Simple Joys of the Profession

A student sent me a message through Facebook this week telling me that her class won in the speech choir competition in celebration of the National Language Month.

And snore while doing it.

She told me that the class thought that I would have been proud if I was there when they won. She added that the class was more cooperative and they attribute this success to me during our own theater presentation practices last year. She ended with thanking me for being a part of their success now.

Oh my god, a fuckin' student remembers me... *hysteria*

Upon reading this, I was elated that even if a year has already passed, these students from the only pilot class I handled last year still appreciate and thank me for their success. But upon reading and rereading the message, I became sadder and sadder.

And was in denial.

It was because I hoped that they became champion when they were still my students last year, I hope that I was their teacher who won with them, I hoped that their success could directly be attributed to me. But no, I was only one of their many pit stops before they reach their finish line this year under another subject; another teacher.

But still, I comfort myself to the fact that they thought of me during their time of success, and one, one actually found the time to thank me not only for their success, but for the improvement of the whole class.

Class Vignettes

Lesson: Adverbs
Teacher: How do you lick an ice cream?

Student: I lick it up and down.
Class: *laughter*


Lesson: Sentence Errors
Before prayer.
T: You button your polo shirt up; you're not a pornstar.

S1: (buttons his shirt)
S2 at the back: I am a pornstar (sing and dance)

Now imagine this guy in a school uniform...And gyrating like a worm.

T: Oh, so you wan't to be a pornstar? Come here on the platform, strip off your clothes. You want a demonstration here in front?
Class: *laughter*

S2: *blushes* No, ma'am.

Lesson: Simple Past
T: What did you do last night?
S: I jerked off.

The legend of Boy Jerk Off...

Class: *deadly silence*

And the girls suddenly looked interested.

Seriously, these students are too sex-deprived.

The Shackles Of Our Mind

Written while attending a boring seminar.


I have always believed that this institution, instead of cultivating a culture of excellence, is actually propagating a culture of mediocrity.

This started with a statement from one of my colleagues. She was recalling her experiences to me as a newbie teacher in our school. She was one of the stars of her batch. She was usually given tasks such as conducting basic grammar lectures to the faculty, writing scripts for emcees, to being an emcee herself.  It was also during this time when another of her colleagues told her not to bring too much attention to herself because other members of the faculty might always tell her to do her usual extra work. Why? Aside from the fact that these extra work is unpaid, people will always be dependent on her, asking her to do favors, so in the process, becomes a hindrance to what her real job is, teaching. This is the reason why only a few teachers in our department want to show their talents.

This, I think, should not be the case. Yes, the school gives the faculty opportunities, but not everybody wants it. It's because even if they depend on these talented people, deep down, they resent that quality, they resent the achievement that the person has, and that they are just waiting for that person to make the tiniest of mistakes so they can ravish that person together. Bringing him or her down. Suddenly, being talented is a sin here. So the person, not wanting to incur the sneers of her colleagues, clam up.

You don't see me. XD

We are always told to deliver, but we are not given the supportive environment for us to really grow. Our colleagues would depend on us, but we would always have this feeling that they will be the first ones who will step on us the moment we slip.

It is rather stunting. The negative energy of the academic community stifles the growth of the teachers. And it is hypocritical of ourselves to force our students to be the best when we ourselves stunt each other's talents and scoff.

This is sad. I believe that a school will never be a cradle of critical thinking and excellence if the teachers themselves are not allowed to explore and celebrate their beliefs and ideas.

Shut Up, Teacher

A little essay I wrote out of frustration. I forgot about this essay until I found it in my computer's many many folders. Wrote it way back when I was doing my practicum. And looking at myself from two years ago, I realized that being in a conservative school has never diminished my beliefs.

