National Women's Month March 2024 Theme: “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.” Features San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

National Women's Month March 2024 Theme: 

“Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity 

and Inclusion.” 

Featuring the Women of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Dr Abe V Rotor

AUTHOR'S NOTE: These featured personalities are among a good number of woman-citizens in different fields of endeavor, who likewise deserve recognition for their various contributions in helping build a prestigious image and reputation of San Vicente, declared Heritage Zone of the North under Republic Act No. 11645.  

1. Sister Mamerta: A Religious and Scientist
2. Maestra Caridad Rocero-Lazo:  Model Mother and Teacher
3. Marian Rocero Lazo: Care for the elderly in the family in our postmodern world 

4. GRETA (The Pearl) - Greta Mario Manlapig

5.  Beatriz R Riotoc: Challenges in Education in an Integrated School

6. Francisca Trinidad, SPC - "Manang Madre"

7. Virginia Lagasca - Centenarian and WWII Veteran

ANNEX -  Apo Baket' - Keeper of Time-Honored Tradition and Values

1. Sister Mamerta: A Religious and Scientist 
Dr. Abe V. Rotor

Sister Mamerta Rocero SPC, holds a doctoral degree in biology (PhD Biology, meritissimus) from the University of Santo Tomas. Her dissertation, "Ethnobotany of the Itawes." was published by the National Museum. It explored extensively the importance of plants to the ethnic community as food, medicine, among other uses, their significance to rituals and beliefs, notwithstanding.

Author with Sister Mamerta Rocero, SPC, PhD

“The undulating valley below,

The river serpentine, a moving silver sheen,

Take my breath away in the ecstasy of their beauty,

Because You are in them, Lord.”

- Sister Mamerta Rocero
Because You are in Them, Lord

Close your eyes and you can see the imagery – that inner mind, in the quaintness of Amorsolo, stillness of Corot, freshness of Renoir, faithfulness of Rembrandt and passion of Van Gogh.

Yet it is the last line that gives meaning to all these attributes – Because You are in them, Lord. It is submission, reverence; it is prayer.

Sister Mamerta, being a religious, takes us to fathom deeper the meaning of a poem. Shakespeare is perhaps the ultimate in classical style and richness of words – she can’t compare with that. The Brownings may be the most romantic in the world of poetry – she may fall short of that, too. Edgar Allan Poe’s abandon (Annabelle), Lord Byron’s melody, Whitman’s vernacular – her poems may only have a shade of these. But she exudes here and there Alexander Pope’s morals (A little learning is a dangerous thing), Robert Frost’s simplicity (And miles to go before I sleep…), Longfellow’s values (The Arrow and the Song), and Shelley’s musical lines (To a Skylark).

She can take you to meditation like in Thomas Gray’s masterpiece, Elegy on a Country Churchyard. Her poetry, like John Keat’s, possesses an urgent cause and awareness that beauty exists in a world “where pain is never done.” Yet unlike this medieval English poet, Sister Mamerta finds hope, radiating hope to any suffering.

"I meet the poor, the suffering,

the abandoned, the unwanted –

And my heart, deeply touched,

Goes out to them –

Because You are in them, Lord."

She may not all agree of grace falling down like manna from heaven. The moral is her poetry is for man to find God, for He is everywhere. But who is this God in her poetry? It is a universal God of goodness, goodness in the true sense of Christian philosophy, Christianity in action. It is the essence of the Messiah, of Matthew 25 (What you have done to the least your brethren, you have done it to me.)

You may find Him hidden in some abandoned hospital ward…

He may be the shrunken little woman, sitting all alone…

Nay, He may be the frustrated man with ambitions thwarted,

Or the humbled rich so suddenly bereft of his great wealth.

And so, you will find the Lord, not amidst glitter and wealth.

- Sis. Mamerta Rocero
Recognize Him

Browsing over her poems, one is lead to think that ours is a fatalistic world. Artists generally are like that. The more they perceive their subject to the core, the more intense their expression becomes. Suffering is dominant ingredient of art, and one can unmistakably perceive its expression, say in Eugene de la Croix’s colors of black and red in Victory Leads the People, or in Pablo Picasso’s plaza mural, Guernica that inflamed a revolution in the Basque territory of Spain, his mother country. One is familiar of course with Vincent van Gogh’s painting of Starry Night, which was transcribed into a song – Vincent - more than a century after his death.

Gleaming on the lighter side, our poetess exudes the touch of naturalism, the healing secret of a doctor who attends kindly to her patient, whose assurance for recovery comes first before the book and technology. She draws imagery from the inner self where tranquility resides – and springs in times of haste and trouble.

“The mountains before me –

majestic, verdant-hued,

their cascading, glistening falls,

envelope me with awe

and sheer wonder…”

Sister Mamerta is a living witness of man’s inhumanity to man during the Second World War. But you can only glimpse like through a keyhole the sufferings of war in her writings. It takes a contrite yet courageous heart to take the road to forgiveness and bury the past. Yet she warns that history has the capability of repeating itself, and shares with Wilfred Owen’s The Pity of War or Ernest Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms, the tragedies of Shakespearean dramas, notwithstanding.

