Boys Love Boys: A Secret Story | Authspot

Boys Love Boys: A Secret Story | Authspot

Boys Love Boys: A Secret Story | Authspot

Boys Love Boys: A Secret Story | Authspot

My Greatest Philosophy in Life towards Education

Marlon Castrodes Pagon

I strongly believe that each person is a unique individual who calls for a harmonious atmosphere in which to become mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially. It is my aspiration as educator to lend a hand to the students to meet their potentialities in life, so they are ready to face the harsh realities of life. In the trying times of life, one must be provided with an environment that is safe, supports risk-taking, and invites a sharing of ideas. There are four things that I believe are essential in establishing such a learning environment. These are (1) the teacher as facilitator, (2) letting the students to explore, and (3) promoting respect for all things and all people, and valuing life no matter what gender him or her one has.
I know my role. That role is to guide and provide access to information rather than act as the primary source of information. Besides, I believe that I am the second parent in school, and any problems met by them are also my utmost concern. It is because a teacher does not only teach what grammar is, what mathematics is, or what chemistry is. The students also should be taught to construct knowledge of what life has to offer and of what life becomes the source and foundation of change in itself. In school also, they must be provided with the necessary things in the academic community. So, they must face and be in the operations of hands-on activities and allowing adequate time and space to use materials that reinforce the lesson being studied. I believe also the schools and the motivating factor of the teachers create an opportunity for individual discovery.
To reinforce self discovery and better learning of the students, the schools also should be accredited and in order to meet the standard of the schools and the requirement in it in order to provide quality education. To help the students in one way or another is an achievement one has to accomplish. That is why the teacher finds ways to help the students in their academic endeavor. Helping students to develop a deep love and respect for themselves, others, and their environment occurs through an open sharing of ideas and a cautious approach to discipline. When the voice of each student is heard, and environment evolves where students feel free to express themselves. Class meetings are one way to encourage such dialogue. I believe children have greater respect for their teachers, their peers, and the lessons presented when they feel safe and sure of what is expected of them. In setting fair and consistent rules initially and stating the importance of every activity, students are shown respect for their presence and time. In turn they learn to respect themselves, others, and their environment.
For me, teaching provides an opportunity for continual learning and growth. One of my dreams as an educator is to instill a love of learning in my students, as I share my own enthusiasm for learning and teaching with them. I feel there is a need for sympathetic, tough, and dedicated individuals who are devoted to working with children. In this highly competitive society, it is vital for students to not only receive a concrete education, but to work with someone who is aware of and receptive to their personal needs. I am such a person with human flaws and will always make every effort to be the greatest mentor that I can be.

Dead Poets Society

Marlon Castrodes Pagon

The movie the Dead Poets Society gave me a very lasting impression how a simple instructor changed the lives of the kids. The very simple fact is that one really has the power to change lives in his very own little way. The change does not focus only on the context of books and can be found in the ideals written books. I believe as I saw the movie that teaching students should not be teaching at all. It is because teaching should be more than that.
In the movie, during the first scenes in dormitories, hallways, and classrooms I am gradually introduced to the group of students that are at the center of the story. The behavior of the students is quite diverse as they go along meeting in one compartment, or should I say, a classroom. These individual differences marked and showed differently as the teacher began his teaching. This teacher is called Robin Williams – the English teacher who had just been hired, and who displayed ideas and a spirit that deviated sharply from the established school’s practices and norms. Right from the start Keating propagates an anti-authoritarian philosophy of life, and he would soon profile himself not only as a competent teacher, but also as the provocative and inspiring educator of the youngsters of whom he is in charge.
During his very first class session Keating demonstrated forcefully that he was not just there to convey academic information, but also to show what students could do with such knowledge in their everyday lives. The first class session was, indeed, not so much a lesson in English literature, but a dramatic philosophical wake-up call. Robin Williams was really different and unusual in contrast with other teachers in school. These teachers are authoritarian and disciplinarian. However, Robin was not.

One part of the scene in the movie, Robin made the students look at the old photographs of former Welton students that decorated the hallways. To quote the lines:

“They are not that different than any of you, are they? There's hope in their eyes, just like in yours. They believe themselves destined for wonderful things, just like many of you. Well, where are those smiles now, boys? What of that hope?"

The students were restrained by what Robin saying. Robin continued the lines below:
Did most of them not wait until it was too late before making their lives into even one iota of what they were capable? In chasing the almighty deity of success did they not squander their boyhood dreams? Most of those gentlemen are fertilizing daffodils now. However, if you get very close, boys, you can hear them whisper. Go ahead, lean in. Hear it? Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary!”