It was a sunny late morning and the heat of the incoming summer was starting to be felt in our faculty room.
Flux of graduating students also went in and out of the room, as it was a deadline day. At my table, I was reading an article from a newspaper about the reproductive health bill and since majority of the teachers that were with me in that room were married and had have kids, I asked them if they were in favor of the bill. The teachers gave me an assertive answer, as they felt that there was nothing wrong with it and they were not killing anybody in using contraceptives. A teacher also asked me if I was for it, I said yes, and I also said my criticism on the church’s stand. However, another teacher whispered to me which dragged me away from the friendly sharing of opinions, “Do not engage in debate yet, you're still a student-teacher.” As she was saying this, the topic was still being discussed, and the said teacher asked me my motives. I said that I just felt agitated with the church’s logic. She nodded her head and turned her attention back to what she was doing.

As soon as I found a way to go back to the conversation, I looked closely at the highlighter marker pen that I was holding and said, “This highlighter's cool; it looks like a lipbalm.” I felt a sense of success as one of the teachers who answered me took my highlighter and examined it; they really welcomed the change of topic. They ate my bait.

As I went back to reading the article, I wondered on why student teachers are not allowed to give their views on pressing issues. Sure, I am young and I still do not understand a real public school teacher’s reality. But the issue at hand must surely be a part of a real school teacher’s reality, as the topic that I opened concerned not only the parents, but most especially the students, their students. I heard their god-knows-how-many conversations about their students getting pregnant at age 16 and younger, so why prevent a healthy discourse about a soon-to be policy that would have an effect in the educational curriculum? Should we as teachers be aware of these things? Should we stop ourselves in participating or even initiating a potentially intellectually fruitful conversation? I heeded the teacher’s call for me to stop babbling about the topic; I saw her point that I was not in the position to open the topic up, but I am sure that I am in the position to open up the topic as a concerned youth concerned with her fellow youth. It seemed to me that she was trying to impose the don’t-talk-because-you-are-the-state’s-robot type of silence on me. But how about her? She is in the exact position to participate in discussions, as the double-edged sword of being a citizen and teacher is on her shoulders. She is a full-pledged teacher; can she do what I can do? She is young; can she be as concerned? The school cannot be considered as an institution in a vacuum, and teachers cannot stay apolitical for so long just because the government is putting money in their pockets. We are political beings whether we like it or not, and it is our choice to be either become a catalyst of change or a perpetuator of state oppression.

How can we change our students if we keep silent? How can we contribute in making a better society for our students if we ourselves refuse to put into question the issues that will deeply affect them?

I went to the lavatory and saw the much senior teacher who took my highlighter. I asked her.

"Ma'am, is it just fine if we student-teachers initiate topics like RH bill earlier?"

"It's just fine. It's just fine for a teacher to air her views. What's forbidden for a teacher is to endorse a politician."

Two conflicting views indeed.

The teacher went out of the comfort room to go to her class, and I continued washing my hands. I remembered my reason for staying in education, “to make myself a liberal working in an overly conservative working environment.”

I stared at myself in the mirror with anger bubbling up my chest.

I Am Understanding by Design

This year, our school is going to embark on a journey called "UbD" or Understanding by Design. This thing has been around in a while in America, but here in my country, it was implemented last year in the public schools. But since I am in a private school, it is only now that we are catching up with this UbD fever.

I already heard this UbD when I was still a practicumer in college 2 years ago, and I always thought that it is a sort of planning the lesson but you think of the assessment first. Well, to be frank, I always thought that it's only a different way of writing lesson plans.

I'm as skeptical as skeptical goes.

So here is my school catching up the fever because the Department of Education directed that the schools follow this UbD way of thinking. But it comes with a price, you see. We the members of the faculty feel very cheated of our vacation because we need to spend it doing the UbD templates. And it is such a pain on the ass considering that we need to prepare those lesson plans and we need to implement it already this coming school year. I have always thought that curriculum planning takes years, and lesson planning takes time. But making the teachers rush their lesson plans for compliance is doing the teachers (and students) injustice. If the plan is faulty, then I'm very sure that the execution would also be faulty since the teacher doesn't know what the hell she is doing. And in the long run, the students would just become guinea pigs. Basically, we are doing the lesson plans in the dark. We are just hoping that even if the plan sucks, we would be able to pull off the execution right.

