The Strength Within
Stick with me if you can. This one’s a ride. Ideas grow where you plant them and propagate in an organized random way.Doing this blogging bit is a little like stuffing a plant into the fine red Philippine soil. You plant one idea and before you know it, you’ve got another plant poking up over … Continue reading
Face and Power as Currency in the Philippines
You don’t find much psychotherapy in the Philippines. Seeing a shrink is an admission of emotional weakness, a no-no in a society that prizes power. After all, that’s what shame is, isn’t it? The opposite of power? The undermining of esteem. So if we view “face” as a self-defense mechanism against shame, we are basically … Continue reading
"My Mind is a Blob"
When I was teaching high school for one frightful term, education was moving to a “New Math” which involved set theory; unions and intersections and ways of looking at mathematical truths. I never quite got the hang of it, beyond drawing circles, nor did anyone else, for the schools quickly tap-danced away from that teaching … Continue reading
Self-Centric Behavior and Filipino Face
This is not a new topic here. I’m just going to try cutting it a different way to get some clarity on it. I’m going to be rudely blunt because tippy toeing gets us nowhere. TO: Juan dela Cruz, the Juan with a high school degree and a couple of years of college under the … Continue reading
Getting from A to B and B to C on Education
Last year, I got inspired about education, specifically, a way to stop the current pattern of doing things, forever building hollow-block classrooms and stuffing them with 45 kids each led by an overworked, underpaid, undertrained teacher who is happier than the kids are when the day ends. I wrote six articles about it. The idea … Continue reading