THE USUAL turmoil brought about by the yearly opening of classes was overshadowed by a not-so-auspicious series of events that ironically, transpired in time for the Republic’s 107th Independence Day celebrations. A clean slate, a fresh start, 10,000 new public school teachers, all forgotten thanks to one tapped telephone conversation.
While moms and babes gear up for the school year ahead, confusion and unrest take hold of the nation’s reins.
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With another school year already underway, there really isn’t any room for boredom in my, or any student’s, itinerary, with courses that demand a lot of time, a consistent desire to get things over with, and professors to get along with. Or is there?
Boredom has undoubtedly been one of the student’s perennial pleas, be it caused by plain indifference over a subject or by a looming doubt over an instructor’s teaching competence.
To counter boredom, students resort to doodling in their notebooks, staring listlessly at nothing in particular, note-passing, and sometimes, outright disrespect for an “incompetent” professor.
Some “boring” teachers, however, despite their soporific tendencies, actually make sense, that is, if you do care to listen to what they say, while others are, well, just plain incompetent, I guess. Then again, it depends on how one defines “boring.” All that we can do really is to hope that students and teachers themselves find a way to end this academic impediment.
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“Easy money,” screams the jueteng kubrador. The Filipino mentality of effortless rewards is so pervasive, even our national leaders are accused of involvement in illegal gambling. However, the common patrons of gambling are the poor. The poor and unemployed, in hopes of freeing their families from the slums, risk their scant earnings for a wager. And unemployment has always been associated with lack of education. Vicious cycle, right?
The wire-tapped conversation, which allegedly reveals the President’s involvement in election fraud, moved many to question her credibility. With threats of destabilization and more accusations coming the administration’s way, the nation has reached a stalemate wherein the people have to judge between the importance of the legitimacy of evidence versus democracy at stake.
Others, however, assume that all this is simply the result of bitterness over failed political ambitions.
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In the end, one might find that education may help combat the three evils of boredom, vice, and want, which could be true. But for us mere spectators of this circus, all we can do, as the philosopher Voltaire suggests, is to cultivate our garden to ward these great evils off ourselves.