My students and I are all guinea pigs.

Yes, there have been seminars, but most of it didn't really help us at all. If it did, it only caused confusion and resentment among the faculty and the administration. We have this certain seminar in the school a couple of days ago, and we invited a speaker from a publishing house to help us tresh out this confusion. Turns out, this speaker have also attended UbD seminars in America with no less than the proponents of UbD themselves. And it was most enlightening, not only did we see the things that we are doing wrong (thanks to the lesson plan critiquing), but it also made us realize that crafting UbD templates and executing it is really just simple. And that simplicity made all the difference.

According to her, all lesson are done with A-Acquisition, M-Meaning-making and T-Transfer. Now, what puzzles me is that if I am going to look at a sample UbD learning guide, it only consists of the days and the things that you are going to do in those days.

Example:

Nutrition (Grade 6) Duration: 2 weeks

Day 1: Begin with an entry question (Can the foods you eat cause pimples?) to hook students into considering the effects of nutrition in their lives. (Making meaning)
Introduce key vocabulary terms and discuss relevant selections from the textbook. (Acquisition)

Day 2: Quiz on key vocabulary terms and selections from the book
Day 3: Students work independently to develop a three-day camp menu for younger children and offer them ideas for breaking bad eating habits


And so on and so forth. The speaker told us that that is the original UbD template. And we were like, "What the f**k?" because what we are doing with our templates is, if we are going to follow this thing strictly, wrong. What we did with our templates is this.

I.    Introduction
II.    Interaction
III.    Integration
IV.    Closure
V. Agreement

And I was like...are we a bunch of sado-masochists here? So I figured this was the f***ing reason why we are having a very hard time devicing our learning plans. We are deliberately making our lives harder. It got me thinking, where in the world did our administrators get their template? They said that it was from FAPE (Fund for Assistance to Private Education), and the speaker admitted that the FAPE template is actually more complicated than the original UbD template. I felt cheated. If we have an easier template, why did they opt to choose the more complicated route? One of my colleagues said that the FAPE template is designed for Catholic schools, but what makes the template so Catholic? What makes it more effective than the original? So we felt all the more cheated by our administrators, why is it that they only scheduled the seminar now? Why only now that some of us (myself included) are already through with our learning plans? They have the whole freaking school year last year to invite that speaker. And now, they only caused confusion among us, and resentment towards our admins.

We're this close to confronting the higher - ups.

 Like our speaker said, "UbD entails us enjoying life, simplifying life," but in my school, it is surely not the case.

Grades Are One Annoying Part of Education

I am the type of person who doesn't give a f*** about what someone does, so when other teachers are questioning my classroom management techniques as a way of getting me in trouble, I get angry. It's not like I am the one who vandalized the walls, disturbed classes, howled and horsed along the corridor ad infinitum. Sure, I can give these students some slack, you know, because they are immature and are discovering themselves, but these students are 14-16 years olds they know and can actually do what is right. Like, I don't know, studying? You figure.

So, after all the brouhaha that was the student who was retained, another co-worker approached me and pressured me into giving the student a passing grade. And I was annoyed for the whole afternoon.

I have always believed that if you question a teacher's way of giving grades is tantamount to questioning the teacher's ability as a whole. Add to that the fact that if you are a new teacher, chances are you will always be the one who will be getting this pressure. It's not like I didn't do everything that I can in my power to help the student out. Because, you know, if the student doesn't want the encouragement, then you are not supposed to shove that encouragement through his throat like a penis. And you are not supposed to take the crap because of that. So what if the other teachers are tenured? Am I not a teacher too? Does me being on a contract make me less of a teacher? I don't think so.

Luckily, the topic was dropped. But I was hoping that this pressure on all sides will be escalated, and luckily again, that didn't happen. Because you know, I will still stand by my computation.

End of School Year Blues

I am just blinks away from the end of the school year.

And I am fucking loving it.

