Show Them How to Do It

In Matthew 19 verse 16 onward we can find a quite interesting story of a man who came up to Jesus and asked "Teacher, what must I do to obtain eternal life?" to which Jesus answered "If you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments" a vague answer I believe Jesus intended to be. The conversation went as planned by Jesus. The man replied that he keeps the commandment religiously since his childhood. Too proud indeed of him to say so so. Jesus finally gave his main answer to the question --- go sell your wealth and gave it to the poor then follow me. The young man left feeling low and dissatisfied because he has many possessions and cannot afford to lose it all.


In this short encounter of Jesus and the rich young man I have understood that every young man needs to be guided towards eternal life. Unless this is done, they will keep on wandering and stay out of focus to the real meaning of life. They will grow old in disappointment and anxiety.

Almost 90 percent of children who enter into grade school are clueless about life. It is totally acceptable. Children of ages 7 to 13 are not expected to understand nor ask philosophical matters concerning life and meaning. The elementary education was designed to offer a menu list of interests and areas of learning. The child will later on in one’s life decide which path among these disciplines to choose. The role of the teachers then is not simply to teach and promote areas of learning to pupils but also to cultivate proper decision making, self-discovery, employment of passion, and the desire to commit oneself in call to personal mission.

As early as grade school days, a child must be guided to find a reason to live. It doesn’t have to be solidly grounded on philosophical approach; rather candidly, the child must be nurtured in environments which display care, affection, and involvement. This part of a teacher’s job is what we call Mentoring. As a matter of fact, and I won’t lie to you, Mentoring is a big word. The connotation is that mentoring begins in late high school days or more popularly, college days. For some, who are really late in blooming, it can be at the on start of one’s career. However, after being a part of a grade school institution implementing a high standard for excellence, it dawned on me that Mentoring must be introduced as early as a child’s elementary education stage. The exposure to academic subjects remains the core of the teaching profession but also remember that the formation of their personal traits and integrity is more paramount.

This idea of honing character hand-in-hand with the intellect cannot be more evident than in today’s world. I have seen how different is the speed of cognitive enhancement taking place in today’s children more than it was twenty years ago. The presence of technological devices and easy access to global communication brought about by on line and on air media platforms contributed to this advanced intellectual capacity of millennial pupils. In line with these firsthand experiences supported by clinical and sociological researches, I can actually say that the inclusion of Mentors in a child’s growing up years is already a necessity more than just a luxury.

In America, and now even in the Philippines, one of the most intriguing deficiencies in the field of education is that students do not know who to believe. Even teachers themselves are losing plausible and salient credibility. Children’s primordial need in any learning facility is someone to believe. In my opinion, a Mentor is the most qualified person to believe in as far as childhood life is concerned. A mentor’s credibility surpasses the relative credibility of parents and family members since that a mentor is intellectually and educationally sound. A mentor, being non-relative of the child by blood must justly and objectively call the attention of a child in both positive and negative behavior. A mentor surpasses the benefits provided by friendly relationship since that childhood friendship is limited to classmates and playmates. The goal of friendship is companionship and camaraderie while mentoring is after the progressive human and personal development.

The sad fact is that the education sector often compromises this calling in lieu of professional respects. Due to the goal of calibrating teaching standards, personal mentoring which is mostly done through confidential relationship of the student and the teacher, is impeded. Each scholastic institution must conform to education laws and curricular prerequisites mandated by the government agencies such as the Department of Education, Department of Science and Technology, and even the Commission on Higher Education on the part collegiate education. Yes, even in college.

It is highly laudable that few academic institutions were able to manage complying with professional standards and at the same time attend to the vocational aspect of schooling which is to provide personal guidance to students particularly to those who might need special mentoring treatment. Nonetheless, it is not always the case. The education system by itself cannot be complete. It can only do so much. The child is first of all a son or a daughter. Their prime habitat is the home and not the school. Whatever effort the school tries to provide, if the lack of parental supervision opposes the process, then the child will not experience the maximum expected result. The formation in the household becomes a real scholastic partner instrument. If the parents, for any matter physical or intellectual, cannot perform the partnership role to their children then it is high time that we consider looking for a personal mentor.

In finding a mentor, let me suggests the following criteria and precautions;

First, it is more efficient that parents hire a mentor without definite tasking. In short, the relationship is personal and relational. Let the mentor occupy the place of a nanny, a grandparent, a teacher, a guard and a neighbor. This is the stage of Building Trust and Confidence. Always remember that the mentor is dealing with a pupil who is not entering teenage years yet. This very crucial and delicate relationship that parents are allowing the Mentor to build with their children is to be dealt with utmost vigilance and prudence. Hence, it is important that the following requirements are met before hiring a professional coach or mentor to supervise and affect a child’s growing years. Below are some of the criteria in finding a mentor;

Capacity --- Ask yourself; is this mentor competent enough to be my child’s mentor? Does this mentor possess knowledge and skills which will enable the child to learn in an environment of eminence and notoriety?