How about the pessimism of Matthew Arnolds who foresaw the dark side of industrialization that molded our modern world?    Arnolds laments -

"To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night."

- Matthew Arnold
Dover Beach

How frail is human! But how does Sister Mamerta look at this prophesy-come-true? This is what divides the grains - whole and broken. More people see the broken grains of life. No, not our Paulinian laureate. “I would rather look at John Donne,” she said. Donne wrote, encompassing the heritage he left to the world. When somebody dies, a little in each of us also dies – because humanity is interrelated, it is one.

And from here Sister Mamerta, riding on Donne’s philosophy almost always makes reference to afterlife. She is at the forefront of values formation and reformation, while writers most often talk about here and now, of this earthly life, its realities and fantasies. True to her mission as a Paulinian, she believes that one must prepare his soul’s journey to everlasting life. But earn he must, for neither by a Tower of Babel nor material affluence can one be able to reach that beautiful destiny. The mortal part of our being, is but the springboard to this great, remarkable travel, which all peoples - irrespective of culture and religion – firmly believe in. This is universal faith that binds the human species. The core of our being as Homo sapiens is therefore, our spirituality.

"You’ve need to ask His grace and His spirit of enlightenment,
If you have to pierce through the clouds hiding Him from view -
But the reward is great – He is there waiting to embrace you!"

Indeed, an unsung saint has spoken in the beauty of poetry and in the peace of a cloistered life, candle light streaming through the convent’s window. Out there the wind blows and blows on some mountain tops and down into the valley. And dawn is a child. ~

Author’s Note: This article is dedicated to the memory of Sister Mamerta Rocero, SPC, who died on January 7, 2009 at the age of 93. This is a critique of her poems and verses which I obliged upon her request five years before her death.~


Note: Sister Mamerta wrote eight books: two in poetry, two essays (Talking with God and His Friends, and God Bless the Family), a compilation of her speeches, a biography of her late sister, Sister Mary Nathaniel Rocero, SPC, also a Ph.D. holder, (My Sister Mary Nath), and several scientific papers. Ethnobotany of the Itawes, her doctoral dissertation earned the honor of meritissimus from the University of Santo Tomas. It was published by the National Museum in 1985. I have known Sister Mamerta since I was a child in our hometown, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. She and my father were cousins on the maternal side, Roberonta. ~

2. Maestra Caridad Rocero-Lazo

- Model Mother and Teacher

"If angels search for a most precious thing,
        It is a teacher, the monument builder,
the mother in school and home, epitome 

       and bridge of the young and the elder." - avr 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Author, former Grade III pupil of Auntie Caring, 

at San Vicente (IS) parish church in 2012.

Three generations, this great teacher taught:

    in her own, mine and the present time;

and teaching still the lesson of life,

    in her golden sunset, across the clime. 

Under thatched roof and battered wall, 

    from the ash of war a Phoenix rose,

she said, "Peace with hope conquers all,"

    and we tread on the right path she chose.

That was long time ago in fresh memory,

    from blackboard to traversing cyberspace,

and looking back the sage in her beams

    to say "Just look back awhile in a race."

Wisdom truly is to hold on tradition 

    as the world goes round - to anchor change

to hold on to life's meaning than adrift,

    floating with neither a goal nor range. 

  

Philosophy to hold on to search for why,

    knowledge to skill transformed, what to how;

the course of events’ periodicity, history,

    that made great men, values then and now.

Strange these are to the mind and heart

    of the young that we were then, and today,

the crucible of teaching that makes heroes

    though unknown, rings triumphant someday.

What among lessons is truest yet sublime?

    we look back who molded us a living clay;

herself the tutor and model, ‘til all of us

    cured and hardened to the hour and day.    

   

If angels search for a most precious thing,

    It is a teacher, the monument builder,

the mother in school and home, epitome

   and bridge of the young and the elder. ~  

What makes a universal teacher?

Years passed since Maestra Caring was my teacher in Grade 3 at the San Vicente Central Elementary School. Sixty five years ago to be exact, and I too, became a teacher. I learned what qualities a teacher must have in order to be effective, and recognized as outstanding. I based my findings on those of a joint research project of CHED and the National Council of Educational Innovators (NCEI), with the support of non-governmental organizations and various colleges and universities. The first aspect I came across are the four areas of expertise as an outstanding teacher.

1. Subject matter expertise, which means that the teacher has a mastery of content-specific knowledge and the organization of this knowledge for effective instruction.

2. Classroom management expertise, that is, the teacher maintains a high level of on-task students’ classroom behavior, which prevents or eliminates learning disruptions, while it creates an environment conducive to learning.

3. Instructional expertise, which means that the teacher has both implicit and explicit knowledge on various teaching strategies and methods to attain pre-defined instructional objectives.