 

So I renewed my contract and all, but it doesn't mean that I like the school. No, I just did that so I wouldn't have difficulties looking for another school. I don't want them asking me why I left the school for only a year, because I don't want to tell them that I freaking hate the TOO much paperwork. I need to save my neck, you see. At least if I stayed for two years, then there is the possibility that they'll think the school where I came from sucks. So, on with my 2-year stay.

I have been making my incoming absence in the lives of my students felt. Today is my last day of classes with them and most of them, well, feel relieved or sad that they wouldn't see me again given that they would have a different teacher next year.

It has been a stressful year for me. I could only count on my fingers the moments when I felt that I am happy with what I am doing. Being the natural worrier that I am doesn't help me at all either. There were days when I felt that I am not human anymore, that I am just waking up and teaching these students just for compliance and for covering the necessary unnecessary information that they need to know to be unloaded on their test papers.

Today, however, I felt that I am going to miss my students.

 

But I do not want to be stuck with them for another year, so...

Go on bastards.

Not looking forward to another school year either.

Slavery Renewal

It has been two weeks since I last posted something. I promised to myself that I am going to make this blog project a habit, that's why I'm here again, my dear rockers.

So, it's already almost the end of this new year's first month, and earlier, we were already given service renewal forms. I am supposed to submit it tomorrow, but until now, I am still leaving it blank.

I want to say no to renewing my contract and resign altogether because I do not want to do the wrong things that I did inside my classroom. As rebellious as I am, I have to admit that I have been a very bad and disrespectful teacher towards my students, and I do not want to repeat the same thing again next year. But at the same time I also want to stay because I want to erase those mistakes in the coming academic year.

I am feeling stressed while typing this, I already want to sleep now, but because I need to have some time for myself to reflect, I need to stay awake. I also want to stay because I am lazy enough to find my next job. I want to spend my vacation, refuel myself and recover from the emotional wear and tear that I have endured for a whole fucking year.

Again, practicality comes in, if I do resign with only 1 year experience, then it would be difficult for me to find another school to hire me, since they might think that I resigned from my previous teaching post because I had brushed with the powers-that-may-be in the said previous school. Fuck. I just want to say that I don't give a fuck whether I have a job or not. Hell, I can live on my own without even working, not with my apartment that I am renting out.

Teaching has been a very emotionally draining job for me, and now, I am just basically torn between practicality and preserving myself.

Fuck. I so want to rest.

Teen Sexuality or Catholic Propaganda?

Please.

Do not force me to listen to a teen sexuality seminar with a Catholic conservative as the speaker.
But well, when you are supposed to be with your students, there isn't really much thing for you to do but to fucking bear with all the shit the person has been saying.

I wasn't really able to listen to the seminar from start to finish, more like I was only able to see its middle. But anyway, the part where I am already with my students made me use my brains again. I have been taking notes while the speaker has been babbling about safe and so-called "saved" sex, homosexuality, contraception, RH bill, and abortion. And I have to admit that if I am going to give my students an alternative point on the views presented not only by the speaker but also by their school, then I really have to do my homework. And that includes being discreet about it.

As much as I want to, I didn't finish watching the seminar, as my period with the class that I am accompanying already ended. But I was able to scrape very yummy topics that I planned to discuss with them the next day.

Here it is:

"What is morality?"
"What should be our standards of morality?"
"Who/What should tell us what is moral?"
"Is there even such a thing as morality?"
"Is it fair to call gays sinners?"
"Why is the youth turning on to media for information about sex?"
"When does life begin?"
"What really is sanctity of life?"

I asked these 14-year olds whether there was any of their teachers who tried to process the things that they learned in the seminar. A resounding no. I also asked them if they took down notes or questions. Again, a resounding no. Well, the latter didn't surprise me at all, because they were just in that seminar so there would be no classes, and besides, it's not like the priests are dating them for their brains anyway, so I started with my discussion.

First question: Is it fair to call gays sinners?

