Nothing prepared me for my class last Wednesday. I was prepared with my illustrative symbols on how to make local governance be made popular to my class. That portion in the Philippine Constitution is quite ‘boring’ for my students in the College of Education as they have the tendency to shun away from ‘frontal’ politics.
While I was about to steer them to the topic, I asked them about the meaning of the word 'local' for them. They blurted out that it has to be fake and the opposite of original. The educator in me tried doing follow-up questions and found out that they meant it to be that way. The baskets in Antequera are ‘local’ and never original… (This should be the mainstreaming of colloquial thoughts!)
I smiled then flexed my muscles. We went ‘dictionarily bookish’. My students simply smiled. They were sheepish when I told them that I will blog the evening’s event…
In that night, I was more excited ‘informing’ them that the opposite of local is not original and the former is always original… Most of them would not agree that they are locals but they adamantly said that they were very original… It was a fifteen minute probing of how the word was perceived and what was its meaning in the political science perspective.
Just like life, although somehow destinations are clear, we take short stops and encounter unplanned events… Along the way, people are there. These things happen. It was a stop worth taking. I peered into their minds and entered into a discussion with them, which they might hesitate if done in a very formal setting like that of an oral examination.
I could have climbed over the wall and complain about where the academia is going. I could have written a note to the English professors for their information and consumption. Instead, I blogged it as promised. They committed no crime… they were simply honest.
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