When the students left the building after class, most of them were in thought. Robin’s words were having an effect on their feelings. Some of them had occasion to quote the maxim while they were pursuing their various goals during the fall term.
Most of the students at Welton were from rich families, and most are destined to follow in the footsteps of their fathers and become doctors, corporate lawyers, or bankers. Considering such prospects, it would be natural for everyone to regard such disciplines as English literature as a mere sideline among academic studies, as something like a decoration of a life that is dedicated to more palpable and important matters than poetry and the humanities. Bourgeois parents expected their youngsters to know a little about high culture--in the same spirit in which they expected them to learn table manners and perhaps a foreign language. However, no student was encouraged to blow the importance of art and culture out of proportion by devoting more time to poetry than to such serious disciplines as mathematics or chemistry.
Robin managed to undermine this widespread conception of the liberal arts; he more or less convinced his students that what seemed at first of only secondary importance is in fact at the very center of a well-lived life.
"One does not read poetry because it is cute,” he tells his students. “One reads poetry because he is a member of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion! Medicine, Law, Banking--these are necessary to sustain life. But poetry, romance, love, beauty--these are what we stay alive for. ... Poetry is rapture, lads. Without it we are doomed."

Behind Robin’s high praise of poetry is Henry David Thoreau’s general revaluation of society’s established priorities: We do not live in order to work, according to the philosophy of Walden, we work in order to live. And we succeeded in living extraordinary lives only by staying clear of the ordinary preoccupations with careers and making money—by focusing seriously on those things that make a human existence passionate and radiant. By this, Robin’s ideals were odd and peculiar.
Robin's teaching methods were different—at least by the standards that year. He did not just tell students that it was important to keep an open, flexible mind, and to look at things from different and changing points of view. Rather, he made them literally climb on top of a desk and took a look around. This eccentric and physical translation of the neglected expression - changing one’s point of view – would have far more effect on his students' dispositions than any amount of notional explanation. Robin also had his students tear those pages out of their textbooks that he exposed as lifeless letters and intellectual debris. For Robin, a book is not a sacred authority, but a tool that ought to be used--or unhesitatingly discarded if found wanting. He frequently reminded them to think for themselves, and not just to accept passively what teachers or textbooks tried to tell them.
As the story moved in progress, the administration discovered the teaching of Robin. These people found that the teaching of Robin is somewhat eccentric and against the standard and policies implemented in school. To make the story short, he was fired from his job.
The most salient in life is when the world sees against you for no valid reason. That may be unfair in some other ways, but life has to go on. The movie in itself showed how the struggle of Robin brought changes the whole concept of life and making life to the world of change. The philosophy of Robin is simple. Everyone must live with his or her ideas because one exists and needs change later in life. Robin did an important role in providing avenue towards life beyond horizon and sees what the world is.


The Great and Inspiring Leo Buscaglia
Marlon Catrodes Pagon

"Life is our greatest possession, and love its greatest affirmation."
Leo Buscaglia is another person to look up to. He is one-of-a-kind and an inspiring one. He is most closely associated with love and human relationships, emphasizing the value of positive human touch, especially hugging.

His association with hugging became his trademark at lectures, where thousands of people would stand patiently waiting to hug him after a presentation. It was not uncommon for him to give a talk of about an hour, then stay afterwards signing books and hugging for at least twice that long. This came about when someone spontaneously offered him a congratulatory hug following an early speech. A line formed, and it became an anticipated part of future events. Time restraints on occasion would dictate that those towards the end of the line would have to choose between a hug and an autograph. Nearly all chose the physical connection with this inspiring speaker. And he almost never left until he met everyone in line. Should someone be left out because they hadn't pushed to the front? Those would have been people he would have missed experiencing, he said, and that would have left him a lesser person.
Buscaglia’s performance as speaker gave him a better impression to the groups of people. The reaction to both his dynamic, evangelical delivery and the content was like nothing ever seen in educational circles, and Buscaglia became a popular educational conference presenter. This exposure led to speaking requests by colleges, and by other professional and business organizations.
The study of love about his work brought him to the study of life. Living in love is living in life, and vive-versa. One of the most inspiring lines he wrote was, "It's not enough to have lived. We should determine to live for something.” He suggested that one must live life to the fullest and make life fulfilling. By this, only one will be able to discover, realize, develop and actualize your uniqueness. When one does, one has the duty then to fulfill and live with it. This is why I live with the life that is so fulfilling for me. No matter what other people say as long as I am happy and I am not hurting anyone else, that is good. This point makes life even happier when one loves his or her work. Just Leo Buscaglia himself, he even manages his life with too much devotion upholding higher morals and standards. With all his inspiring thoughts and lessons in life, life out there is fantastic and amazing.

