Building and Bridging Education

Report by Clarence M. Batan

LAST JUNE 9, 2010, six days before the formal opening of classes in the Philippines,   72 children from Kasile Barrio School in Talim Island (Binangonan, Rizal) benefited from the Building and Bridging Education (BaBE) School Project sponsored by the United Church of Christ (UCC) – Elmsdale Pastoral Charge and some generous benefactors from Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada. This BaBE School Project envisions building a relationship of goodwill between the Canadian and Filipino children by establishing a bridge of hope to the less fortunate children of Talim Island whose community is still recovering from the damages brought about by typhoons and floods last year.

Each child received a new bag with a set of school supplies (reading manuals, notebooks, pad papers, pencils, ballpens, crayons, erasers, sharpeners, and envelops). They were also given new pairs of slippers, which the local volunteers identified as more useful to students especially during rainy season. The two school teachers were also given a box of school supplies to help them develop classroom materials for their teaching. These school materials were first collated and individually-packed by volunteers and faculty members from the Faculty of Arts and Letters, University of Santo Tomas (UST). UST, through the Office of Community Development, also provided a vehicle to transport these school materials from Manila to the fish port of Binangonan, Rizal. From the fish port, school officials and volunteers from the local church and barangay (village) council of Talim assisted the UST volunteers.

All school children, parents, teachers, local officials and community members gathered to witness the implementation of the BaBE School Project. The local volunteers prepared a short program to demonstrate the community’s gratitude to Canadian benefactors. There were prayers of appreciation, welcoming remarks from the barangay council chairperson, dancing from school children, heartfelt “thank you” speeches from the parents, teachers and children, and lots of smiling faces, especially during the distribution of school materials to Talim children.

In the next few months, with the remaining funds, the BaBE School Project aims at implementing more school-related projects such as providing electric fans to classrooms, book initiative-program, Christmas social project, and teacher-license training.

Financial assistance or any kind of support to the BaBE School Project is welcome. Please email cbatan@hotmail.com for inquiry.

(Click here or the images above to see more pictures of the project.)

A New Beginning in an Old Framework

MANILA, PHILIPPINES. AT THREE O’CLOCK this morning, I was awaken by an eerie sound of a gun-shot, and a shout – “Holdaper yan, holdaper ’yan!” (He’s a mugger, he’s a mugger!). There was a commotion outside my apartment near the karaoke bar in the intersection of Dapitan and V.G. Cruz streets.  When I looked outside my window, I saw a police officer interviewing the drunken istambays (bystanders). After 15 minutes, the street life was back to normal as though nothing happened. Or should I say, muggings in the streets near my university (University of Santo Tomas) are a normal occurrence and it is interesting that my initial reaction was that of a “culture shock”.

Oh yes, after nearly eight years of Canadian student life, I am now experiencing a “culture re-entry shock” – a state which is experienced by those international students who chose to return to their countries of origin after years of exposure to another culture. In my case, this morning’s incident reminded me that I am not in Halifax, Canada anymore. I have re-entered my Philippine society and while I have been enhanced by my years of studies in Canada, I should not have expected that the streets where I, too, (at knife-point) was mugged before, have changed.

I have entered a new chapter in my life, a new beginning of some sort, but in an old framework. This is the social space that I have to re-negotiate to survive, to live and hopefully, to find new meanings in life.

Defending my dream

Over the past few days, I attempted capturing in words what transpired during my thesis defence. But for some reason, I found the experience very difficult to describe – somewhat telling my deep self to shut-up, to stop writing. The sentiment just wanted me to listen and to feel.  I was deeply overwhelmed by the experience. Everyone who witnessed the defence was telling me that it was a huge success! But for me, it felt unreal. It felt like a dream.

A storyline

Unlike Sigmund Freud, I have not given any attention to the study of dreams. What I know was that dream or as we call it in Filipino, “pangarap”, had been the one of the driving forces of why I have kept on racing towards the finish line of my PhD studies. Oh, I admit, as an international student, studying PhD in a foreign country, which required working and writing academic English was very tough. Because I think in Filipino, often I find myself lost in translation. Although I smiled a lot, it did not mean that I did not plan to give-up. In fact, over the past seven years, in many occasions I had given up. But my family and friends had never given up on me. They inspired me to move on. They encouraged me to continue fighting the academic battle. They moved me to fulfill the impossible dream.

Thesis blog 17: Thesis Miracle

AFTER SUBMITTING MY THESIS DRAFT, I was so anxious. Before scheduling defence, I have to earn the approval of first, my supervisor, Dr. Victor Thiessen, and second, my two internal examiners, Dr. Dianne Looker and Dr. Howard Ramos.  I have been working hard since August 2009 and I was not sure if I would still have energy to write more if any of them would find my thesis insufficient.