4. Diagnostic expertise, which refers to the ability of the teacher to know both the class and individual needs and goals, abilities, achievement levels, motives, personality attributes, and emotions, which influence instruction and learning.

Maestra Caring demonstrated all these areas of expertise on a high plane few teachers can equal. She was able to elevate her expertise by advocating on certain educational philosophies which she knew well how to balance each one as the situation and need would arise.

The first is eclectic* educational philosophy, which means that the teacher does not subscribe to just one philosophy; she shifts her roles from being a facilitator of learning to a transmitter and interpreter of knowledge. While at times she may be a perennialist** – one who is an authority in the classroom, transmitting and interpreting knowledge.

As a realist she focuses on the here and now, stressing knowledge as how it is applied or observed. For example the laws of nature are better understood through observation and research, more so with an outdoor setting.

As an idealist she views education as a means of developing students’ intellectual abilities. Influenced by the Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato. She stresses the importance of logic and philosophy.

Holistic Mentor-Learner Interaction

The key to effectiveness in teaching is a holistic approach whereby there is a mutual and orderly interaction in the teaching-learning process, with the teacher placing a high premium on the development of thinking and understanding. Educators attribute teaching expertise to the teachers’ affectionate interactions with the learners, and to their efforts towards developing learners’ responsibility for learning. There are of course many other factors that influence effectiveness in teaching because of the wide diversity in culture, affected by certain economic, ecological and political conditions.

Today’s criteria of an outstanding teacher may be on the extent of educational preparation, preferably one with a masteral or doctoral degree holder, the use of modern teaching and management tools, and the prestige of the institution she represents. Not in Maestra Caring’s time. WWII had just ended. The Phoenix had just risen from the ashes of war, so to speak. Things were simple if not rare. This was the greatest test of a teacher.

Looking back through the years, I realized that the attributes of a teacher – true and devoted to her vocation – lie on just simple things.

· Logical and creative thinking, the left and right brain in perfect balance

and tandem.

· Demonstration as model personal virtues and character that nurture

favorable teacher-student relationship;

· Drawing inspiration from within and outside the school, from members

of her family and community.

· Positive and cheerful disposition in pursuit of goodness and service as

a guardian guided by the wisdom and humility of the Good Shepherd.

Because of Maestra Caring, I strive to be a teacher too, so with many other disciples, and follow her footsteps all the way.~

3.  Marian Rocero Lazo

Care for the elderly in the family in our postmodern world 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Demographic pattern, in the absence of devastating global conflict since WW II, has vastly changed: the young have broadened the base of the pyramid, while the old have pushed its apex to greater heights, both at an unprecedented rate – these being traced to population's rapid growth,  and increasing life span or longevity.  

  

Marian poses with her mother, Mrs Caridad Rocero Lazo, then 101 years old, at their home in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

The world is getting older and older each day; longevity has increased virtually two folds since then.  Traditionally the old used to take care of the young; now the able ones must take care of their old folks. The world must adjust and learn to accept this inevitable reversal of roles soon enough in order to save the integrity and role of the family;

Longevity is not only the extension of life span, but adding active years in one’s life, the postponement of retirement itself. By Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self-fulfillment and actualization become the prize of longevity, an opportunity of man to express ultimate respect and worthiness to his Creator;

Mother – generic address to anything akin to a real mother: Mother Earth, Motherboard, Motherland, Mother Formula, and the like; yet the term is often taken for granted, blamed for fault, desecrated in profanity. Yet the gene prevails, carried on generation after generation, ad infinitum;

Mother and Child – once the most revered piece of art from painting to tapestry to photography used to be found virtually everywhere since the Renaissance, a bond across beliefs, cultures and generations. Wonder what can replace the image, more so the reverence, piety, love and happiness it conveys!

Love in its ideal essence is reciprocal from birth to death, encompassing three stages of life – and beyond. This is the timelessness of love, the exemplary love and passion of Nightingale, Browning, Wilcox, St Mother Teresa, and innumerable “unknown soldiers” of humanity immortalized in history and kept alive in faith and hope;

Tested by ambition and opportunity, war and survival, ideals and imperfections of society, a family clings on values to keep wholeness and sanity, where wisdom of the old folks takes the backseat, while change takes their children to unknown frontiers;

Quo vadis? Where forth do they go? The old counting the hours, the young the years; the old on rocking chair, the young on swivel chair; the old writing memoirs, the young planning ahead. Incompatibility separates generations, where has love between them gone? In some corner an old recites a prayer - what could it be?  