Well, most of them said, that it is not fair to call gays sinners (and I really thank them for thinking so, at least they can sense that sometimes, their religion is bullshitting them about gays). What made these church people think that these gays are sinners? One brave boy told the class that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with being a gay, the issue of the church with gay people is that man and woman were created for the opposite sex. I told them that gays eat, sleep, drink, walk, buy medicine from a drugstore and so as with straight people. So what's wrong with being gay?

Second: What should be our standards of morality?
This has been a gray area for them, they can't say anything because they are young, and I can't say anything too provocative either. So I let them decide. Thankfully, there was another brave boy who contributed to the discussion that there shouldn't be any standards because what is immoral to one might be just fine for another. A dangerous relativist in the making, I thought. But I told them that morality shouldn't be based on scriptures or doctrinal moral prescriptions and that they should adhere to the universal virtues.

So far, I was succeeding in taking my real perspective undercover while feeding these students the other side of the coin.

Third: Why is the youth turning to media for information about sex?

If my memory doesn't fail me, nobody was able to answer this. But I asked them again if their parents talk about them about sex. Again, a no, but one student was cocky enough to say sometimes. Anyway, whenever I meet parents and ask them if they talk to their children about sex, well, they always answer me with a smile and a shake of the head which is natural, given that sex is a taboo topic, and here in this place, teen sexuality is a kitsch. And asking these students if their school gives them enough information about sex is out of the question, they are in a Catholic school, so by default, nothing about sex.

So I asked them, "No info about sex at home and nothing in school. Where would you go?" Media came as the answer. And I added, "Of course, also from your friends, whose knowledge of sex may be faulty enough to get you into trouble."

This is where I inserted the debate about the RH bill. I told them that we cannot blame the State for doing its job, it is only providing basic services. And that basic service is health. Specifically, the State is targeting health of the mother who spends more energy in producing offsprings. The State knows that the youth and the general public do not have the information that will help them about sex, there is nothing in their homes, there is nothing in the schools, and that is where State enters the picture.

Of course, I also have to criticize the Church, so I added, "If these religious people are so against sex education in schools, why not FORCE the parents to talk to their children about sex in the first place? That would lessen their stress." I told them to require their parents to talk to them about sex, its only a matter of choice between their parents and the erroneous depiction of sex in the media. Choose. If they wouldn't be able to get it from their parents; they wouldn't get it anywhere.

Fourth: When does life begin?

These students are very factual, so they told me that for the Pro-RH bill people, life begins at implantation while for the Anti-RH people, life begins in fertilization. I told them that I believe neither and that the two sides are actually pieces of bullshit. If these people are saying that we can pinpoint when life begins, then there is something wrong with our bodies. Imagine this, if life begins in fertilization, then it means that the egg cell and the sperm cell aren't alive! And if they aren't alive, then there is something wrong with our bodies! How come that something that doesn't have a life actually resides in a breathing human body? It's like saying that the DVD player is working fine, except for its laser reader. I argued that we can never pinpoint when life begins. Their lives where passed on to them by their parents which they received from their own parents and so on and so forth. Life, therefore, is a continuous process. It goes on and on and on.

Fifth: What is sanctity of life?
For them, this concept means that we should respect human life and we shouldn't go killing an unborn child.
Okay. So I argued that this concept is subjective and in using this concept, I could argue that all of us there in that classroom are murderers.

They agreed that their sperm and egg cells have lives.

So, by extension, the girls, by virtue of menstruation, flush down the toilet a single life every month. And the boys kill 299,999,999 lives in a single moment of ejaculation.

And if we are going to be really consistent with this concept of "sanctity of life", why doesn't it apply to cockroaches? We spray Baygon on them. Why doesn't it apply to rats? We feed them Racumin. Why don't we feel guilt whenever we kill these creatures and to think that, to use their language, they are also "God's creation"?

Therefore, I concluded that we are all murderers in that classroom.

I checked if they were comfortable with what I have been discussing, and they said yes. Though there was one who felt uncomfortable... Well, I took it as a compliment, for I knew that deep inside him, he knew that I was right and he was disturbed by that fact.