Integrity --- A mentor can be a pro or a diva in a particular field but that is not enough. It is also vital that your pre-selected mentor possesses righteous character and utmost responsibility over the vocation to which he or she responded. Fear of God carries a heavy weight in this section. Obviously, Filipino parents would want a godly mentor to hone their children.

Versatility --- The issue of commitment and competence are also aided by the ability of the chosen mentor to adapt in a certain system, norm, religious affiliation, ethnicity, generation, and cultural upbringing. Is this mentor willing to stretch his timeframe or his method in a way that will customize to the need of the child? Remember always that a formal schooling can provide a standardized method of learning which means, we are looking now at personal attention and pedantic coming from the child’s mentor.

These three abovementioned qualities are just the most fundamental criteria that every parent should look for in a home room mentor. It is quite a crucial role to entrust a person who is not even a relative so there are varied things that a parent must consider other than those three qualities. Again, this mentor is not an academic tutor and not even a sports coach. This personal mentor will be a formator of character and intellect. This mentor will act as an elder friend who will be involved in almost all dealings of a child’s life. In doing so, I am proposing that the mentor applies a Holistic Approach to Mentoring.

Holistic Mentoring is the type of mentoring which aims to provide a balanced program for growth in all aspects of human living. The primordial duty of holistic mentors is to ensure that no dimension of a child’s personal life will be left behind and design a workable coaching program which develops each aspect of human personality all at a time. We need a complete package personality for our child. This is not to undermine the fact that there is a specific gift distributed by God in every person. On the contrary, holistic mentoring widens the horizon of the child in order for that child to maximize all knowledge and skills that may contribute to that specific natural God-given ability. Holistic Mentoring is a win-win application.

Holistic Mentoring is biblical. This type of mentoring approach is patterned after the growth of Jesus as a young human person. In Luke 2 verse 52, Jesus was described to be a young man who grew up in age and wisdom in favor of God and men. First, Jesus grew in age which means he grew physiologically and biologically. He attended to all his bodily needs and matured in stature. Second, Jesus grew in wisdom which means he nourished his intellect too. He studied and learned language, culture, and craft. Jesus also grew up in a godly manner. It was said that he aged in favor of God and lastly in favor of man which means he knows how to relate to others. Jesus, therefore, is a holistically developed person, who is complete in his bio-physiological, intellectual, socio-emotional, and spiritual aspects.

The same type of growth is expected to those who want to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. Holistic development is a prerequisite for a person to love God completely. When Jesus was asked, in Mark 12 verses 28-30, by the scribe as to which among the commandments is the greatest, Jesus replied “Hear oh Israel, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.” To love God requires the totality of one’s being. The Bible recognizes that the human person is composed of these four essential faculties. May it be in Jesus’ personal life or in the commandment which Jesus posed for his disciples to follow, the importance of a balanced and complete personal development is vivid in the Gospel. So much so, the type of mentoring needed by everyone is a holistic type of mentoring. Mentoring for specific subject or area of development comes secondary. Every parent must be concerned not only of the academic performance of the child in school but also on how the child relates to others, how the child grows in physique form and in fitness, and more importantly on how the child maintains a personal consciousness of God’s presence in daily affairs.

The same thing must be true with the school curriculum and facility. It doesn’t mean that because a school is not a Christian or a religious affiliated school it will stop introducing the virtue of godliness. Communal worship and prayer life must also be thought of any school regardless of political and commercial reservations. The school must be innovative in their projects for nutrition and wellness. Sports facilities and equipment must be secured inside the campus premises. Artistic league and musical organizations are also advised to be included. It doesn’t mean that every student must be part of all these activities and competitions but the mere presence of these agencies and observance to how things are being done gives the student the desire to explore even on their own about those areas of life. It gives them a sense that participation to these departments is highly encouraged. And this is where the role of a personal mentor or parent comes in. When the child demand for a personal touch of those aspects of life and yet not ready to do it in the school setting, the home can become a safer workshop. Later, it is the mentor who will help the child discover upon thorough evaluation which among these crafts suit the child most. This is what we call as Career Path Endorsement.

