3 Things I Wish I Learned As a Filipino Child

My childhood was filled with opportunities for learning. I read books voraciously -from the Brittanicas to the Agatha Christies and the Nancy Drews.

I exchanged letters with pen-friends through the IYS (The International Youth Service).

*The IYS or The International Youth Service was a pen-friend service, for the youth, in the late eighties to the early nineties.

I listened to my maternal grandmother, who was still living that time, tell stories about the past, pre and post-war tales.

I was also an avid fan of both local and foreign t.v. shows: That’s Entertainment, Juan Talisman, The A-Team and The Cosby Show.

I was catching gunting-gunting ( a small type of fish) by the suba ( river).

I played patintero, chinese garter and takyan ( sipa).

I get to climb those mango and kalachuchi trees, near our house.

I had the best of both worlds.

However, despite an active and educational childhood, there are still things I wished I learned even as a child –especially, as a Filipino child.

1. The Geo Science of the Country

Every Filipino child, should have a greater understanding of the earth sciences; most especially, with the type of climatology, meteorology and geological phenomena, the country naturally experiences.

One of the points raised, during the discussion was that Filipinos lacked scientific literacy.

It is this lack of information, which made many Filipinos lack, “disaster imagination “, according to one speaker, Dr. Renato Solidum. Most Filipinos do not have a clear understanding of what an earthquake or a storm is.

We all think that if we have seen one storm, we have seen it all.

Maybe, if many of us, at least had, the textbook knowledge that the storm is not a precise science and it is a science of probabilities, then the surge from the sea, during Yolanda, would not have been a surprise. ( knowing that anything can happen in a storm)

I do not know what a storm surge is. It is because as a young child, I might not have paid attention to my science teachers, that or storm surges were simply not discussed.

In college, I was too busy recopying sample exams in Nat. Sci. I could have not remembered a storm surge being mentioned, in that big science auditorium.

According to the scientists who were present in that forum, “the lack of disaster imagination may result to lack in disaster preparedness”.

The scientists, also added that Filipinos are too superstitious -it hindered them from naturally having, disaster imagination.

My childhood mind was filled with imaginations of tikbalang, aswang, kapre, sigbin and santilmo.

( I am not so sure ,what the last two are, in the Filipino language.)

It is also filled with ” bawal mag gupit ng kuko sa gabi”, “bawal magwalis sa gabi” and “bawal maligo pag biernes santo”.

Yeah, I am superstitious, like that.

However, between the scientists and I, those superstitions are some things, I do not regret having, even if they did call them, hindrances.

Well, that is just me and my Filipino upbringing.

The forum, opened my eyes to the reality that it is up to me, to encourage my child towards science.

This could be one of my contribution to my country -to teach and encourage my child to read every single information he could get, about science. ( well, at least we are starting with my six-year old now)

As for me, I remain wishing that I should have learned and paid attention more, to my geo sciences.

If I had, I may have a better scenario in my mind on what scientists are talking about, when they say, rain fall value or the gustiness of the wind.

It is highly important that Filipinos should indeed bother with science. So we may not get, too panicky or worse, too complacent.

Or not just leave everything to fate and superstitions or, well, “throw caution to the wind”.

2. The Basic Rights of a Filipino and The Basic Laws of the Land

We must really all know our rights and our country’s laws, even as young children. I am intimidated by the laws and rules that govern my land.

I do not aspire to memorize my rights, like lawyers and attorneys would. But I wished in my childhood, someone had at least encouraged me, to know more about them.

It was only in my Pol. Sci. 11 in college, when I and a copy, of the constitution of the Philippines, finally met eye to eye.

Every time I watch t.v. and listen to a distinguished gentleman, from the so and so district, begin his statement with, ” Nakasaad sa ating Saligang Batas…”, anything else following that, becomes Einstein to me.

You see, when everybody suddenly proclaims something as “unconstitutional”, or says “charter change”, I stay in the corner and wonder and ask myself, “Bakeet?”

Few people know the country’s laws and the citizen’s basic rights.

Thus, people stay apathetic, -not speaking and demanding for what is rightfully theirs.

Why do people who hold power, later on, abuse power?

It is because nobody draws the line and demand. Many of us, do not know, if we have the right to demand, at all.

We had not been trained to know our rights. Many have forgotten , “knowledge is power.”

Sometimes, when a corrupt traffic enforcer, hustles a mere delivery truck driver, he just have to utter a litany of traffic violations.

Then, the poor truck driver -who has no idea of the law, would have to bow down his head in “defeat” and hand over his license, with cash, tucked in between.

I loved Mackaulay Culkin‘s character in “Home Alone”. I loved how he kept on saying that “he opted for the fifth amendment”.

I hoped to have been that child; knowing my rights, while “unruffled ” by abusive grown-ups, who take advantage of the innocence of young children.

Besides, I watch my son today and I see him learn so many things, in a blink of an eye. Maybe, in my younger years, I could have absorbed that kind of information, quickly too.

I do not aim, to have a genius understanding of my rights as a Filipino. I leave that to the brilliant lawyers who hurdled their way, through law school.

I do not hope that at this age, I will be able to memorize, the sections of the constitution and recite my rights.

I just hoped that as a young child, I could have at least, been told, my basic rights in the easiest possible way, a young child could follow.

