Everyone is gifted – but some people never open their package

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““I am neither especially clever nor especially gifted. I am only very, very curious.” Albert Einstein
gifted-child1I had the chance to meet gifted kids from Philippine High School for the Arts (PSHA) when my two girls joined the Manila Children’s Choir in the late nineties. Among my daughter’s circle of friends was Jourdann Petalver and a couple of kids with powerful soprano voices. It was during rehearsal breaks that I got to know more about their life at this exclusive school for gifted kids in the creative field of music, art, writing, dancing and others. I often wonder what have become of them and even of PSHA. If there is one great thing that Imelda Marcos did , it is the promotion of culture and arts and the nurturing of gifted children. I believe parents should be aware of options of their gifted child and the road they travel as they hone their gifts.

The second part of the third part report on “Dilemmas on the ‘Different'”focus on the gifted child. (The first part was about Down’s syndrome.) Part 2 is authored by PCIJ Fellow Rorie R. Fajardo tells the story of the students of the Philippine High School for the Arts, a charmed circle that by all accounts belongs to the two percent of the country’s population that is deemed to be gifted.

Dilemmas on the ‘Different’

The Gifted Give Back

By Rorie R. Fajardo
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
Second of Three Parts

THE MOMENT they stepped into the campus of the Philippine High School for the Arts or PHSA in 1988, Roselle Pineda says that she and the other freshmen were made aware they were being trained to be the country’s future cultural leaders.

““Medyo mayabang pakinggan (It may sound like I’m bragging),” says Pineda, now 34 and teaching at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, ““but this makes you realize at the start that you are scholars of the people, the cream of the crop, and therefore you have the duty to give back something to the people.”

Then again, PHSA is no ordinary school. As its name implies, it specializes in the arts, and it takes as students only those who are deemed gifted in writing or in either performing or visual arts. It is, in fact, the creative counterpart of the older Philippine Science High School or Pisay, which caters to youths with ““high aptitude for sciences and math.”

Both schools are government-run, but they are certainly what most public high schools are not. Both boast of the latest equipment, well-trained staff and solid faculty lineup, and a healthy teacher-student ratio. There are no overcrowded classes in either school, and if there is a class that is held under a tree, it would be because teacher and students suddenly felt the urge to commune with nature or take in fresh air, rather than because of a missing roof or, worse, the sheer inexistence of a school building. Aside from free tuition, free board and lodging are available. Each student gets a monthly stipend as well.
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Seemed like yesterday when UPCAT and ACET results came out

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update January 3: UPCAT online posting will start at ten pm; posting of list at admissions office will come later.

Update 2: UP Officials say UPCAT results will also be posted outside the UP Diliman Office of Admissions before 12 midnight. (via GMAnews)

Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it. ~William Haley
up-diliman

For some reason, I am getting referrals for ACET ( Ateneo College Entrance Test) and UPCAT ( UP College Admission Test). Then now I recall at this time seven years ago, it was a nerve-wracking moment for my eldest daughter, wondering if she made it to the better universities. Well, daughter number 1 made it to Ateneo de Manila. My last experience with college entrance exams came when my daughter number 2 passed UP Diliman in 2005. Waiting was agonizing. What made it worse was the servers often crashed making it a more frustrating experience. My daughters felt that their future seemed brighter if they studied either in UP or Ateneo. Indeed, studying in Ateneo or UP opened doors for them and it was their choice to enter it or not.

I bet most parents are facing the same uncertainty as I once did many moons ago.

I visited the UPCAT Results site and found out results will be posted at the Office of Admissions tomorrow, January 3, 2011. UPCAT Results on the web can be viewed through the UPCAT 2011 Results Online or its mirror sites(s) below:

STICKBREAD SOLUTIONS
MVS
PREGINET

ACET ACET results

La Salle test results – DLSU Freshman (Applicant) Inquiry Form http://enroll.dlsu.edu.ph/dlsu/freshmen/freshmen

UST results– http://www.ust.edu.ph/index.php/admission-in-ust.html

It can be heartbreaking not passing your first choice but you will still do good given the opportunity to do your best in another college.

Just remember that “an educational system isn’t worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn’t teach them how to make a life.” The object of education is to prepare you to educate yourselves throughout your lives.

Good luck to all those that applied to UP and Ateneo. Congrats!

Finding the right school for your child

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“No one school is right for every child. When searching for a school for your child, the question is not whether a particular school is good or bad, but whether it’s the right school for your child. You might ask the school, ‘What is your definition of a successful child at this school?’ or ‘What kind of child would find success here?'” David Harris

school-dayIt must have been two years ago that I told my daughter to write a guest post in my blog on bullying. She didn’t hesitate to share her experience to my readers because doing so will raise awareness to parents that their kids should never ever be bullied at school.