But then I asked who among them are in favor of the RH bill. No hands. Anti? Well, majority raised their hands. And I realized that, yes, I was able to make them see the other side of the coin and that they were pleased that I discussed it with them, but my one-hour discussion with them is not enough to break the beliefs that were indoctrinated to them by their school for the past 10-12 years.

I Don't Like Noisy People

I don't like noisy people.
It disrupts my inner harmony.
Enough said.

Okay, so one thing that I want to instill in my students is the value of respect, freethinking and shutting the fuck up whenever we have a discussion. It irks me really, especially whenever I stop so that they will stop talking, and then as soon as I start talking they would also talk. Now, how fucked up that is? It just drains me.

I am an introvert, so being a teacher is really counter-intuitive.

"Well, now, boys, you already got your classmates' attention, so shut up now, will ya?"

So much for destroying lives.

If these students' lives are whining, "Oh, my life is a waste...", then I suggest that they should fuck off from the schools and stop making life a waste for their teachers. Really, it disrupts my inner harmony.

I Don't Like Observations

I wasn't able to post anything since last week.
But I am not like other bloggers who make alibis as to why they were dry for a period.

I really do not believe formal observations. I am a very big fan of it, because what you would do is to just bullshit the person who is doing the observation in class. Also, the students know that you are also bullshitting them, for they know what you really are in ordinary days.
I will be observed in my best class, but thankfully, that class has the most passive students. But I trust them, what I do not trust is myself. The topic that I am going to discuss is research and god help me with that topic because of course, the students do not know anything about it. And how am I supposed to include religion content in research? I am stressed out just by thinking about it, and to think that it would still be next week. Still, I am stressed out of my wits. I can deliver any topic, but research? Fuck, that's the first time I'll teach it. And I am going to teach it first thing in the morning. How, unfortunate can that be? Just pure shit.
.
It's not like my salary will increase if I did it well. It turned out good the last time I did it, but I am not in anyway enthusiastic about it right now.
I don't like the idea of other people nosing around my classroom and commenting on how I teach. It helps me in some ways, as it makes me see the things that I am doing incorrectly, but for me, observation is like an implicit way of saying to the teacher that you do not trust him/her, why hire the teacher in the first place?

What stresses me the most is including religion content bullshit in my lesson. Seriously, it bores the students to death. I just hate shoving religion down my students' throats, I was able to do it before, but I do not want to repeat it, especially when I am very ambivalent when it comes to religion. Especially Catholicism.

Anyway, it's already there. I just have to get bored with it.

Stupid Classroom Episode

Oh. What the fuck. I hate feeling stupid.

It feels really stupid when your best students see you inside the classroom of your worst class and you can't do anything to control the fucking class.

The reason the worst classroom became a war zone? Well, they saw the the girls from the section of my best class while the latter was on the way to the Science laboratory.
And I can't fucking believe that my worst class' way of showing off to girls is by throwing books and crumpled paper at each other.

What.The.Fuck.

I feel so stupid. Fuck.

Let me say that again, now, in ALL CAPS.

FUCK!

I feel so depressed now.

Serotonin please.

A Letter to Any of My Students

(Put name of student here),

I am feeling generous this year,so I'll be giving away some stuff to some of my students whom I think has the potential to give our society a little shake - if not an earthquake.
This is just a recording of the shows/books of George Carlin. I hope you know him, but if you don't, then start knowing the man. I am sure that you'll like the guy's ideas. He is dead by the way, but we are not quite sure if he is up there in heaven looking down at us or down in hell looking up at us. Hell, if there is no heaven or hell, then he is just there six feet below the ground making the worms happy, which I know will annoy him because he doesn't really want anybody bothering him. Majority of his ideas are basically the very same ideas which I always hold back whenever I am discussing something in class, for the reason that we are in a Catholic school. Of course, we have that faculty rating bullshit, so I'd rather not share my more radical ideas to the whole class.

Consider this not as a gift, not as a mere collection of some comedian's wisecracks, but rather as a collection of things I didn't say (but I wanted to say) in class.