With the support of Victor, I submitted my third revised full thesis draft to my internal examiners last January 11^th, my 35^th birthday. No words could capture the anxiety I felt the days following this submission. Victor encouraged me to take a rest and relax, which I found difficult to do. I survived those days of waiting by doing the things that I like most – singing, watching movies and re-establishing communication with family and friends. Yet, I was also aware of the possibility of “major revisions”, which would delay the scheduling of my defence.

All my anxieties, worries and fears vanished when I received this email from Victor:

January 15, 2010

Dear Clarence:

The FGS* has approved Cote**, both internals have informed me that they consider your thesis to be sufficiently developed to proceed to an oral defence, and so now we are hoping to schedule your defence for either the 19th or 26th of February.

Talk to you soon,
Victor

I was screaming on the top of my voice, praising and thanking God for this beautiful blessing! I have no way of explaining my feeling except to call it as a “thesis miracle”!  My internals listed some points where I should do minor revisions while my supervisor encouraged me to design a good oral presentation.

My thesis defence date has been set:
February 26, 2010
Friday, 10:00 AM
Room 430, Jacob Slonim Conference Room
The Goldberg Computer Science Building, 6050 University Avenue
Dalhousie University

The formal invites would be sent out soon, and would be announced through the FGS website.

I am waiting for this day to come with a smile in my face.

Notes:
*FGS means Faculty of Graduate Studies
**Cote refers to Dr. Jim Cote of the University of Western Ontario, who accepted to be my external examiner.

Thesis blog 16: Full draft

AND THIS IS HOW IT FEELS: a sense of happiness with a tinge of anxiety; a sense of fulfillment with a touch of fear. After four long years of research, I finally produced a full draft of my dissertation!

I think the darkest hour of my PhD journey is nearly over and its time to expect for the academic rising of the sun!

Thesis blog 15: Can’t believe the pressure

I feel numb. Now that I am writing the last portion of my thesis, I do not feel that I am myself anymore. The ideas and the words I wrote seem to take away all my bodily sensations. I feel different, and the pressure is mounting.

I just hope that when I complete writing this thesis, this process did not damage the nerves that allow me to enjoy the simple things in life.

Thesis blog 14: Discovering the unexpected

Last week, after finishing up the youth narratives of my respondents, I realized that what I have been writing about in Chapter 5 of my thesis is not making sense. In fact, I am contradicting myself by writing a separate chapter about the “individual” in istambay (using Bourdieu’s habitus) and another chapter about the social dimensions in istambay phenomenon (also following Bourdieu’s notion of fields).

What I eventually discovered was that this habitus argument about the istambay is intricately interconnected with the larger social contexts (social fields), and thus cannot be separated, if I want to fully examine the constitution of istambay status. This implies that youth inactivity in the Philippines is both deeply personal and social. A phenomenon that speaks volumes about the overlapping crises (economic, cultural and social) that these istambays navigate and negotiate in a country where the state is weak and futile.

Thesis blog 13: Writing youth narratives

I always find writing narratives fun because I like telling and listening to stories. I like reading books, articles, documentaries and watching films. I consume stories everyday from news to interviews to reality TV to sitcoms to music videos to audio documentaries to paintings to cartoon sketches to internet chats to text messages to phone calls to chats to writing my own books. I find narratives as my life’s enterprise. The process of writing gives me a collage of feeling (sadness, happiness, hope, love, faith, disappointment, etc.), which humanizes my being. I find all things around me as data, which allows me to see the complexities of life and living.

As a writer of narratives, I have the power to highlight what in my view, are essential, even if I am telling other people’s story. I could simplify what seems to be complex, and hide things that I deem unnecessary. It is a task of mind, which could numb one’s heart. And so as I write the youth narratives of my respondents, I make myself conscious of my power as the narrator and my tendencies to highlight my own voice instead of telling their stories. I would like to believe that I handle each youth narrative with care; an intersection between my respondents’ revelation of their lives and my interpretation. This is never an easy task but a meaningful one.

I could only hope that for those few individuals who would have the chance to read these youth narratives, they would see that I incorporated not only my mind but also my writing soul.

Thesis blog 11: Hindi Lahat (Not All)

Below is a reflection poem I wrote last December 2005 during Philippine fieldwork after all the interviews with youth, parents and teachers and focus groups (youth) were done in two case study sites for my istambay thesis. Originally, I wrote this poem in Filipino but I personally translated it into English as this (possibly) would be included in my thesis (also presented here, just scroll down.)

