As basic as principles
Basic education classes resumed this week. As always, the popular press and social media were flooded with photos of children crowding school grounds before being herded into packed classrooms; streets entangled with people, cars, tricycles, and pollution; and school buildings one sneeze away from disintegrating.
A social media post showed a classroom divided into two smaller rooms to accommodate classes for more grade levels, but with both sections packed and sweating, and lessons interrupted by noise from either side of the thin wooden barrier. Somewhere in the caption: “resourcefulness.”
“Resourcefulness” dresses up systemic problems in the guise of a romanticized notion of Filipino identity.
Let’s peel back the veneer over this silliness.
Let’s start with the Constitution: if one-third of all members of the House of Representatives file an impeachment complaint or resolution, then it will comprise the articles of impeachment, so that “trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed.”
And now: vocabulary lessons. Forthwith—from Middle English joining “forth” and “with,” which later became ”forthwithal”—meaning: immediately, without delay. The word has no other definition. It is not a misused loan word, like “in lieu of” substituted for “in view of.”
It is not an English word used emphatically even as the meaning is changed, like “irregardless” when one means “regardless,” or “could care less” when one means “couldn’t care any less,” and “literally” when one means “figuratively.”
The language is clear. The accusations against the Vice President should be addressed immediately as soon as one-third of the House of Representatives agrees.
Math now: a third, or 33.33 percent, means that the 317-member House would need 105.67 lawmakers to sign. That’s 105 people plus the secret ”manananggal” lawmaker with a heart of gold.
We got 215 people to endorse the consolidated complaint. That’s 67.82 percent, or over two-thirds majority. Had this been the papal conclave, we would have had white smoke and a new pope in mere hours.
Instead, we have the decision delayed until July 28 despite the gravity of the accusations, all because some senators decided to run down the clock and throw out the Constitution, mathematics, reading comprehension, and principles all at the same time.
Among the charges is the alleged misuse of over P600 million in confidential funds during the Vice President’s stay at the Department of Education. Every single day, we see decrepit classrooms, outdated schoolbooks, low standardized test scores, disengaged students, and poorly trained, poorly paid teachers. And yet, our elected officials have the gall to hold back the investigation of someone who is being charged with misusing the funds that could have gone toward solving many of the infrastructure problems of our schools.
And yet, people still defend the Vice President and her family despite them setting an example of vulgarity and violence.
What are we teaching the next generation?
We can try all we want to add informational posters to our classroom walls, paint over old buildings, or debate which classes to retain or remove from the official curriculum.
However, no matter how long our discussions, no matter the effort we pour into education, our elected officials are teaching lessons that will undo our attempts at creating an informed, principled citizenry.
Their actions are the example. Their example is the lesson. Their lesson is the perceived norm, especially when the few that speak up are condemned, and the many who troll, lie, and mislead go unchallenged.
Never mind the plain language, the sense of urgency to demand accountability, the math, and the principles. Eighteen senators have signified how education is not important enough to be fought for, how funding for it need not be safeguarded. That the goodness and kindness one learned in school were mere acting exercises—but dishonesty, cursing, violence, and condoning murder are prized, even rewarded. That the rule of law is incidental, because the rich can get away with corruption, and the poor will simply be gunned down in the streets without a fair trial. That the poor are not to be understood, but treated as helpless and ignorant, and then given cheap gifts to silence them into submission.
As we approach July 28, let us (and the Senate) recall our most basic lessons in reading comprehension, mathematics, and citizenship. Let us remember our schools and schoolbooks, our teachers and students. Let us remember the five good senators who understood the assignment and voted for the impeachment proceedings to commence.
Let us also remember the senators who showed up without the red robes of the impeachment court, and the 18 who contributed to the delay as they wasted time, tax money, and public trust.
Let us remember them whenever we see news of crowded classrooms, low test scores, and bad pedagogy—especially when they taught us all to use “resourcefulness” as an excuse for their blatant disregard for education.
