Education in Global Perspective

The present era is marked by transformational dynamism, characterized by competitiveness in many fields of endeavor. Countries, being the prime movers of dynamism, have metamorphosed to face the challenges, which embody the latest trend in the 21st century – globalization. In a simple meaning, globalization refers to the movement of people, money, goods and services, and information across the countries. Evidently, it is a modern drift of challenges that instigate the countries mobilize themselves to emerge globally competitive.

Education, being the vital molder of human resources of the country, has considered the obtaining trend of the modern world. It has defined its goals and objective covering not only the country’s realm but also the international roads of relationship with other countries. Being the influential social institution to attend to such global challenge, it has enriched its curricula, imperative to hasten the improvement of knowledge and skills of the human resources in the country thereby emerging competitive in the international arena. Academic courses, geared towards the thrusts, have proliferated out in many educational institutions in the country to ensure the employability of graduates in the foreign labor markets. Consequently, professions in demand abroad have always been the tracks traversed by many students. Truly, the trend has influenced the plunge of the educational system and the people in the country.

However, the response to globalization has created schism of acceptance in the academic communities in the country. It has caused a shift to courses in demand abroad and not locally. Many graduates flock over the chance to work abroad every year. They spend a plethora of money just to land in a good job in foreign countries, which usually promise them a multiple –folds of returns – a greener pasture at that — to the family in the country. As a result, the country seems to run out of human resources who, ideally, can propel the changes that our country has long been dreaming of. On account of this scenario, our education system loses its noble vision of empowering the bulk of population in the country and equipping them with skills and knowledge contributory to the country’s development in this modern world.

As far as the Philippine setting is concerned, the educational system must promote courses that will create the professions imperative for the country’s growth and development. Since our country is at its comparative advantage in the field of agriculture, there must be an empowerment of agriculture-related courses in the public and private educational institutions. Let us uphold our conviction that agriculture is the backbone of our fluctuating economy. Thus, we need agriculturists to transform our idle lands to productive resources. Moreover, other professions may similarly uplift the country’s status at our own advantage, provided that these are exercised primordially within the domain. Apparently, the country also needs competitive teachers, who usually contribute to brain drain, to transform the human resources to the labor force, which will fuel up the mechanism of progress in its multidimensional existence. Hence, let us apply this theory of comparative advantage in making our country strong to occupy a space in the international community. With strong country nourished by collaborative efforts from the empowered human capital, we are investing in a sustainable future amidst the global challenges.

MENTORS IN BLUE: Multi-tasked Agents

Armed with high caliber, devised with vast knowledge, and equipped with sterling sense of professionalism, learning becomes fruitful and meaningful in the hands of the so-called multi-tasked agents of education – the mentors.
These agents emerge to be the disciples of professionalism, emblems of nobility, sages of school of thoughts, and soldiers of pedagogy in the battlefield of ignorance. Imbued with mission these agents perform multifaceted tasks, which emphasize their noble raison d’etre.
As facilitators of learning, they create an atmosphere filled with learning experiences as wide as what human minds can imagine, not confined within the four corners of the classroom. They design activities necessary for the learners to metamorphose into competitive and highly educated beings.
As guidance counselors, they serve as the light in showing the right pathway of the learners’ odyssey towards the success. They instill in the learners not only the knowledge but also the values the latter need in the process of their transformation.
As surrogate parents, they play the role of second parents of the learners in the latter’s second home – the school. They ought to tender love, care, and attention, which the learners need as they traverse the lifelong process called education.
As decision-makers, they weigh the bipolarity of circumstances, which usually requires them sound judgment. They stand firm in all their words, taking into consideration the risks they may cause.
The agents of education are also models of professionalism. Having possessed outstanding characteristics , they truly emerge as the subject for emulation, not only for their students but also for the people in the community.
All these roles epitomize the regalia in the field of commendable profession, which is exercised by extraordinary agents – the mentors. Do you dare being one of them?

My Only Wrath

You had been a good provider;
You even made my life nicer.
A symbol of a perfect father,
The emblem of love, joy, and laughter.

You went far for a greener pasture
Just to give birth for my brighter future.
You built the house where life was so sure
For me to feel your presence so pure.

But one thing you just did not realize,
Your absence took away your precious price.
And when your image was drawn back on my eyes,
I became colorblind; I was unable to recognize.

Changes, indeed, are permanent thing
In my innocent cognizance you ever bring
For all my perception about your perfection
Have already vanished and reached expiration.

The Prayer of Faith

O, Loving and Forgiving Father
Who rule over the heaven and earth.
Your image speaks of your existence;
Your magnanimity reflects on our credence.

Touch us by Your forgiving hands
As You bring us our hopeful chance
To be free from the cage of darkness
And fly high in the sky of goodness

Direct us toward the enlightenment
As we walk along the aisle made of Your garment.
Bless us with Your bountiful graces
As if we are showered with confetti of success

O, Lord, we thank You then
For the love You have given
As we exalt Your most precious name
In the paramount of every moment.