Had I learned some of my basic rights as a child, then maybe, things might not as be, as intimidating as they are for me, now.

So far as my right is concerned, what I know is just this : “another person’s right ends where the tip of someone else’s nose begins.”

Besides, if “ignorance of the law excuses no one”, then we must not remain ignorant – we must know our laws and our rights, too.

We should really all know our rights, even the basic ones and even at a young age. It would not hurt if the younger generation get a head start.

Perhaps today, there is a possibility of the preamble and the bill of rights, translated in its simplest form. Maybe something in literature form, fit for the consumption of a young child’s brain.

They have translated the bible into children’s bible stories, Shakespeare classics into “Young Children’s Read, ” and the Florante at Lauras, Nolis and Filis, too.

And then, maybe the future generation who would be serving this country would be more law-abiding than law breaking, guarding our taxes and not stealing them.

3, Earlier Appreciation for the Filipino Culture

First, I stand on the premise that being Filipino does not mean having to speak Filipino, fluently.

I have met foreigners, who had just recently learned the Filipino language, but they appreciate the people and the land, more than I do.

They even know places in this country that I have not been to. They have tried delicacies that I have not tasted or have known existed.

(Well, we know of many perfect “talumpati” happening at the lower and upper houses, as legislators express themselves through tagalog pirivilege speech. But how many of them, really love this country and appreciate its people?)

My command of “Tagalog” is weak. In my parents’ house, we converse in Cebuano.

Believe you me, one of the challenges I faced, when coming to Manila for college, was having to say “po” and “opo” at the end of my sentences. But there really is no equivalent for the words, “po” and “opo” , in my dialect.

I still pronounce, my letter e with the letter i , or my letter o with the letter u.

But I am not bothered anymore, with my thick Visayan accent, as I was ,when I was younger.

It does not make me less Filipino, for having mispronounced the Filipino language.

Besides, it will take a very long time for me, to perfect my Filipino –grammar, enunciation and all.

Second, I stand by the position that being Filipino, should not be about, having to patronize Filipino products ONLY.

Today, I use products and eat food that are both foreign and local.

In the same way that I dislike people, who use foreign brands only because, using locally made products would mean, ” too provincial”, or in their cruel words, “baduy.”

I am a proud Filipino because as I have said, I get the best of both worlds. Steak on one hand and fishball on the other, will both give me the happiness I need.

Experiencing both local and foreign products made me stand prouder of the sisig, the halo-halo, the bananas, the piña barong and the rattan products.

That should be the way to go.

We should be patronizing Filipino products, not because we are Filipinos but because we believe in the product and “bilib tayo sa pagkagawa nito at sa gumawa nito.” (or that it is superior in quality)

“Tangkilikin ang gawang atin, hindi dahil sa ito’y atin, pero dahil ito ay magaling – kayang makipagsabayan sa kahit ano, kahit kanino.”

And that should raise the bar a bit.

I wished I already appreciated being Filipino, even as a child. The “Appreciation for the Filipino Culture” that I wished I learned as a young child, extends beyond the language and the products.

I believe that over and above speaking Filipino or buying and eating Filipino products, it is very important that one has to have the heart, of being Filipino. (beauty pageant answer, up ahead)

As it was in Janine Tugonon‘s answer in the Miss Universe Pageant:

“For me Miss Universe is not about being able to speak a particular language, it’s about being able to influence and inspire other people. No matter what language you have as long as you have the heart you can inspire other people “.

When I was younger, there were many things about being Filipino that I used to be ashamed of. I had the preconceived notion that being Filipino was too rural.

There was a stage in my childhood when I struggled in embracing my being Filipino. I struggled with being kayumanggi. I never thought of it as beautiful.

While it was my acting talent that helped me snag the role of the witch, in a grade school play, Hansel and Gretel, I was partially convinced my being kayumanggi , had something to do with it.

(kayumanggi =witch)

In my adolescence years , I never would have thought of my skin color as attractive. In college, I religiously applied chin chun su, on my face and scrubbed kalamansi on my body.

Never had I felt it, as a compliment, when grown ups would say, I was “beautifully morena “ or that I was Pinay-looking.

I wish, I had a class in my childhood called, Filipino Culture Appreciation class.

It might have taught me that kayumanggi was indeed a beautiful color.

It would have made me cherish playing patintero, tago-tago, syato, and batin-batin, more.

(Again, I am not so sure ,what you call those games in the Filipino language.)

I would not have hidden the fact that I was an avid listener of the local radio station’s Teban and Goliath and “Handumanan Sa Usa ka Awit” .

Maybe, I would have not been ashamed, talking about those great voice talents, to some of my classmates, who did not have a clue, as to who and what they were.

I might have written more beautiful things about my country to my IYS pen friends.

I might have gladly mentioned, to my foreign pen friends that without even having to look, towards the northern sky, the big dipper and a small dipper, are visible in our own bathroom:

Later in my adulthood, I discovered what a happy lot Filipinos are and how beautiful this country really is.

Yes, my family used to own a pair of this gigantic wooden spoon and fork that we hang in our living room.

But this is me, this is how I was, I am and I will be.

Now, back to dipping my bread in my coffee…

I think those three, are necessary teachings, for children in this country -knowledge, I myself was not exposed to, when I was younger.

Those three things, I am now slowly teaching my six-year-old son.