Monday, September 04, 2006

Opening the Global Mind

Last week I finished reading a series of essays entitled "Multicultural Literacy." The book was published back in 1998. The writers were all Americans of colored descent who are ironically classified as ethnic minorities. Most of them are children of privilege and have traveled and spent some time in Europe. Their common angst was in finding their American identity as writers. Most of the essays were written much earlier than when the book was published.

Today however, with technology shrinking the world, writers are affected by a different kind of crisis. It's finding the right voice in a global community. Technology has mapped out almost every corner of the globe, and with this comes a fine line between individualism and globalism.

At this point, I wonder how important race is when you lived from one continent to another at certain parts in your life. When your parents are from different races or cultural backgrounds. And then all throughout, you get exposed to different cultures and meet other people whose background is as colorful as yours. The color of one's skin is now slowly becoming trivial.

The focus is now on globalism wherein the choices one person make affects those of people on the other side of the world. Writers certainly cannot deny this phenomenon so one should be wary on publishing his work. With the world as your audience, it's no longer just "this is what I think," but it should be more like "with all due respect, this is what I think."

I wonder how writers of this era will be classified in the future.

Prep Program Pep talk

For at least P40k, they help by giving you access to a good body of content, and equip you with the right skills and perspective for being a teacher in America. They do the paperwork and when you've passed the exam, they market you to the schools. I think it's a fair deal for someone as desperate as I am who wants to leave this country to earn dollars.

It's tough to stay focused in the 6-month preparation program coz it also means giving up a lot of things. It's like being in grad school all over again. Here you have no one but yourself to rely on to be able to pass the abcte exam. Although my shift from Elementary to English is pretty late (on the 4th month), I think it's still the right choice for me. I believe I have a better chance with my real life specialization.

In some of my lab sessions, I encountered people who did nothing but complain and doubt on the effectivity of the program. If they're not satisfied, then why proceed with the program? In our PTK sessions, there are those who're waiting to be spoonfed which still surprises me after several sessions about making "paradigm shifts." I guess it's really tough to come out of the Pinoy shell to learn how to be assertive, resourceful and independent.

It's unusual but I really have a good feeling about this whole venture. It maybe something that'll lead me to that which I've been looking for.

Teachers as Precursors of Knowledge

My induction to the teaching profession began as early as childhood. I was 8 and my students (siblings) were 5 and 3 at the time. I created workbooks for them. I remember taking into account their age while preparing the exercises. I actaully had more fun writing a 10 page workbook filled with writing and drawing exercises than doing the lecture. Every Saturday during high school, I taught scouting skills like knot-tying, making trail signs, fire-building and tent pitching. I did a lot of peer tutoring in college. My classmates often tricked me into it saying that I'm actually just reviewing as I go about tutoring them. At work, I've held trainings and developed knowledge transfer methods in our process. I often get assigned to something that no one else knows about and later, I'm supposed to share that knowledge with the rest of the team. Right now, I'm actually preparing myself to take teaching as a profession seriously.

So it's no wonder that I find myself trottling back to the world of the academe. I find relief in sharing my ideas on the books that I've read, excitement in discussing views on the nature of things and interest in expounding on observations with culture. Unfortuantely, most people would rather just talk about other people. And that's when I just shut up.

So troublesome.. in a good way.

I believe that we are who we choose to be. And as we age, we learn how to deal with situations that we consciously or unconsciously find ourselves in.

My father, and the other elders at home, made things simple for me and my younger siblings by giving us simple choices. When it comes to food, we either eat our vegetables or we get a taste of his leather belt. If we want to have merienda, we've to take a nap early in the afternoon. Otherwise, you're just gonna have to watch others eat. On weekends, we've to do our chores and homework first before we can play or watch TV. When it comes to education, we either get one or we don't. I remember him warning us that if we don't take our studies seriously, he'll stop sending us to school altogether.

It's always been like that as I got older. I often had to choose what my father wants because it makes things less troublesome. He's usually right anyway. But there are times when I had to choose otherwise. And that's when 'troublesome' happens.

When I chose Literature as a major, I found myself in a niche and had a hard time marketing myself for my first job. When I chose IT for graduate school, I found it really taxing to complete all of the programming-related projects. When I chose to study French, I discovered a nomadic lifestyle which I wasn't prepared to deal with at the time. When I chose to pursue migrating abroad, I found a big hole burning through my pocket.

When asked why, I tell them that I'm just creating opprotunities for myself. For what? Well, i'm not always sure how to anser that. But by now, I'm aware that whenever I choose the path less traveled, I'm bound to find excitement, fear and doors of opportunities opening up.