One thing I do know is that a lot of the insecurities I have about myself is rooted in the fact that I got bullied a lot during my early elementary school years….they pass it off as play, or maybe an early life lesson: the world can be a terrible place filled with people who will treat you with undeserved cruelty. I do understand that kids have to grow up and learn that hard lesson someday, but I think anyone under the age of ten is too young to deal with that much reality. At that age, it’s important for children to learn to accept or at least respect people for exactly who they are instead of making fun of their differences. What kind of lesson will be passed on to them if their elders shrug off bullying as something totally normal?

Her reflection of her bullying experience just tore me apart. I felt so helpless because during those days, children just had to deal with bullies. I considered moving schools but all the schools in the nineties were just Montessori-imitations or the usual large traditional schools. Parents are fortunate these days because they face a wide range of options aside from traditional Catholic schools that I attended to. Take for example, homeschooling that my friends, Jen and Julie are doing to their young kids. Then there are the non-traditional schools , the alternative to traditional schools.

As a mom blogger, I get a chance to visit non-traditional schools and check out their curriculum and programs. This is an opportunity to share these information to my readers and for them to discern if this is the right school for their child.
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I Choke on Taglish

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I remember my first TV interview.

I was not prepared to talk in Tagalog. First of all, MOMS is an english word so I thought the interview was in English. When I saw the script, I was horrified.

I asked the writer: So I have to reply in Tagalog? I don’t speak Tagalog so well.

It can be Taglish. the production staff said

Taglish is just as worse. So throughout the interview, I struggled for the words, figuring out what the Tagalog word for grief….feelings…etcetera.

Suffice it to say, I had a Take 2.

taglish

It was a pain to speak in Taglish. My first language is English (Blame my parents) and spoke Cebuano with my peers. I spoke two languages as a child and never mixed cebuano and English in one sentence. When my daughter was once an active blogger, she received a deluge of criticisms for being more fluent in English. At least she can still speak in Tagalog. Shouldn’t we choose the first language that is best comfortable to communicate?

How come Cebuanos don’t mix Cebuano and English in one sentence? There is no such thing as ““Cebualish”“. People would gush with admiration at how we, Cebuanos didn’t have Cebuano accents whenever we spoke English. The Cebuanos from UP or Ateneo studied from top-notch high schools in Cebu with the same high standards as those of exclusive schools in Manila. So what made the difference? It was only much later that I found out that the taglish originated from the ““yayas”

Yet, I think it is really wrong to speak in Taglish so I forced myself to learn to speak Tagalog. So far so good especially if it is a radio interview since I have a cheat list in front of me and I can concentrate on my train of thoughts.

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Sex Education & The Reproductive Health Bill 5043

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“Doesn’t every woman deserve the right to have a safe pregnancy and a baby that’s born healthy? I believe this is a very basic human right.” Katya Matanovic

They say that it takes just one or two entries to bring hits to your blog. Three years ago, I wrote about Sex Education in the Philippines and to this day, I continue to receive search engine hits not from the keyword “sex education” but from the image keyword “sex”. I often wonder if Google had something to do with it, that they wanted people to read my entry first before jumping on to porn sites.

sex education

My stand on sex education is

We need to teach them responsible parenthood in consonance with the sex education. We don’t need to teach everything but at least give them the basic facts. Along the way, the children can do some more research on their own.

Three years ago, Phillipine Catholic Bishops Oppose Sex-Ed in Schools, Say it Should be Left to Parents. Sure that is true only if parents know how to discuss sex with their children. We can’t assume parents know how to discuss sex openly. Some might be uneducated to understand the anatomy of reproduction and thus fail to grasp natural birth control methods.

The schools together with the parents can bridge the gap of sex education but there seems to be a problem when the parents also have a lack of knowledge on reproductive health.

With the yet to be approved Philippine Reproductive Health Bill 5043 , one of the provisions of the proposed law is mandatory imposition of reproductive health education

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STOP The Great Book Blockade of 2009, Save Our Children’s Education

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““The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. Dr. Seuss

My children read books since they were babies starting with picture books then moving on to books that were suitable to their age. I looked forward to the bedtime story-telling activity as my toddlers lay their heads on my arms and begged me to be read not just one book but twelve of them. I miss those days when my fingers would run through their hair, hearing their gasps and giggles after every book is read. One of their favorite book author was Dr. Seuss so well loved because of his unique style of rhyming and bizarre cartoon characters like “Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.”

