The Lesson Plan

I was rather underwhelmed by the SONA. It didn’t hold my attention like the previous one did and to be quite frank, I expected but didn’t want another grocery list of accomplishments and targets. It would have take a large, thematic speech to blow me away, but I guess I’ve been listening to too many commencement speeches from Barack Obama.

The only thing that made my experience of the SONA unique was that I watched it while moderating a Yahoo! Messenger conference with my students. It was really fun, and you would be surprised at the observations made by teenagers. You would think that they view the world from rose-colored lenses. Or that they would dwell on the color of GMA’s dress or her daunting size. But you couldn’t be more wrong.

They questioned everything from why people generalize that the Philippines is corrupt, to why there are still poor people despite the economic gains we have had. They weren’t even blinded by the mention of the Philippine Science High School — Why did GMA mention those victories, siya ba yung nanalo?

While I called for and moderated the forum, I didn’t come pretending to know all the answers — because I don’t — and participated in the forum just as much as they did. (And I think I made fun of the speech more than they did.) The internet is really a powerful democratizing force; I learned so much about their views than I would pick up from a class discussion, an exam, or even from their personal journals.

Our discussion after the SONA quickly shifted from an analysis of her key points (if there were any, as one student pointed out) and into who is to blame for our society’s ills. We didn’t dwell long on that however, and moved instead into how to heal. It was then clear to me that a lot of them actually appreciate GMA’s efforts but recognize that it isn’t just the government who runs our country. Our nation rests on the backs of the people too.

It was at that point where I put aside all my knowledge of history and political science and just listened to what they thought and felt. They convinced me that federalism could just work — people are selfish anyway, so let’s leave them alone — and that our people should think of each other more. Of course, their arguments are crude but they see things which are too obvious and yet are often missed out by those in the academia. My role there was to teach them to look at it in another way (read: more nuanced), but not in such a way that I would invalidate what they felt.

And what I learned that afternoon is that in our classrooms, ladies and gentlemen, are people who are fiercely in love with their country. They may not show it, they may not even speak it, but deep down they want to do what they can to make it better. I don’t see the youth others describe as lusting after wealth and comfort in foreign shores. Of course, my students see the valid need in working abroad and do not disregard their efforts — a lot have relatives and friends working as OFWs, calling them martyrs — but most would rather have it that they stay.

A lot forewarn me that my students are young and that their ideals will be eventually tamed by reality; that is often the mark of one’s entrance into “the real world”. But that isn’t a certainty, and reality is what you make it. I can only speak for myself that my ideals have not been tamed. Like a wildfire, it continues to be stoked by the reality I live in. And it is my job to set my student’s dreams ablaze; they deserve nothing less.

This is what I took from the company I kept during the SONA. There wasn’t anything remarkable about the speech, but there is so much to say about those who want to step up on that pedestal one day and deliver a better one. Good luck to them, I say. But they have to live through their exams next week first.