Long Lonely Life

All the time I was alone;
No one was there to call me on.
My solitude that came so long;
Your presence just had it gone.

At first you could see,
The spirit of joy in me;
It was a manifestation
Of my grateful emotion.

And the time quickly passed by
As it all happened for a while.
For all the memories that we shared
Were part of the answer to my prayer.

Now that everything came back
As it was used to be;
Once again I am covered up
With a cold presence of solitary.
Nevertheless, I would like you to know
How grateful I am for the company you showed.

Complete

I’ve found a reason
to wake up each morning with smile.
To breathe the air
the day… is gonna be alright.
The sun shines through my heart
beating your name out loud,
Reminding me of someone
the one I really love.
Chorus:
Whenever I see you smile (touch your face)…
Whenever I hold your hands (hug you tight)…
Whenever I hear your voice (kiss your lips)…
my day gets brighter.
You make my life complete.
I’ve found the answer
to ease the pain I feel inside my heart,
To heal the wound
and let it fall in love.
You’re its missing part….
I just couldn’t hide
this feeling I have for you inside.
Now, I fin’ly realize….
(Repeat chorus except last two lines)
…my heart beats faster
(Repeat chorus)
Bridge:
You put a meaning to my life.
You give me hope so I survive.
You teach my face how to smile.
Now, my eyes forget how to cry.
(Repeat chorus except last two lines)
…my heart beats faster
(Repeat chorus)
Coda:
I hope to be with you is fine.
I want to stop the hands of time.
Oh…I wish the day won’t last
just for the two of us
‘Coz you make my life complete.
Oh…complete

Terminal Point

An ordinary day turned out to be a nostalgic reminiscing of forgotten momentous piece of my life.Saturday, the day when I usually clean up the week-long piled up mess in and out the house. It is an ordinary day for a home buddy like I have always been. It is a weekly ordeal of my life as I dust every piece of cheap figurines and souvenirs – which have been the objects for collection of my ate – and begin to sound horrifying as my cough reminds me that I have Allergicrinitis and asthma.

It was a Saturday of forgotten month and year where my day got almost ruined by a moment in the past alleviating my oblivion on its entire existence. I wished I did not bother myself cleaning the inside of my bookshelf where all my precious books and an organized photo album are kept. As my ordinary custom in cleaning works, I always take a peep at any document-looking papers, which have been olden by antiquity. I open books as if I look for something, which deserves to be thrown out to unload the burden I carry whenever I look at my smutty room with heavy eyes. In the mean time, as my hands were finished going over the pages of a book, the next object, which received my remaining few seconds for the shelf was the photo album.
There seemed to be no big deal, for it was my usual stuff subject for cleaning. But, as I opened the album and gazed at my portraits – good enough for an illustration in the subject Developmental Psychology – there seemed to be something strange about my pictures during my recognition days in elementary and in college. I had not noticed this before, but it really made me laugh and teary-eyed. My mother’s dress during my recognition day in elementary was the same dress she wore in my college recognition day. Nanay really takes care of her belongings – she got no choice.
But as it runs through my experience, somber is the shadow of laugh. The next few moments were a dramatic scenario. As I looked straight in to the eyes of my portrait, it awakened my cognizance that the day important to all the others was the day I extremely abhorred. It made sparks of nerve in my mind, which had long been earthen by stupor.
I tried not to remember anything about it, but every moment was like a nightmare, which gave me vivid flashes of scene amidst the kingdom of darkness. I saw myself crying bitterly and helplessly. It was my graduation day – the day that marked between the ordinary and extra-ordinary, failure and success, and mediocrity and insatiability. Four years of waiting, a month of hope, and a day of downfall – this was the countdown of my life like as I stepped out of the college without bringing home the bacon. Everything seemed turn out futile. It was lifetime recognition, which was lost in the air that I could hardly gather and figure out its plausibility to be formed again. I was hopeless. That destiny was fulfilled by mistakes. If they just knew how my soul cried out loud on the verge of my despair. It was one of the trials I would not expect life could offer me. I could have conquered my inferiority complex, which has long dwelt within my ego. I could have become better. It was a rare chance I could prove myself. It was an honor, which would never belong to me as it flew away until it was gone. Attached in back of my portrait was a folded paper where my poem for my alma mater was inscribed.

I was crying profusely when I was reading the poem. I felt it happened only yesterday. The pain that I abandoned was coming back to embrace my thoughts. When could I put the closure to these thoughts? I decided to close the album as I thought it might lessen the melancholy.
Days, months, and years have passed by; but, whenever graduation day comes in for the others, that moment tries to penetrate in to my mind – a curse that will forever be with me. However, could my destiny have changed should have that recognition been attached to my identity? No one could really tell. Nonetheless, I know that my holistic capabilities can not be measured by only academic standards. I know I can take an extra leap ahead in my odyssey in life. It is a matter of believing in myself. I know I have moved on. And I say I am ready to face the sunrise of the new me.