Remember, "if in doubt, turn left."

Enjoy.

From your totally f***** up teacher,
(My name)

I have students who are really good thinkers that it is a shame they have some lame ambitions like being an architect. 

Still, I want to give them something to make them change their way of thinking. Consider this as an explicit attempt to veer them to liberal thinking. Why give them Carlin's show recordings? Well, I could've said the very same ideas myself during class, but you see, there are some people who cannot help but put their noses inside my fucking class, and my fucking classroom.

Well, I think I tried to insert some other way of thinking during the course of our meetings...

The "neon god" in the song "The Sound of Silence" is home, school, and church, generally the Establishment. And they must start giving this society a little shake by starting to question the things around them.

I have yet to suggest to them the inconsistencies of the teachings of the Catholic church.
I really pity my students, they are made to think that there is only one line of thinking and that is via the Catholic doctrinal perspective and I really feel frustrated that I cannot do what I pledged myself to do once I started teaching: to make my students free thinkers. I want them to realize that morality shouldn't be based on prescriptive doctrines but rather on universal human virtues.

I think I really need to transfer to a public school to be really able to do that.

But for now, I have to resort to Carlin. As much as our ideas are similar, his language is much more solid than mine.

School is Useless

School is useless.

Yes. You heard me. School is useless.

Let me ask you, how much have you remembered your elementary and high school lessons?
And how much of it is helping you now with your job?

Not really much, I know.

Another proof. Students have been taught the eight parts of speech from kinder to high school (fuck, colleges even have basic English subjects) and still, still, students do not seem to remember anything! Until now, no ordinary average person gives a fuck about calculus and how Christopher Columbus fucked up America by naming the natives "Indians".

My point. Relieve the children off the stress that school gives. Leave the teachers fucking alone and let them find another less stressing 8-5 job.

Formal education is just society's way of saving money up. Think of all the teachers that the government will pay if each student has a teacher.

It is just a very cheap way of educating the next generation of workers! But what I cannot understand is that, if they are just going to be teachers, clerks, janitors, doctors, waitresses, lawyers, bank tellers, salesman, etc, what the fuck is the use of forcing them to learn literature, grammar, arithmetic, and Science? What the fuck is the connection?

Scrap formal education. Let us just go back to the apprenticeship system. Sounds more practical to me. Let the children decide for themselves what they want to learn. You want to be an architect? Find someone who will teach you! Want to be a doctor? Find someone who will teach you!

Point is, society has forced education to the throats of the children that by the time they reach adolescence, they are just fucking fed up with studying. You cannot blame them for being bored. Why not let them to choose how they will be educated? Why not teach them to fucking stand by their own feet? Anyway, they are so proud of their dicks proclaiming how they are not a child anymore and can very well take care of themselves. Well, what the fuck are you doing sucking off money from your parents' pockets? School sucks right? So get your ass off to find your own teacher!

On Correcting Formal Themes

I do not like correcting formal themes. 

No. I hate it.

I have to suffer reading 200 student formal themes and not just reading, I mean, critically reading it, because I need to help them rewrite their formal themes. The only comfort that I have is the proofreading marks. At least I am giving them some room to think what the hell are they doing wrong with their themes.

I hate it because I have to suffer correcting their grammar and punctuation lapses. You see, an essay with all the jarring mistakes takes a toll on any sensible-person. Sometimes, even I am starting to make the same mistakes that they are making, and sometimes I even question my own grammar because of their grammar.

The only joy that I can find in formal themes is when they share something about their lives. But see, it only happened during the first quarter, when we had family as the topic. But as for the succeeding quarters, I always have to endure these themes, it really makes me want to jump off a cliff. But I cannot get rid of it, as complaining about it will not make it go away. I check and copy-read them anyway. *sigh* Good thing we also have guide questions, as it gives their essays a sort of pseudo-order, but boy, don't they know how to write introductions and conclusions.

Want a sample?

"The importance of God's creation is very important..."

And believe me or not this sentence came from a student from the pilot section. God help me. Like, please.