The schoolyear may be over (for local schools, anyway), but earlier this week, PDI decided to run a story about the culture of bullying that takes place on campus grounds. Stranger yet is the VA Tech student massacre that had to happen like, a day later. Talk about serendipity of the worst kind.

Anyway, the article opens with the writer's personal account of her son as the unfortunate target of bullying from a higher-ranked fencing teammate, and delves into the systems that encourage (rather than discourage) bullying to continuously take place in exclusive schools. It's specifically aimed at parents - especially those who have witnessed their own child being bullied by a classmate, peer or even a group of people who look down on those who are either 'unlike' or 'don't measure up' (my quotations).

The writer also cites Dr. Honey Carandang, who tackles the psychological aspects of bullying. She manages to pack a few punches of her own by addressing the following:

a.) Bullying can be learned at home, especially if a parent, who is obviously looked onto as a role model, exhibits such tendencies. Taming the bully, however, requires a degree of intervention on the part of both parent and child.

b.) There are many faces to a bully. Apart from the stereotypical tough guy, bullies can come in groups. Because of how social hierarchies in school operate, bullies can develop status over time - so even the admirable "it" crowd is capable of bullying. And by bullying, it's not always the physical kind. Bullying can be emotional, in the form of outright rejection or ostracism.

c.) Even school authorities are complicit in allowing this culture of bullying to take place by choosing to turn a blind eye, to the point of trivializing the threat by suggesting that the bullied student should learn to fend for himself or herself.

d.) Often, students who unwillingly find themselves in this seemingly endless battlefield feel that suicide is the only way out of being bullied and ostracized. (Dr. Carandang has dealt with a number of cases.)

e.) If the schools in our country don't get their act together to address this problem by reorienting the school system, it'll get only worse. The possible approximation or alternate reality? We could be short of a Columbine blood bath, if the student decides to "hit back".

f.) Bullying can be further prevented if students were more encouraged by the schools to get hobbies or throw their passions in extra-curricular activities.

I don't always take expert opinions at face value, but it's rare that I come across those that aren't sugar-coated with forced optimism and faux Zen-like contentment. Having said that, I think it's cool that Dr. Carandang addressed this bullying problem in schools as something that is sadly overlooked in the very institutions that are supposed to educate students in the first place. It's easy to waste authoritative spit on social propriety and upbringing, but perpetual lip service isn't gonna keep those bullies at bay. And when the bullies do have their way, the last ones to know about it are precisely the ones who run the school. Or have they decided to let the bullies take over the school instead, enforcing their own stupid social hierarchies by deciding who's 'hot' or 'not', or too 'promdi' for that matter? Who actually rules the school?

It seems that parents who invest in their children's education may not really know (or even care) what their children are getting out of it. Bottomline is, they're there to learn. But whether the kids are alright is another thing. There's enough academic pressure in making the grade, but when it comes to getting along with the rest, the classroom can be a real social pressure cooker. Some kids can't penetrate existing social bonds (cliques), or don't really get by on uniqueness alone (that is, when uniqueness = perceived eccentricity, not the so-called uniqueness that gets one votes as class president). In fact, it's really easy to make someone feel left out when s/he isn't as rich or as branded or as conformist or even into the whole school spirit thang.

And of course, who really wants to come off as looking "socially inept", even to their own parents? Especially when the problem doesn't really lie with the kid enduring all sorts of emotional bullying and ostracism, but that s/he just wasn't lucky enough to find the right mix of classmates that s/he can relate with?

Granted, the article roots for the bullied child by giving it both a pro-parental intervention slant and addressing school administrations to get their heads out of their asses by coming up with necessary preventive measures (like school-wide anti-bullying programs). However, it lacks the more level-headed recourse to ingesting toxic liquids like detergent or making like the lone two-gun-toting psycho and shooting classmates at random - namely the ability to cope through the most uncalled-for rite of passage that certain students have to go through, at the risk of being marked for rejection and tagged "the social misfit" during their most crucial, coming-of-age.