Hindi Lahat
ni Clarence M. Batan

Hindi lahat ng mga kabataan ay
nakapag-aral o nag-aaral.
Hindi lahat ng kabataan na nag-aaral ay
nakakapagtuloy ng pag-aaral.
Hindi lahat nang nagtatrabaho ay nag-aral.

Hindi lahat nang nag-aral ay may trabaho.
Hindi lahat nang nag-aral ay may trabahong
ginagamit ang kanilang pinag-aralan.
Hindi lahat ng istambay ay
tamad at ayaw magtrabaho.
Hindi lahat nang humahanap ng
trabaho ay nakakakita nito.
Hindi lahat ng kabataan ay
gustong umasa sa kanilang mga magulang.
Hindi lahat ng kabataan ay masaya
kapag nakikita nilang nahihirapan
ang kanilang mga magulang.
Hindi lahat ng kabataang nakagawa ng
maling desisyon sa kanilang
buhay ay ayaw ng pagbabago.

Saan, kailan at sa paanong paraan
Mabibigyang-solusyon ang mga
Suliraning transisyon ng
Kabataang Pilipino?

Hindi lamang sa pamamagitan ng kanilang mga sarili.
Hindi lamang sa palagiang tulong ng
kanilang mga magulang at mga kapamilya.
Hindi lamang sa pagmamalasakit ng pamayanan.
Hindi lamang sa polisiya at batas.
Subalit higit sa lahat, ang pagtangan ng
Kalidad ng pag-iisip —
Na may kakayahang intindihin ang proseso’t sumuri
Sa mga istrakturang depekto ng mga isyung ito –
Na kung saan ang bukang-liwayway ng perspektibong ito
Ay magsisilang ng bagong henerasyong
Makikipagtulungan sa dating henerasyon

Upang baguhin ang kasalukuyan.
Nang ang di pagkakapantay-pantay sa lipunan
Di man mawala nang tuluyan ay maibsan nang labis –
Upang ang susunod na henerasyon ay
Hindi na magkukwento ng naratibo ng hirap ng Kanilang mga magulang.

Sa halip, ang ibubunyag ay
Kwento ng pag-asa, pagmamahalan at tulungan.
Ang salaysay kung paano ang nakararaming
Karaniwang pamilyang Pilipino ay nakaalpas
Sa tanikala ng kahirapan.

Hindi lahat ng pangarap ay natutupad.
Ngunit sana, ang mga kataga sa tulang ito ay
Hingahan ng Maykapal –
Upang magkabuhay.

***

Not All
By Clarence M. Batan
English translation of “Hindi Lahat”

Not all Filipino youth that I know
Went to school or are studying.
Not all youth who are studying
Are able to finish their education.
Not all Filipino youth who are
currently working were able to go school;
Not all those who went to school have jobs.
Not all working educated Filipino youth
Are able to practice their professions.
Not all istambay youth that I know
Are lazy and not willing to work.
Not all youth who are looking for work
Are able to find them.
No, not all youth that I know
Like to remain dependent on their parents.
Not all want to see their parents
desperate due to their dependence.

Not all Filipino youth who made wrong decisions
do not want meaningful change in their lives.

Where, when, and how could
These transition crises of
Filipino youth be abated?

It ain’t just through personal dispositions to change.
It ain’t just by the charity
Of parents and family’s welfare.
It ain’t just with community’s care.
It ain’t just through policies and law.
But more salient, is having a
Quality of mind –
Able to process and ponder
The structural defects of these issues –
And that this daybreak of perspective would

Give birth to a new generation of Filipinos
willing to work well with the older generation -
To change the present.
That inequalities in our Philippine society
Though persistent, may be mitigated,
So that the future generation will no more
Tell about the poverty narratives
Of their parents.

Instead, the visions that they would share
Are stories of hope, care and reciprocity.
A narrative where the majority of
Ordinary Filipino families would be freed
From the knuckles of poverty.

Not all social ideals come into being,
But who knows, may be,
the words spoken in this poem
May be touched by a Great Spirit
And breathe life.

Thesis blog 11: Istambay and the higher odds of smoking and drinking

Over the last few days, I have been thinking about why istambays smoke and drink a lot. After analyzing my data, I find it too simple to say that the reason why they engage into these socially-problematized behaviours is just mainly due to their lack of work and employment. The effect of gender in the regression models is stronger and persistent in predicting the odds of smoking and drinking in the Philippines. That is, Filipino males are more likely to smoke and drink than their female counterparts.

There’s nothing big or surprising about this finding. But this insight establishes the complex location of istambay in Philippine society. This possibly explains why often when we see istambay on street corners, we also see them smoking and drinking. But who are these istambay? What are they? Why mostly Filipino males?