My Kind of School

One YT vid that's going around FB is Prof. Monsod's "last lecture" on UP's "honor and excellence" after bits of it have been featured on TV the other night.

There are a lot of motherhood statements about UP and its students and alumni - "intellectual elite," "creme de la creme," having graduated from UP a "stature," etc, etc. I'm not going to bash, not going to roll my eyes, not going to complain. It is one opinion parading as universal truth. Hey! This is a free country!

Be that as it may, I agree when she said that for one to help the country, one has to be in the country.

Now, never mind those who study to be able to work overseas. Who have never liked the smell of garlic, who have never been tidy at home, and yet take up Hotel and Restaurant Management. Who have always hated the smell and sight of blood, yet take up nursing. Who have never cared for an ailing dog and yet take up caregiving. Who have never been on board a ship and yet take up maritime courses. Just how many cooks does this country need? How many nurses? seamen? caregivers? waiters? Never mind those.

Mind only the good teachers who leave. The doctors. The engineers. The architects. The financial analysts. The farmers. The creative artists. They are the ones we want to stay.

Not very many OFWs were happy about Monsod's tirade. Who would be, where at one point you are treated as a hero, at another you are called a traitor.

We need the OFW remittances to buy oil. We need their dollars to pay our debts. But we also need them here to take care of their children, to personally clean their toilet, to personally clean their oven.

Aside from Presidents, Senators and Senate Presidents, Speakers of the House, and Chief Justices, UP also produced Nur Misuari and Jose Maria Sison.

Saavedra Saway Elementary School and the "University of Life", on the other hand, produced Manny Pacquiao. Now, those are my kinds of school.