I think it's important that students who feel the exclusion no matter how hard they tried to fit in should try not to let the classroom politics get to them. More than anything, they should be encouraged to focus on their own interests and social networks elsewhere, even if it means that most friendships actually take place outside of school. While school administrations have yet to realize they need to get their act together for the sake of their own students' sanity and well being, it always helps to talk to an adult - a guidance counselor or any older person, someone who is patient and understanding enough to listen and can give his/her own two cents on the matter. It may take a while to develop the nerves of steel required to tune out those shallow peeps that tried to ruin your life, but when it boils down to it, you have more pressing concerns at the moment, like taking charge of your own parasite-free life, keeping your grades afloat and, of course, graduation, your ticket out of there.

Connie Veneracion of the famous Sassy Lawyer blog, is living proof that parents know what's going on with their kids. A year ago, she recounted an incident in school where her daughter was a target of sexism. Her daughter retaliated when one of the guys laid a hand on her. The school administrator, in turn, lectured the girl about how it is improper for girls in general to fight back, not even out of self-defense. This led to a critique in the school's system, which does not offer protection to female students, let alone encourage them to protest when they have been wronged.

The right to good quality education (Article 10) is a right guaranteed by CEDAW, but with all the social traumarama going on in schools and the safety and well-being of students not 100% guaranteed, how can our Filipina students parttake of the experience of learning and knowledge that is rightfully theirs? For those harsher lessons in high school life, we're brought back to the big D: Discrimination. And it operates on many levels - classism, sexism (males to females, or even females to females), regionalism - even something as petty as brand of shoes or looks.

Labels: education, media, motherhood, parenting

Can you read this blog post? Lucky you! That means you're better off than "nearly 3 million Filipinos" lacking even the most basic literacy skills (that eye-opening number courtesy of the Philippine Information Agency).

After that sobering piece of info, here's the (relatively) good news -- the National Statistical Coordination Board reports that 93.4% of Filipinos are capable of simple literacy. That means they're able to read and write a basic message (presumably in complete sentences, but I guess SMS/txt msg short-hand counts too, who knows?) Meanwhile, 84% of Filipinos are functionally literate, meaning they can do the same, plus some skills involving numbers. They also understand the point of a message (the why, in addition to the what).

Despite these reassuring digits, UNICEF has rightly sounded the alarm about the sheer number of Filipina women who lack these fundamental skills. This is a serious problem, especially in rural areas, where birth rates are higher. Now, for just a moment, let's put aside the debate about the relative merits and problems of unchecked baby-making (for whatever reason). If we agree that a mother should be able to decide how many kids she wants to have, then one basic fact remains: a literate mother is a more well-informed, self-sufficient mother.

This is not meant to be a dis against oral modes of communication, or child-rearing with the help of neighbors and relatives. The bottom line is that a literate mother is able to reach more independent decisions about childcare matters that involve printed texts: medicine labels, food packaging, written instructions, their children's homework... the list goes on, really. In fact, English thinktank The Literacy Trust makes the bold claim that "in the Philippines, a mother's primary education reduces by half the risk of child mortality".

That's why UNICEF Philippines has set up the Mothers Literacy Project to assist in the adult education of mothers in economically depressed areas:

The Mothers Literacy Project provides mothers with the essential knowledge and skills for proper child rearing. Working with local government units, UNICEF funds the training of volunteers who become literacy teachers. These volunteers are from the community itself.

More than just the ABC's and the 123's. These mothers learn about raising children.

No doubt, projects like this serve as hands-on ways to support educated motherhood, a principle enshrined in CEDAW. In particular, Article 10 calls for "access to programmes of continuing education, including adult and functional literacy programmes", and "access to specific educational information to help to ensure the health and well-being of families".

But perhaps the greatest challenge is to keep these efforts going, once the designated UN funds have run out, long after the dutiful, well-meaning trainers pack up their bags and head for the city, or the next small town in need of child-rearing expertise.

Literacy is not something you just achieve, like a high score in a video game. Sure, there are benchmarks and measurable levels of literacy. But at the risk of waxing pilosopo, I'd say that literacy is a process. It needs to be maintained, and kept in practice, for it to really matter. And that means the volunteers who benefit from these programs should have the will and resources to pass on their knowledge. In this case, only one out of two would be very bad indeed.

Oh yeah, one more thing... Happy World Literacy Day! My own (petty burgis) wishes for the day: more second-hand bookstores in Metro Manila; lower prices for import titles, especially geeky cultural studies books; plus a visit and meet-and-greet session with hott journalist/social scientist Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink). Squee! ^__^


Tags: CEDAW, motherhood, education, literacy

Labels: education, motherhood, parenting