It becomes clearer at this point that the agenda following all these ideas is to expose the child to all possible choices as early as grade school years so that when teenage years occur, the youngster already have a hierarchy of interests which allows him or her to save plenty of time because there is prioritization of schedules, money and efforts. It is because of this very salient point that I proposed in an informal gathering of educators including Attorney Aldrin Mark Quintana of Centro Escolar University and Professor Alex Ian Chavez STI College Pasay, a renewal of a vintage mentoring method which is called Shadow Discipleship. Once the student already made a decision to pursue a certain area of learning or field of interest, the teacher or coach will devote time to keep the mentee within a period of observation. The mentor will be doing the same routine and all the student has to do is to watch and keep observing the process on how things are done until the time one is ready to do so. In short, the mentee becomes a shadow.

The Shadow Method, I believe is the matriarch of today’s internship program. However, scholastic system has made internship a rather sophisticated collegiate program and focused on making a student more involved in the workplace rather than being a spectator of a prodigy. I always believe that exposure is not just blending a person in a particular machinery. Exposure is a process which begins by;

1. Perception --- the process always begin by seeing it through the naked eye.

2. Conversation --- listening and talking to people who do the work before actually delving into the work itself. It is a form of gathering information.

3. Recollection --- the time to process all information and sort out all the necessary experiences, keep it in memory and dispose the unnecessary remembrances.

Once true exposure already happened, the young one is 80% ready to do the field work. It is not a hundred percent guarantee because there has to be some extra space left for other concerns that may be unique in each cases. However, showing the people how to do it is almost as good as a hundred percent success. Three institutions ought to go hand-in-hand to make all these happen; the home, the school, and the holistic mentor. Everyone needs to be open to the ever changing ways of development specially in the formation of millennial character. As in the lyrics from a Whitney Houston song “…show them all the beauty they possess inside”, it is our duty to be optimistic about our children-student-mentee so that at the end we can “let them lead the way”.

Birth and Feast and Passing

Cycle of life we know is so much familiar, normal, and natural yet mysterious and unfathomable. In every corners of the world one will never fail to find a new father and mother enjoying the birth of a new infant yet in another place is a pile of grieving clan who survived the dead of a loved one.

Reaching old age is really a reason for having a party. Some may not be able to spend another year in fullness of biological prowess. Today, our big family is throwing a party for my aunt who has reached the age of 80. On the other side of our life, the Philippines still coping for the lost of our Master Showman and star builder --- Kuya Germs.

Kuya Germs is such a permanent fixture in our entertainment industry that I have never thought of him dying. I felt before like he will be here forever. But life is not like that. At certain point it has to end. It is so sad that he has left us but seeing the multitude of stars he had built all too long ago up to now, we are sure he definitely have served his purpose.

I have tried my best earlier to make it in Kuya Germs wake but my body was too tired after the long trip from Laguna to Quezon City. What's even more of a regret is that I am also absent in my Aunt's birthday party.

Kuya Germs died early in the morning of January 8. That Friday is also the eve for the annual commemoration of Traslación which is January 9. The entirety of Manila is in full preparation for the event. The ambiance of that Friday was quite paradoxical. I went home to Laguna that afternoon so I won't be affected by the traffic trouble. Then I was wrong because even in EDSA traffic scheme was affected. I reached home at around 11pm.

By Saturday morning, all news are either about the Quiapo Church event or Kuya Germs. I was really feeling sorry for this generation who won't be able to learn about Kuya Germs as he live. That includes my nephew, Daniell Coby and the newly born child of Judy Ann and Ryan who was born on the same day Kuya Germs died. How mysterious is new life and sudden death. How paradoxical is the presence of death in the world which strives to fight for life, a world which valued life?

That Saturday, I spent the entire daytime taking care of Coby and treasuring every single minute that I can make him feel how well loved he is by his uncle. It was so nice and refreshing to be home. Now, back in Manila I am asking God for sufficient grace to face the pressure of labor. Yes, the mission is arduous and only by the grace of God can I carry it out.

I am still planning of making it to Mount Carmel Church where Kuya Germs is laid for public viewing. I am also in oneness with my family in the happiness for my aunt reaching old age. If possible too, I want to watch ‪#‎WalangForever‬ in movie house as a treat to myself.

In such a way, we still cannot fathom life. Its new sprout and even the old age death. Oh I remember, January 8 is also Jan Jan's birthday.

Breaking My Record

I just broke my own record this New Year. I ate rice last New Year's Day. For twenty years I didn't eat rice on a New Year's Day. It is because it is a day filled a lot of other foods that I just enjoy eating meat and pasta and salad. So for twenty years I made it a point to not eat rice every January 1 as part of a personal tradition. This year I ate rice because Ron cooked really good and yummy I can't even help myself from eating rice with his adobo-a-la-pininyahan.

Breaking record has been a habit of many countries now even during New Year's Eve. Almost all countries specially the Philippines in our case wants to be in a world record for something. Sometimes we need to rethink what is the premium in holding world record events.