It is a prayer transformed into blessing every time someone takes her hand and presses it on his or her forehead, calls her lola, and gives the primordial hug that cuts through time, that brings back the happy memories and make them immortal, submits to nature’s periodicity and God’s gift of creation;

The newest social invention - Home for the Aged, is hailed a second home, but whose home? Wonder if this is the family’s final end, if the home is like a bird’s nest torn and blown away, and the mother gone soon after her brood has learned to fly away, each sibling to its own;

Home in a high rise condo - how cold, how dearth the naturalness of a rural home! Imprisoned within walls, hanging above the city, buried in smog, old folks in dirgeful chime of the clock wait for the final hour, wondering if their children would drop by for a visit, or simply send a greeting on the Internet;

Abandoned in her sunset years, a mother sadly waits for the curtain of life to close, yet to her very last breath calls inaudibly with tears running through the furrows the years have made – names familiar, lovely, in prayerful reminiscences;

Engraved on stone graying by forgetfulness and overgrown by weeds hides a name, once sweet and tender as the first word of a baby – how time has undermined the essence of Mother and Child like a passing wind!

“Unang yakap - Huling yakap” (first embrace - last embrace) are the most significant moments in the life of a family.

Wonder what The Good Life is all about without unity and harmony within the family! It cannot be just a product of science and technology, or so-called progress, of postmodernism which is “living in advance”. These are but material things that cannot be equated with the wholeness of the family;

Growing old is not pain of loneliness and sense of abandon.  On the other hand comfort and joy, as the last rays of life, like a burning candle is brightest before dawn, shortly thereafter comes the glow that heralds another day.  

Scenario: a kindly lady standing firm and resolved, who has unconditionally dedicated her life to taking care of her mother, then past one hundred years old. She has opened an unconventional, yet primordial, field of heroism, addressing millions and millions all over the world, in our postmodern way of living:  Take Care of the Elderly in the Family.   

Marian at 65, peacefully contemplates over contemporary and modern paintings of the author which are reflective of  today’s fast evolving society.  

Miss Marian Rocero Lazo holds two degrees (BSE and AB) from St Paul College Manila, and pursued advance studies while teaching in her alma mater and at Jose P Laurel High School in Manila for 23 years. She joined the faculty of St Paul College of Ilocos Sur in order to be near her old mother, a former public school teacher. (The author was  pupil of Marian's mother in Grade 3 at San Vicente Central Elementary School just after WWII.) Maan as she is fondly called is the third in a family of eight siblings who are all professionals. Her father, the late Angel Lazo, was also a teacher. She had two aunties – Sr Mamerta Rocero spc, and Sr Nathaniel Rocero spc, both doctoral degree holders in science and education.

On and off campus Marian has been involved in various activities during the transition period of the new curriculum (K12), in values formation through community service and catechism. She is an advocate of youth development through values formation.

At home is Marian - the nurse, therapist, dutiful daughter, loving, caring, and whatever wonderful words one can describe the multi-task role of Marian. Two worlds has she, two roles she plays, two blessings she deserves – a loving family and a successful career, two generations she serves (plus the youngest generation of today – Phoenix Generation) - all these are rolled into one super woman. 

Auntie Caring, as I always call Maan’s mom, being a relative on the Roberonta side, is a gem of our town. She is not only a model teacher, but a universal teacher – a title I wrote in a feature story about her. As a veteran of WWII, she is regarded a patriot for standing firm against the desecration of the Philippine flag, for which she was honored hero in her funeral.  Behind all these accomplishments is a humble daughter, equally honorable and worthy of emulation the world over. ~ 

Marian with relatives pray before an icon of the Resurrection at the author’s home art gallery in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.

* San Vicente Ilocos Sur to the World Series feature is In celebration of Mother's Day May 9, 2021

3. GRETA – The Pearl

Greta Mario Manlapig

Humility is symbolized by the pearl, the way it was created by Nature, within it is peace and like the heart it throbs, the source of its glow and luster, and message when hope dims, “Don’t fear, don’t regret. Treat yourself well. Don’t let yourself become miserable.  Be happy and thankful!”

                                                                       Dr Abe V Rotor

 

Greta M Manlapig in her younger days; a living wall of honors and joyful memorabilia at her residence in QC.

“Greta, a name that sweeps the gymnast floor, reverberates in roar and applause, breath-taking so swift the whole scene in a rarefied atmosphere flashed like passing wind, defining the finest body language in sports - gymnastics;”

Gymnastics, the ultimate test of balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, endurance and control – of alertness, precision, daring, the lesser would cower - – but not Greta who stood tall on the pedestal, the champion ;

Greta carried the torch to the ASEAN regional meet, shoulder to shoulder with other champions of the world raised the flame of international competition, not merely in the test of skills, but in strengthening the bond of member- countries; 

There is a spring, an eternal spring, the source of such great achievement, Greta the pioneer blazed the trail of an expanding metropolis with other pathfinders, founders of the Lagro Elementary School and later the Lagro High School;

Primordium, the seed of any social institution to Greta, is based on “nature and nurture principle” yielding the true harvest of The Sower, under the ambiance of a beautiful family and home, she as model wife, mother and community leader; 

If effective leadership is gauged through sacrifice and altruism, Greta would attest to that as teacher, coordinator, organizer, weaving the threads that secured the institutions now serving thousands of students, hundreds of teachers, the community as a whole;

