may be different now but in those days, you listened to the teacher and there was hardly any opportunity where you can discuss as a group on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of a subject matter.  It was primarily one-directional - the teacher talks, the pupils listen.  When the teacher asks a question, then you raise your hand.  And the question was generally answerable by one word or two.  It maybe my memory failing me, but I don’t remember being asked to explain why such and such is the way it is.

There was a dearth of opportunity to use your own personal interpretation and evaluation on the subject being learnt.  Arguing your case and justifying it with good reasoning is not something that was evidently encouraged.  As such, kids were not trained to develop their integration skills, creativity and originality especially when it comes to verbal reasoning.

We end up raising kids who have brains with a strong capacity to store facts but are reduced to kids who are afraid to speak their minds out and unable to engage in a healthy discussion of what the facts are, how the facts work, and why they work the way they do.  We have this mistaken notion that a child’s intelligence equates to his ability to remember and memorise facts as opposed to his ability to interpret and evaluate the facts.

It could be my age playing tricks on me now but during my elementary school days, I don’t remember being allowed to explore freely inside the classroom, discover things unsupervised, learn things at my own pace and develop a questioning mind with a view of improving my critical thinking.  I am not sure if it was the teachers’ outdated lesson plans to blame or the teachers were just not trained to help children develop their higher order learning skills.  Hence, we produce kids who have difficulty conceptualizing ideas and bringing these ideas to life.

I know somebody who is in the business process outsourcing in the Philippines and he tells me that the hiring of people with good verbal skills is a very difficult exercise.  Of 100 applicants that they would have, only 3 would be qualified for the next screening.   That is really bad, and these are college graduates.  Our students are hardly prepared to be good thinkers and great communicators.

If you look at our children, they are so adept in singing and dancing.  It almost seems like they were born with it.  Have you ever wondered why that is?  It’s simply a result of immersion.  They grow up with it and they see this all around them.  Knowingly or unknowingly, we put a heavy emphasis on these two art forms.  We have a well-established and a highly-entrenched infrastructure to support their development.

Just look around – we have singing contests happening left, right and centre.  We have street parties (pasala diay plaza) to celebrate every special occasion that we can find.  In schools, singing and dancing is a major part of our classroom and outdoor activities.  In short, we are heavily immersed in these two art forms.  And that is a good thing.  I think that makes our culture really special and it places us ahead of many non-singing and non-dancing countries.

The question is – why can’t we do the same with the more important skills in life - skills that can clearly take us out of the current doldrums that we’re in.  And don’t get me wrong, I love singing and dancing too.  I just wished that we have the same commitment in developing the higher order learning skills of our children.  Skills that we will need to produce a society that challenges the status quo, a society that rejects mediocrity, and a society that demands what it truly deserves.