not just skills, but values

8/8/2019 Not Just Skills, But Values

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This story was taken from www.inq7.net

http://news.inq7.net/viewpoints/index.php?index=1&story_id=53791

From a protester-student: Not only skills, but valuesFirst posted 03:08am (Mla time) Oct 19, 2005

ByINQ7.net

THIS IS in response to a letter by Mr. Eric A. Gutierrez titled To protester-students: Go

back to school dated Sept. 21, 2005.

I am happy that you are no longer teaching in De La Salle University, for you would nolonger be able to poison the minds of my fellow students who for once are doing

something useful with the things they have learned from school.

May I freshen you with the particular virtues my school, the one you are no longer

teaching in (thank God) have taught me: "Religio, mores, cultura." These are the thingsthat are far more important than speaking and writing fluent English.

I would rather choose the student who speaks "carabao English " than someone who says

"So what?" to cheating. I would rather be with the student who takes hours to solve aphysics problem than with the math wiz or the big-shot engineer who tolerates cheating

and stealing.

We don't want to build robots or an ultra-light plane or a solar-powered car just yet -- we

have plenty of time for that, because time is on our side. Now we are attending to a moreimportant and urgent work: building a nation, a society that is just, honest, and has high

standards of what is right and what is wrong.

This work surpasses all the schoolwork and assignments you could ever come up with.

We never claim to know everything under the sun, but we know for a fact that the countryis being run by someone who has lied on our national hero's grave and someone who stole

our votes. That knowledge is enough to make us do something that is more than simply

memorizing formulas, solving equations, etc.

We are scaring foreign investors because we don't want them to be welcomed by someonewhom we never voted for. We don't want them to see us represented by someone who is a

liar and a cheat. If that is all right with you, then fine.

We are thinking, we are using our brains, but we are also using something else that is also

from God, our conscience. There's no need to flunk me, because if I were to be one ofyour unlucky students, I would drop your subject and find someone else who would teach

me not only the skills I would need later on, but also the values to live a decent life.

So shut up, step aside and let us be, for your time is up. Now it's our turn.


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JULIUS ROCAS, Silang, Cavite (via e-mail)

Student Leader, Lasallian Students for Justice & Peace, LCDC, De La Salle University

Dasmarias

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This story was taken from www.inq7.net

http://news.inq7.net/viewpoints/index.php?index=1&story_id=50850

To protester-students: Go back to school

First posted 04:28am (Mla time) Sept 24, 2005By

INQ7.net

AS A former College of Engineering teacher at De La Salle University, I am dismayed by

what you students are doing these days. You students rally for causes that are self-

dooming. You students help destabilize and embarrass this country that you think youlove so much. You students seem to care more about politics and rallies than acquiring the

more important skills to help you get good jobs when you graduate.

You students can't even speak good English anymore. You can't even write a coherent

sentence in English. In fact, when I interview job applicants, out of 60 I am lucky to findone who can speak decent English without the heavy accent.

On top of all this, you seem to think you know everything under the sun, that's why youstudents involve yourselves in matters that you should stay away from: politics.

You students are becoming the next generation of the same sort of people you hate themost: traditional politicians, whose sole purpose in life is to not do anything except argue

with whatever current administration. I am amazed you have so much free time to

participate in activities to oust President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, which you seem tohave made it your life-long ambition.

Whatever happened to building a robot or an ultra-light plane or a solar-powered car in

school? You students seem to have so much energy, which should be redirected to

produce something more creative.

All this nonsense makes me believe that you students don't have enough assignments orschoolwork. Are your schools second-rate? My former students certainly didn't even have

a social life while I kept them busy at school with their projects.

Study hard, that's why you're in school. You're in school because you still have lots to

learn. If you help destabilize this country, it is your families that could end up losing their


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jobs. You students are helping scare away the few foreign investors that this country

needs so you can have jobs when you graduate. Don't you just hate it when the investors

end up in Thailand, China or Singapore because the political climate there is so muchmore stable?

Think! That's why God put brains in your skulls. Use them. Stop acting like a bunch of

freshmen. If I were your teacher, I'd flunk all of you out of your seats just for not knowing

what on earth you are doing to this country and to your folks, who send you to school soyou can do something positive with your lives when you graduate.

So, shut up and go back to your books.

ERIC A. GUTIERREZ, 8 Himalayas Street, San Pedro, Laguna, Philippines

not just skills, but values

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