Like the pearl, layer after layer, in brilliant luster, with varying tints, this gem grows with time, ever patient and understanding, Greta the guardian, preferred over residency in New York, to stay put here with her brainchild, in three generations now; 

Greta writes a column in the Greater Lagro Gazette, she too, is a pioneer in community journalism - Enjoying where you are – an experiential- spiritual approach to keep traditional values in the midst of inevitable change; 

Moralism in postmodern times, our era today with three generations in a chain, yet divided in domicile and transience, by opportunities, travel and affluence, confronts Greta in her golden years of life, yet unyielding to move out of the frontline; 

In Enjoying where you are, Greta does not settle on neutrality, but only for the truth, never to, Go gentle into the night, but Rage, rage, rage, in the power of the pen, in the tradition of the elders, in the righteousness of formative conscience, in Carpe diem; 

Carpe diem - seize the moment - while the clay mold is still fresh, love and be loved, smile, share your time with others, connect with old and young alike, keep memories fresh in laughter, reflection, and affection – to Greta these are lessons to live by.

The dichotomy of aging – its biological inevitability and its golden rays of wisdom and counsel – makes life truly holistic and fulfilled, to Greta ageing is also reaping the greatest gifts of the Great Maker, gifts He gave though mostly were never asked;

To Greta these gifts are graces on condition they are reciprocated by goodness which she traces from childhood, from a large brood, a wholesome family, strict parents ruled by values of old, in a hometown where San Vicente Ferrer, one of the most learned saint is venerated;

It is a small municipality, now suburb of Metropolitan Vigan, seat of fine art (painting, sculpture), crafts (carpentry), vegetable bowl (cabbage, cauliflower, onion), above all, likened to a little Florence, a Renaissance center of arts, music, tradition, religious vocation, and various careers; 

All professionals Greta takes pride of her family and clan in the fields of education, medicine, law, business, and others – models for today’s millennials and Igens (social media generation) - she, like Storming of the Bastille, raises the flag still - 

Her arms, tired like Moses’ in the battle of good over evil, are sustained by her philosophy, that life must go on, never to surrender to a cause, gargantuan it may be, and the pearl, like a candle throughout the night, sends its brightest glow before dawn; 

The pearl is an all-seeing eye, a symbol of divine omniscience and not sinister influence, its subdued radiance and luster humbles all stones because it speaks of humility - humility that cautions the world from chartless, drastic and unbridled change;

Humility is symbolized by the pearl, the way it was created by Nature, within it is peace and like the heart it throbs, the source of its glow and luster, and message when hope dims, “Don’t fear, don’t regret. Treat yourself well. Don’t let yourself miserable. Be happy and thankful!”

Enjoying where you are speaks: there is no retirement of the mind, heart and spirit, true to Greta’s gemstone its eternal flame speaks of immortality, in a Holy Triad of Connectivity with fellowmen, Nature, and a benevolent and omnipotent God, which is the basic pattern of all great religions;

Immortality is never losing the person whose life is an icon, whose thoughts touched the thoughts of others, her heart compassionate, her reverence and trust in God like Job, her family carrying the gifted genetic line and strict discipline expressed in the way Greta lives – that others may also live this way. ~

NOTE: Greta and the author are natives of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. Their parents were contemporaries, so with the siblings of Greta and the author.  

5. Miss Beatriz R Riotoc

                         Principal, San Vicente Ilocos Sur Integrated School. 

                     Challenges in Education in an Integrated School

Dr Abe V Rotor

  

A memorable visit to the school where I finished elementary education in 1953. Receiving the books I authored for the school library are Miss Retoria Riotoc (center), principal and Miss Seferina T Reclusado, master teacher. Right: With a sense of gratitude I presented the award I received - the 2015 prestigious 2015 Fr Jose Burgos Achievement Award, an honor I share with my alma mater.  NOTE: Miss Riotoc has been recently assigned back to SVIS as school principal, a post she held for many years.

In defining a principal in our time, some seventy years ago, he was strict, in fact very strict, the mere mention of his name, made an erring pupil virtually sweat out of fear. For the word by itself was associated with strict discipline. He was the like of Mr. Sebastian Ruelos, our principal then, who believed that the school is but a step away from home, and the teachers are the alter ego of parents.  It was not unusual to see him carrying a symbolic stick in his daily routine on the campus.

      

San Vicente Integrated School today as it was during my time some seventy years ago - same building, same playground. Where has education changed and gone? One can only surmise what lies ahead for these school children. It is the duty of us, we who have spent the formative years of our lives in this school, to guide our younger brothers and sisters, our children, and grand children.     

The picture of a principal has changed in many ways since then.  She is the like of Miss Beatriz Retoria Riotoc today.  She represents the women dominated field of education, earning her way to the top with a deep commitment to the teaching profession as a vocation to the point of considering teaching as a ministry. It is on this level that one like her is committed to a personal educational philosophy. 

