Tag: July 1, 2010

A VARSITARIAN writer and alumnus both placed first in the English and Filipino division in the Poetry Wirting Contest sponsored by the Miguel de Benavides Library last June 17.

Fourth year Architecture senior John Ernest Jose, a Varsitarian circle writer, emerged first place in the English category for his poem “The Unending Radiance” while Faculty of Arts and Letters alumnus and former Varsitarian associate editor Louie Jon Sanchez clinched the first place for “Lumina,” his poetry collection in the Filipino category.

UST High School senior Jeanne Marie Camello came in second with “To wear a Thomasian’s slipper” for the English category. Accountancy junior Xaviery Cañaveral ranked third for her work “Unending Flame.”

THE FIRST thing to be said about the integration of sex education by the Department of Education’s Memorandum No. 26 in the curriculum from Grade 5 to senior high school is that it is overkill: the subject will be integrated in Science, Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan (EPP), Health, Heograpiya, Kasaysayan, at Sibika, and Mathematics. The subject may as well be called Sex in Excess.

It is quite galling that at a time when Filipino students – going by world comparative scores in basic literacy and math skills – are just a step removed from cretins, the DepEd wishes to further burden them with a subject on the more titillating aspects about the birds and the bees beyond basic biology where their scores are similarly appalling.

”Journalists are reminded that in the word ‘newspaper,’ ‘news’ is more important than paper.” - Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Alexandra Prieto-Romualdez.

WHILE distributing the 14th and final issue of the previous Varsitarian staff, some students expressed dismay over our return to newsprint (the paper used by dailies). Some readers regarded it as counter-progressive and a cutback of what we are supposed to give them.

DEAR P-Noy,

Since the day I found out that you were running for the presidency, I couldn’t help but think that it was nothing but a “spur-of-the-moment” brought about my your mother’s death..

I doubted your competence in leading a nation that has sunk in deep problems of poverty and corruption.

However, as I see the election surveys in the news, with you ranking solidly in the leader boards, I started considering the idea that you may really be the one that people trust to help them climb up from the slumps of poverty.

I would like to think that you earned this trust not only because of what your parents had accomplished, but what you have achieved.

FOR philosophers like Aristotle and John Locke, human beings are born with a tabula rasa or “blank slate,” which dissembles genuine potentiality that only becomes actualized due to education and experience.

Upon entering the world, people hold nothing but merely a blank slate waiting to be sketched on according to how its author wants it to be. Character, intelligence, success, and personality are determined by how one “writes” his life on the tablet.

Defining the content of one’s personhood requires maturity.

Thus, education plays an important role in nurturing not only a person’s intellect, but his personhood as well.

“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” – Joseph Chilton Pearce

UNLIKE Sherlock Holmes, I have yet to master the art of “detaching my mind at will” - at least in two writing disciplines I’ve ventured in.

While being an intern for the sports section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) for my on-the-job training, my mentor sheepishly pointed out a word I purposely used for a lead in an article which ironically enough earned a byline to my bewilderment.

“It takes guts to use that word for a sports lead,” he amusingly pointed out, as I cringed in my seat. “I will wait for the day I could use that word for an article.”

LAST year, Rector Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P. emphasized in his annual report that UST and its achievements are its birthright and destiny. There is no doubt that one does not become a Thomasian by accident. The fact that the University has been around for four centuries is a testimony that it has already pervaded public consciousness. The thousands of hopefuls who took the UST entrance test (Ustet) are proof that the University has made a lasting impact in education and in nation-building.

THE BEARER of the inconvenient truth was in Manila and Albert Arnold “Al” Gore wanted Filipinos to act with resolve. Now.

The Nobel laureate and former United States vice president challenged Filipinos to face the inconvenient truth about the harmful effects of climate change in his two-hour forum titled “Face the Inconvenient Truth: Al Gore Live in Manila” held at SMX Convention Center, Pasay City last June 8.

“There is no excuse for us not to react. There have been many changes [in Earth] and people can see the reality,” he said.

ENRIQUE dela Cruz Jr. had a “loaded” relationship with the University of Santo Tomas—he was a full scholar, part of the debate team, and an official of the Arts and Letters Student Council.

But in between his duties to the Artlet student body and years of training to develop structured arguments, this scholar made sure that he had his daily two-hour date with his textbooks and class notes. He knew he was still—and foremost—a student.

“It was just a matter of personal discipline,” he said. “We go to school every day. Everything else is secondary.”

STUDENTS, teachers used to say, are like in a fish bowl. Whatever they do in class—the cheating and all the horsing around, for instance—are not left unnoticed by the man behind the desk.

But come to think of it, who’s actually under scrutiny in a classroom setup? Especially with the advent of social networking sites generally accessible in class, teachers can easily fall prey to their students’ profiling on any given day. There’s Ma’am Y who dozes off during group reporting. Or Sir X who gives the front row a “sprinkle” or two.

So make no mistake about it: Teachers—much like their students—are in a fish bowl, too, so to speak.