Those are treasured days that every parent goes through. During those financially-challenging days, books were difficult to purchase. With sheer bargain hunting skills and patience, a supply of books always filled their bookshelves. Nothing gives me more pleasure than seeing my kids leaf through their new books and inhale the scent as if it is the most heavenly smell there is in the world. My kids had equal balance of time spread across TV, Reading, play and sports. I believe this balance made them the smart and beautiful adults they are today.

Before the advent of this Great Book Blockade of 2009, I knew how to address customs whenever a book arrived from an Amazon purchase. I never had to pay a single custom duty just because I knew that books are supposed to be duty free and VAT exempt. I found creative ways to purchase books from abroad ensuring that I never had to pay a single tax or duties on them. That’s why I could not relate immediately to this blockade issue.

I suppose I cannot exercise my bitch power anymore if I don’t break this book blockade.

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2008 Philippine Bar Exam Results on April 3

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Results are out!

Click this > 2010 Philippine Bar Exams Results

Here is the list. Toggle to a full screen by clicking the square graphic on the upper-right corner of the table.

click here for the list of the 2008 Bar exam results (text file)

Source: Inquirer


For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

Congratulations to 1,310 examinees who passed the 2008 Bar Exams. The stress of waiting is over.

Congrats to Judy Lardizabal from San Sebastian College who garnered an average score of 85.70 percent. I know that all Lardizabals are related so am I am happy for my distant relative.

—

My husband wrote a series of interesting entries on the Philippine Bar Exam this year:

The 2008 Philippine bar exams composed of a record-breaking 6,533 examinees. Each examinee harbors in his or her heart the burning wish to be among the 20% or so who will make it or roughly 1 out of 5. While the arduous trek is done, the takers are in the unenviable position of not knowing whether they have arrived at their longed-for destination. The results will not be released until another 6-7 months and the agony of waiting is oftentimes more painful and distressing than knowing the news outright, whether it be good or bad.

Update: Results will be released on April 3. See News below from the Supreme Court.

Be updated for the List of the 2008 Philippine Bar results when it arrives:

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Top 500 World’s Best Universities

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Michael Tan’s Opinion column on the “World’s Best Universities” which he based on the Times Higher Education Supplement-Quacquarelli Symonds (THES-QS) World University Rankings provided so many insights on the state of Philippine Education . I’m glad to see that the universities of my two girls made it to the top 500 , including two other universities. We can’t compare the Philippines to America, Australia or the UK. Harvard is the number 1 school followed by Cambridge. But take look at Indonesia, a country less developed than the Philippines. It had three universities, all state-run, beating us in rankings

Let’s look at how the Philippines did. The University of the Philippines (UP) came in 299th globally and 47th among Asian universities. I have to say that’s not too bad, considering how UP has had to plod along with shrinking budgets and with the flight of so many good professors. Trailing behind UP were three private universities: De La Salle (392nd), Ateneo de Manila (484th) and, talk about a photo finish, the University of Santo Tomas at 500th.

With slashed budget from our government, it’s surprising that the state university is still alive and kicking. When I brought M around the UP campus as an incoming freshman, I was appalled at Palma Hall’s old chairs, broken windows, and dirty walls. It was as if they had not done any cosmetic renovation since I graduated over 30 years ago. I was confident that UP had dedicated professors inspite of the decrepit state of some classrooms. In the beginning, M’s heart was really not into the state university. She wanted to join her eldest sister at Ateneo. I insisted that UP is the better school and for economic reasons, it was the better option than Ateneo. I convinced her that her maternal grandmother was one of the pioneer students of the UP Diliman Campus. It was my mother’s legacy to pass on the values and great education that UP had to offer. After much tears and several arguments, she relented. Today , M is full of gratitude that she chose UP.


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Computer Game and Internet Addiction: The Emergence of a New Clinical Disorder

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bluskies.jpgA few days ago, I was at my aunt’s neighborhood to check for possible houses for sale. One of the most important considerations for moving in a new neighborhood is a fast internet connection. I visited an internet cafe inside the neighborhood, just a few meters from the vilage church. It was 8:00 PM and the internet cafe brimmed with high school and even grade school students playing some kind of war game, possibly Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) , an expanded version of Warcraft. I was horrified to see these kids. Shouldn’t they be studying? It upset me that the parents are not monitoring their children’s whereabouts.

Then I read today’s article in Manila Bulletin . “Computer ‘Addicts’ Rise in Defense of their hobby”

Better Games than drugs. Who would disagree with this reasoning esecially when cited by teenagers hooked on computer games? This is the reason why computer game afionados should not be restricted in pursuing their hobby, said Gladys, a self-confessed computer game addict

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