Last December, the Philippines was in awe because we broke our 42 year record of not winning in the Miss Universe. Pia Wurtzbach won us a title as our third Miss Universe from the Philippines. It was a source of jubilation throughout the Christmas break. Everyone is talking about since that the announcement of winner is not only record breaking, it was even controversial. Steve Harvey made a terrible mistake of announcing Miss Colombia as the winner instead of Miss Philippines.

Everybody considers Pian now as a hero though however, prior to her winning the crown, Pia was bashed many times and even harshly in social media after she tweeted something oozingly confident last May. The tweet goes like this;

"Kalma lang guys. Ako bahala. Babawi tayo sa Miss Universe!!"

She was judged by others as overconfident and thought that her comment was unnecessary and untimely after the Filipino nation felt frustrated of Manny Pacquiao losing to Mayweather who by the was has no one to break his clean record of zero lost in professional boxing.

Almost nobody believed Pia at that point but she was confidently beautiful even before she joined the pageant she was claiming victory which is an attitude of a winner. And true enough, what she said was a prophecy of her own fate. Pia won as the 2015 Miss Universe.

What record do we need to break really? Does it have any worth on our becoming?

Pia proved it to us that breaking a record is good. How about Mayweather? Will it do him or the world any good if he remained undefeated in Boxing? Is he a hero for what now?


_________________________________________________

Yesterday during the MT Meeting in Sucat I was able to reflect on who is the real undefeated. The kinds of Secretary Jesse Robredo whose clean record speaks for itself. Unlike the number of winning and belts that Mayweather has, Robredo's record is not quantifiable. His clean record is about quality more than the numbers. And the same thing is true with our dear Sir Roy Algo who passed away last December. His record is amazing. Just like Robredo, the vacancy he left is a very big shoe to fill not only for the drum teacher who will eventually succeed him but to the assistant leader who survived him. Stepping up now to where Sir Roy used to be is a challenge more than it is a victory.

Nonetheless, Sir Roy's inspiring teaching career and meaningful life brings to me a lesson since that I am a new comer in the field of music education. He is leaving all up to our shoulders now, the new generation of music instructors. I know there is so much to learn from all this as I prepare myself for the entire year of laborious seasons.

I think, another record has to be broken.

In all of these, may God continue to bless us.

Here We Go Again

The year is young.
Yes it is the New Year and I intended to once again, after the long wait, to open this blog so that I can update the world on what exciting things are happening now in my life.

2015 has been nothing but good to me. It is my fault, mea culpa, that I did not blog about that year. This year, 2016, I am hoping that things will even be better than the greatness of 2015. As a proof to that confidence, I decided to write on this blog again. I hope that I will remain faithful to delivering raw my experiences, but more than that, I hope I will be able to shed more lights informing and educating more people. So much so, I am also dreaming of saving souls through my essays and reflections about the Gospel.

I am really excited of being here back to the world of blogging. I am hoping to share as much stories as I can about life.

Let's Rock 2016 now.

Continue reading and learning from here. !!!!

;=} ;=} ;=}

Above are just some of the most memorable moments that happened last 2015. I wish I can outdo the happiness brought by the previous year. let me now recall the highlights of 2015 in a nutshell.

2015 Highlights

1. I became part of the Victory San Pablo cell group for single male attendee. It is a great fellowship where I gained a number of friends from the faithful department and it was amazing.

2. That summer when I spent the Holy Week with my best friend is one of the biggest gifts I received for 2015. I rushed to manila from laguna and spent three glorious days with Aizee and other friends.

3. My sister successfully arrived and got a good job in Abu Dhabi U.A.E. which is a blessing to our family in terms of material resource. It is because of my sister that I do have my new phone now. So thank you really!

4. The formation of Mentor's Hub which initially was launched by my CBF friends. i am really thankful to Joy, Leonel, and Victor for the assistance and for showing me ahead of time the possible challenges that may occur in my leadership for millennial mentors.

5. My being part of the ZPMI Family where I now work as a Voice Teacher. The bonus of this blessing is that I got to work with a boss who possesses true integrity and whose visions are almost identical to mine in terms of music education. I am so proud to be part of ZPMI since it is a Christian company which really strives for excellence. Aw! I met a lot of new friends and potential mentors. Sad though that one of them had to leave me so soon. Sir Roy who became one of my best advisers as a team leader died just before the year ended. His life is one huge of a blessing.

6. My assignment to Lourdes School of Quezon City as Voice Teacher and as Moderator for elective music class. I believe the greatest surprise that God allowed me to experience for 2015 is to be with the best of students in music and the best community of faculty and administration in a Catholic setting.

So many things and to all of these I am really grateful. I pray that we all surpass the blessings received for 2015 and have the best 2016 of our lives.