But to understand ones philosophy in life and career, you must draw out the threads from a ball of years-long experience, so to speak, about the person. It is not an easy diagnostic research, since many teachers, particularly the younger ones have yet to develop a particular philosophy clearly their own. Educators call this eclectic, a transitional kind of philosophy, characterized by the adoption of various methodologies - personal and adapted – with the end in view of attaining a particular objective or goal.

An integrated school has the elementary and secondary levels combined into a continuous system; whereas, in the conventional system, elementary and high school are separate entities. Under the new curriculum (K to 12), San Vicente Integrated School presently has 548 pupils in the elementary (Kinder to Grade 6) and 247 in the secondary (Grade 7 to 14), assigned to 35 teachers, 24 in the elementary and 11 in the secondary. (Data not updated)

On the other hand, there are teachers identified as perenialists or authoritarian in their field of expertise and methodologies. But with the expanding fields of education more and more teachers are pursuing other philosophies such as realism, idealism, and existentialism.

Miss Riotoc, for one, is a realist, and an idealist as well. This can be traced to her background having been raised in a rural community, by a close-knit family where work, education and discipline are primordial values. She is a product of private and religious institutions (St. Paul College of Ilocos Sur and St Louis University in Baguio), and a state university (University of Northern Philippines, where she finished a master’s degree in education). As a homegrown model in her teaching career in lineage, culture, language and education, it is not difficult for teachers and pupils under her care to adjust to real life situations.  

But times have changed and change is accelerating. Miss Riotoc may be traditional, if you call it that way, if you are living in the city where conditions are not only changing fast but transient in many ways, what with students flocking in from various regions and classrooms are not getting bigger, and students' diminishing attention to lessons and incidence of breakdown in discipline as real problems reminiscent of the 1987 movie, The Principal.

The movie was a big hit because the plot depicts the eroding discipline in many school campuses in the US.  A high school principal played by a tough guy, James Belushi, slugged it out with the hardened school gang members disturbing the peace on the campus. He won their respect at the end. The happy ending upholds the school’s principle and thrust in education given the worst scenario.  

We don’t find such scenario in our schools, much less in the countryside. Not to the extent as depicted in the movie. The epilogue leaves an important lesson to school authorities.  It poses a great challenge to a school principal like Miss Riotoc as disciplinarian, catalyst to learning, vanguard, guardian, friend - roles perhaps no other profession can claim to be as many, as urgent and as vital. 

We admit that there are many things that cannot be learned – and even if we do, the more we are led to wonder, puzzled yet humbled by the enormity and magnificence of the world we live in. It is like going up a mountain.  The higher you go, the wider and farther your eyes can see but cannot decipher.

Where does education start, and where does it end? The Binhi principle gives a symbolic explanation.  The teacher is the biblical Sower (Parable of the Sower). She sows the seed of knowledge, and provides it with all the necessary conditions for its growth and development so that it will bring in bountiful harvest. In another analogy, the teacher is the lamp holder in the night.  She holds it proudly and high this lamp of knowledge, and passes its light onto the waiting lamps of others.  They too, shall pass on the light until the world is illuminated. The light to the world is the collective light of knowledge of humanity, adapting Rizal's concept of education as the source of enlightenment and freedom.

Current Issues that Challenge a Teacher 

However good a teacher is, or any leader for that matter, she is aware that these are but general statements of truth and wisdom. They are seldom scrutinized or raised in debates. And yet in the very core of these motherhood statements lie vital issues that now and then creep in surreptitiously in the middle of the night and disturb the good sleep of  teachers, educators, scholars, governments .Take these cases.

   

• How can social media enhance education? Can e-learning suffice and not require one to go to school? 

• There is an explosion of knowledge, but how much can we absorb? How can we separate the grain from the chaff from a growing heap of knowledge?  Which leads us to a coined word, infollution. (AVR). 

• Infollution or Information Pollution – how can we clean up the garbage in cyberspace, sanitize learning before it contaminates and spreads into epidemic? 

• Whatever happened to the family where the principle of trinity is put to practice - the family where society begins, where its foundation lies?   

• If “a little learning is a dangerous thing,” so with too much learning. While Darwinism has gained acceptance in the biological world, how can it apply in politics and commerce without disturbing society?  If science is good why does it create a Frankenstein. 

• And values? Socrates is too far out and too old to remember his teachings, Plato is "too pure", the Church is divided and the faith alienated. Transience of domicile and purpose in life has changed values radically, perhaps irreversibly.  

• Who and how many are aware of the phenomenon of autotoxicity or progressive self destruction? Not so many, others adamantly do, that nature's laws when violated result in unimagined destruction likened to an Armageddon. Today we are not only witnesses, but victims, of  global warming, species extinction, mass poverty, epidemic diseases, and others. . How are these be taught in school, and "save the world."  

• Return to basic does not mean fundamentalism, today's root of conflict and  terrorism (ISIS, Buko Haram, Al Qaeda, Hamas)  that threatens world peace. Isn’t good education enough to lay down the basics of life and living?  