Education in Action

Education in Action

For so many lessons in life that I would love to learn, I have wanted to do something special that I could share my personal services to the youngsters at the small learning center in our village. I submitted a proposal to the school principal and teachers to help teachers prepare everything inside the classroom; and they permitted me as their personal assistant. Yet, I learned how to cut-out some papers designed for their visual aids to decorate some teaching materials and to be creative in designing a classroom. I thought it would be the best option of helping I ever did.
As a student, I am not always able to learn some concepts, information, or any tidbits of knowledge from books in our class. It is, maybe, because I can never see it in my reality – as in, it never happens to me, either. I am taught a new lesson one day by my teacher, and the next day I will not be able to remember anything of what the teacher was saying. Many researchers have asserted that many youngsters become knowledgeable about topics when visual materials are supplemented. If this learning concept is true, the possibilities of retaining information in real- life situations are of great importance. And yes! I believe that experience is the best teacher.
On one side, I have learned about what charity is when I started teaching and assisting the students. My learning has told me that charity should begin in us not in them. In fact, I became sociable to the students and appreciative of what they did in the small room. I came to praise and value the strength of education when I faced the toughest league of my combat. More so, I learned about the importance of individual differences that every single person has a unique character pattern, and the role of the teacher should only facilitate the learning activities of the students in varying degrees of competencies. Also, I have learned the fundamental value awareness, something that all people should have that. One of my friends would better say, “It is better off to learn something better than to learn nothing at all.
Finally, I have witnessed the things, which I really liked the most. I have been in love with my teaching profession. The idea why I liked it has been very simple- it is life. I must be honest to tell this because I am into it. I love teaching.

Final Requirement for Philosophical Foundation of Education


Introduction

A piece of knowledge is never false or true - but only more or less biologically and evolutionary useful. All dogmatic creeds are approximations: these approximations form humus from which better approximations grow (Ernst Mach).


In my opinion, the greatest scandal of philosophy is that, while all around us the world of nature perishes - and not the world of nature alone - philosophers continue to talk, sometimes cleverly and sometimes not, about the question of whether this world exists. They get involved in scholasticism, in linguistic puzzles such as, for example, whether or not there are differences between 'being' and 'existing' (Karl Popper, 1975).


It must certainly be allowed, that nature has kept us at a great distance from all her secrets, and has afforded us only the knowledge of a few superficial qualities of objects; while she conceals from us those powers and principles on which the influence of those objects entirely depends....

When we look about us towards external objects, and consider the operation of causes, we are never able, in a single instance, to discover any power or necessary connection; any quality, which binds the effect to the cause, and renders the one an infallible consequence of the other.... Experience only teaches us, how one event constantly follows another; without instructing us in the secret connection, which binds them together, and renders them inseparable (David Hume, 1737).

1. Is sex education appropriate to be offered in basic education curriculum in the Philippines? Why or Why not?


Is this a power struggle between the Catholic Church and our government? I will not talk about other aspects of sex education in our country. I want you to be familiar with the statement from Dr. Angelita Aguirre, head of Human Life International.

“The module should be scrapped. It does not have the emotional, psychological and spiritual dimensions of human sexuality. This is very important,” “The code of morality is high. We are not pagans. We would like to pressure everybody indulging in a conjugal act to get married first,” she said. Aguirre pointed out that the modules did not mention that a person had to get married before having sex.

One of the most salient points why the children and students get in queues during enrolment season is for them to learn the basic skills and to improve their potentialities. Also, these students should be molded with values and morals as they go on with their studies. These values in life will help them become better individuals in building the nation. Morality, on the other hand, guides them on how they behave in any particular situations. The latter talks about a philosophical standpoint where one has to live, perform, and die. This point or aspect makes me reluctant to decide whether sex education is appropriate to be offered in basic education curriculum or not. At the outset, questions are at large. Are the kids ready to learn the different concepts and topics imbibed in sex education? Do they really understand some critical issues why they do study those concepts? These two questions are among the critical matters I wanted to discuss. I would like to begin discussing the question in details.
I believe kids are not yet ready to learn some difficult concepts being taught in sex education such as the use of contraceptives, the sex roles, the guidelines for preventions, and many others. Some of the concepts I mentioned are only a few of the things I am afraid of because kids or students below eighteen are very explorative and imaginative. In their exploration stage, I am a bit curious and panicked how these kids behave and react. The crucial point is that students may misunderstand the matters or difficult concepts and will lead to personal and self-discovery – the worst is the discovery of premarital sex. This idea is against morality.
As a concerned person, I took an active role in fighting against the basics of sex education. My point of view is simple and shallow, but it is more critical than one thinks. This is not an opening and reopening of the real world as I say so. This case is only a matter of moral preservation and even realigning a moral conduct in terms of dignified life. If only, the students may resort to premarital sex even though they do not have learned about sex education, how much more those students who have engaged in sex education classes. I know that the role of education is to change every single person to be a better person. However, what else can education be done to an innocent kid who is tabula rasa on sexual terminology? Would she or he abruptly be taught concepts that are difficult to comprehend? I believe that sex education covers many things, and there many critical points to consider. Much more so, it is for more private aspect of life. I guess parents must take the over all responsibility.