Dr Abe V Rotor
Lesson, Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (School-on-air)
Monday to Friday www.pbs.gov.ph
Here is a beautiful poem to start the lesson. If you will recall, those of you who saw the movie, The King and I, Anna the English teacher sang a part of the song. It was typical in her time when Europeans left their home in search of a new one at the other side of the globe, many of them pioneers in the New World, which was to become the United States of America. Others found the Orient, and for Teacher Anna, it was a special arrangement for her to serve the King of Siam (Thailand) as tutor to his many children.
To us Filipinos, the song stirs the heart as well. Thousands leave their native land, their homes and families in search for opportunities as OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers), and migrants, many of them never to return, except on brief visits as balikbayan.
Fortunately OFWs remit a large part of their earnings back home to their loved one, enabling them to build a house or improve the dwelling they left, supporting their children to acquire education, and to a significant extent, starting a local business for the family. Such opportunities are rare and we are fortunately for it. It is the remittances which average $1 billion dollars a month that is saving our national economy today.
Both external and internal generation of resources in the hands of the citizen is crucial to progress. To be practical about it, material progress is necessary. It is a bridge to a better standard of living. It is a tool in making a happy home and family.
This lesson explores the many ways we can create a happy home and family.
Home Sweet Home
John Howard Payne
Music by Henry Rowley Bishop (1786-1855)
(Arranged for the violin and piano by Henry Farmer)
‘Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home;
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,
Which seek through the world, is ne’er met with elsewhere.
Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home!
An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain;
O, give me my lowly thatched cottage again!
The birds singingly gaily, that came to my call –
Give me them – and the peace of mind, dearer than all.
Home, Home sweet, sweet Home.
There’s no place like Home! There’s no place like Home!
We are a country of peaceful people, lovers of pets, united in family and faith. We are a country of OFWs, wanderers, migrants and the balikbayan. We are divided in many ways.
• Spouses
• Babies, mothers
• Father, mother
• Parents, children
• Siblings
• Uncles, aunties
• Grandparents, grandchildren
• Lovers, friends, neighbors
• Classmates, town mates
• Masters, pets
Divided we may be – and apparently increasingly everyday. Yet the spirit is never weak, it binds people through distance and time. The spirit of longing and belonging is but one.~
Continued...
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