• The 3Rs of Literacy (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic) cannot meet the criteria of today’s requirement for literacy, a challenge posed to schools, to social media and globalization. Scientists argue whether or not our world is getting truly literate.  If literacy is the magic wand that bails a person out of being poor, why is it that half of the world’s population remains poor?  (While the other half has more than it needs.) 

• Strengthening the interconnectedness of home, school, church and community as the four pillars of a true and lasting education.  

Education and Formative Conscience

How does education of young children mold not only their mind, heart and spirit, but their conscience, the seat of ethico-morals of everyday living, which former UST Rector, Fr Tamerlane Lana calls formative conscience? 

Does it ring the conscience when we destroy the environment, waste food, pollute the air, unkind to the old, indifferent to general welfare, commit dishonesty, abandon our children, and the like?  

                                                  

 Functional Literacy

A tribesman living in the of Kalahari Desert in The Gods Must Be Crazy,  turned out to be the teacher of a lady teacher, a PhD holder at that. “To where the wind blows a predator can sense you,” he warns in his native tongue, then he wet his finger with saliva and raised it up for a few seconds like a barometer. “It is not safe to be here,” He urged his special guest to move to safety. To which we ask, what is literacy?

What is literacy when a culinary expert fails to produce a precise boiled egg using modern gadget? When producing rice is more theory than practice, succeeding to produce half of the targeted crop yield?  How many children fail to reach functional literacy level that enable them to understand the world around them, interact with people, understand events, take good care of themselves, raise families of their own properly. 

Education must take us back to our heritage, the valued wisdom of our old folks. Whatever education is today characterized by new curriculum, distance education (e-learning), accreditation to “Center of Excellence,” high-tech, and the like, education must be integrated by all means into the holistic attributes of man - Homo sapiens (the Thinking Man), Homo faber (Man the Maker), Homo ludens (the Playing Man) and Homo spiritus (the Praying Man). 

 In parting, Miss Riotoc cited the great Mahatma Gandhi, Man of the Last Millennium. "You must be the change you want to see in the world." 

And to the Greatest Teacher of all who walked the Earth, education is alive, very much alive, in all of us; it is the way of life. ~  

6. Francisca Trinidad, SPC- "Manang Madre"

       Dr Abe V Rotor

All from San Vicente, Ilocos Sur: Manang Madre with Rotor clan: Fe (former UP professor), Cely (retired teacher), Veny (Franciscan sister)

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San Vicente is a small town, three kilometers west of Vigan, the capital of Ilocos Sur. The town takes pride in honoring its outstanding sons and daughters, among them, a diminutive, frail looking religious sister, who devoted her whole long life to the development of children through education and devotion. Author's Note: Search in this Blog, the life of Sister Mamerta Rocero, SPC, also a native of San Vicente. 
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There is always the last of a distinct breed, reminiscent of The Last of the Mohicans, a novel written by James Fenimore Cooper. After that a new breed emerges.

Manang Madre is among the last of a fine breed of religious sisters.

She lived a full missionary life with the zeal and dedication of a Mother Teresa. She was simple and humble, and remained a trusted friend, mentor and spiritual adviser.

This is Manang Madre to us. We knew how good and courageous she was even at a very early age. She would warn us of approaching Japanese soldiers, and lead us into an underground hideout, hushing us into complete silence. Like a sentinel she knew when it was safe to go out and resume our chores and play. We would have known more fear and uncertainty were it not for her assuring presence and company.

There was this incident just after the war that Manang Madre risked her life in saving my sister and brother who were trapped in a live charcoal pit. This is the dugout stove chamber used in boiling sugarcane juice to become muscovado or red sugar. It was a miracle, Dad and the people who came to the rescue afterward, likened her to a "guardian angel,"

Manang Madre remained our older playmate and guardian of sort. Mother died at the onset of the war, so that having Manang Madre around filled a vacuum in us. Dad always reminded us to be good to her.

There was a time Manang Madre invited us to see her glass aquarium. There beside the window, the morning sun cast a prism on the green Hydrilla and Elodea plants with numerous tiny bubbles forming and clinging on their leaves. One by one the bubbles rose and popped daintily. A dozen colorful fish gleefully played in the sunbeam. This indeed made a lasting impression in me to become a biologist someday. When I became a professor, I devised an laboratory project for my students, a natural home aquarium without electric-driven pump and filter. It was patterned after Manang Madre's aquarium.

It was peacetime. Things were going back to normal. Wounds healed, so to speak, leaving but scars. School reopened. Manang Madre soon entered the convent without our knowledge. But she wrote often, sending us cards, stampita and religious medals.

It was many years after when I saw Manang Madre in the former Vigil House at St. Paul University Quezon City campus. She had retired and was wearing an implanted heart pacer. I too, had retired from government service and was teaching part time in that school.

In spite of her conditions she helped me build the school museum with her collection of stamps. She was a a philatelist. She helped me in the eco-sanctuary, the botanical garden of the school. She was a gardener. So with the school's outreach program in Barangay Valencia. She taught for many years children and adults alike. Why don't we map our family tree? I asked. She had indeed a very good memory to the third generation and fourth consanguinity. I treasure the map she made.

The last time I saw her was in 2009 at the new Vigil House at Taytay, Rizal. I was attending the annual school retreat. It was a bright morning. We were walking among the flowers that lined a big fountain pond fronting the modern edifice.

Manang Madre and two other religious sisters formed a triumvirate in the family. They all belonged to St. Paul of Chartres congregation.

• Sister Nathaniel Rocero, SPC, the intellectual, sometimes branded activist for her concern for the poor, a Ph.D. holder in English and Literature, proponent of traditional and classical philosophy.

• Sister Mamerta Rocero, SPC, the scientist, biologist, researcher, she revived the ethnic values of plants, humanist, also a Ph.D. holder (meritissimus). Her dissertation: "Ethnobotany among The Itawes," published by the National Museum.

• Sister Francisca Trinidad, SPC, educator, school administrator, extension specialist, teacher to countless children as if they were her own, as if they were like us who once grew under the her protection.

Across the fence roared countless vehicles, smoke rose from smokestacks in the distance. The air was heavy with smog. A parade on wheels displayed colorful banner, amidst blaring announcements and reverberating music, while Manang madre was being laid to final rest in the SPC sisters' cemetery. I remember the last part of The Last of the Mohicans. To quote:

"We are not alone. We may be of different races, but God has placed us so that we journey on the same path."

Sister Madre and her kind, assure us that we are not alone. They are the bridge of unity, ages and generations. They have placed us in that same journey, leading us all on the same path to God." ~

   

7. Lola Virginia Lagasca - Centenarian and WWII Veteran

Lola Virginia “Virgie” L. Lagasca, 98, entrepreneur, philanthropist, lives a Spartan life, the key to a long and fulfilled life. As a WWII veteran and guardian of a successful family, she keeps on going with three generations in a row, remarkably at the forefront to caution change with priceless values and tradition. Background mural - Living with Nature - by the author at his residence in Greater Lagro QC.

                                                      ANNEX:  Apo Baket' 

                        - Keeper of Time-Honored Tradition and Values

Living with Nature Center, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Dr Abe V Rotor

 

Life size concrete icon of an old woman, keeper of time-honored traditional values, enshrined at San Vicente Botanical Garden under the care of the author. San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.  Sculptured by Francisco "Boy" Peralta, and restored by Bhoy Adora.  

She is mother, grandmother, guardian, of countless children through generations throughout the world, teaching them the true values of growing up, to adapt to the ever changing environment, save those values that must not change.

She leads the community, church, school, in fact all facets of life, side by side with men, and behind their struggle, in the likes of Tandang Sora, Fe del Mundo, Gabriella Silang, Leona Florentino, along with Florence Nightingale, Saint Mother Teresa. 

She is the ever-loving mother in the Pieta, symbol of universal love and compassion, dedication, and asceticism on the highest level; the ever-loving partner in marital life vowed "till death do us part," core of the family as the primordial social institution. 

She is the widow of honored men in the battlefield, or by circumstances beyond her control, accepting such fate and bravely taking over the responsibility not only for her own sake, but for those under her care, and society itself.  

She keeps the kitchen of old alive and invitingly delectable as ever - pinakbet, kare-kare, ginatan, sinigang, bulalo, la-ing, papaitan, kilawin, surpassing fast foods, extravagantly labelled foods, culinary preparations lavishly advertised.  

She is the storyteller Lola Basyang, pen name of Severino Reyes, around her, children gather to listen to folktales and make-believe stories, including versions of stories from the Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Anderson, and Scheherazade in One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. 

She is the mother or grandmother of overseas workers who leave behind their families to secure a better socio-economic status of their families; and under her care their children grow up properly in spite of the absence of father and mother.

She is the yaya, the traditional nanny, who other than taking care of the nursery and growing children, does varied household chores - cooking, cleaning, laundry, errand, marketing, making housekeeping light on the part of parents and children as well. 

She is the weaver of abel (Ilocano blanket), and many household items made of pandan, buri, and tikiw; maker of the finest dress and formal wears made of pina; maker of fine pottery and china wares; and keeper of the old aparador of antiques and memoirs. 

She is the grandmother in Johanna Spyri's novel Heidi; Madame Curie, greatest woman scientist; Mary Shelly, author of Frankenstein, world's scariest bedtime story; Florence Nightingale, the Lady with a Lamp who kept vigil on the sick in the wee hours.   

She is Basang, my auntie-yaya from the time my mother died when I was only two until I went to Manila for college; Lola Usta who painstakingly  applied all local remedies to revive me born a blue baby amidst extreme danger of  WW II breaking out.  

She is the First Lady of a president of state; queen beside a king, or head of state; saint of the church; on the other hand, victim at the gallows; maligned old woman,  the butt of jokes and unkind stories, yet she stands her ground brave and perseverant as the world goes round.  ~