It's All in the Mind

 

                                    (img: youtube.com)

Mayaot na tuig an 2020. A lot of people mentioned this. One can hear comments on the different experiences we encountered this year including the pandemic. Who would have thought that we will experience a global threat on our health during our lifetime? And human as we are, we find something to blame. We need a scapegoat. And for that, we have no choice but blame the year 2020.

Our ancestors might disagree that 2020 is the worst year on record. Sure, frightening things are happening, but many of those things happened in the past, too, including the 1918 flu pandemic, during which 50 million people died. Plus, the belief that civilization is on the decline is a tradition as old as civilization itself. Even Ancient Athenians complained in the fifth century B.C. that their democracy wasn’t what it used to be. These days, we call that belief “declinism,” or “decline bias” (Renner, 2020).

Rob Picheta of CNN said: Even before Covid-19 existed, humans had an unmistakable and scientifically pinpointed tendency to believe the world is poorer, angrier and more unsettled than it really is; an unconscious desire to hold onto negative stereotypes and ignore the scale of progress unfolding right in front of us.

 

It's a habit picked up in childhood and reinforced by media coverage and our own psychological peculiarities, many experts believe. Put simply, we think the world is a bad place that's getting worse - a sense that undoubtedly grew in the last 12 months.

Declinism is the tendency to see the past in an overly positive light and to view the present or future in an overly negative light, leading us to believe that things are worse than they used to be. Declinism is often a feeling harbored about the overall state of a country, society, or institution, with the view that it is in decline or getting worse.

Looking closely, this might be one of the downsides of the information technology. Too much information allow us to compare and marvel the past (where we seldom saw what was happening because the internet was still unheard of) as better and of “good quality”.

The decisionlab.com said, the 24-hour news cycle that bombards us with negative and violent images contribute to declinism and end up confirming our existing beliefs that the world is getting worse. News stations, which have to compete with one another, capitalize on confirmation bias. They know that if they continue to present viewers with shocking and disturbing stories, viewers will continue coming back for more.

Then, our culture dictates us to rely on numerology. It is any belief in mystical relationship between numbers and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value of the letters in words, names, and ideas. It is more often associated with the paranormal, alongside astrology and other divine arts.

The Chinese also tags a year with a certain animal and it has a certain astrological connotation. 2020 is the Year of the Rat according to Chinese zodiac. This is a Year of Metal Rat, starting from the 2020 Chinese New Year on Jan. 25 and lasting to 2021 Lunar New Year’s Eve on Feb. 11. Rat is the first in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac. The Years of the Rat include 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020, 2032...

When 2020 arrived, events came to people all over the world presented through their smart devices and even in the social media sites. These can be considered as stressors. The Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory lists 43 life events and assigns a point value to each event. That point value corresponds to the amount of life change caused by the event.

It is important to note that on this scale, according to Johnson (2020), there are both positive and negative events. This means that change, even a positive change, requires adjustment and therefore is a stressor. Our bodies respond to all stressors in the same way—including hormonal responses that increase blood pressure and promote weight gain. As changes add up, so does our stress load.

An example that many people can relate to right now is “work from home.” Working from home is accompanied by many changes—some good and some bad. For example, people may find that they no longer have a long commute to work, which is a positive change. However, they may also find that the physical environment is harder to work in.

Then, the learners started doing their lessons in a remote manner. This drastic change can cause stress both to the adaptive population and those with other learning preferences. This situation is another factor which made people complain. And these happened in 2020.

Kendra Cherry (2017) said: “Positive thinking actually means approaching life’s challenges with a positive outlook. It does not necessarily mean avoiding or ignoring the bad things; instead, it involves making the most of the potentially bad situations, trying to see the best in other people, and viewing yourself and your abilities in a positive light.”

It’s about increasing our control over our own attitude in the face of whatever comes along the way. We cannot control things and events happening around us, and we cannot always control the thoughts that pop into our heads, but we can choose how we handle them.

Another year is coming. There are things within our grasp but there are those that we can’t even comprehend. All we can do is adapt and become works in progress as we see the new ecology a challenging one for our growth and the chance to become better versions of ourselves.

Murder and Insanity on Christmas

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Kun Pasko baja kinahanglan gajod bibo? When one goes deeper and understands Christmas, it is really a religious event, not just a “social” one. Although it encourages interaction with others through the displacement of love, respect and goodwill, the event stems back to being of the spiritual context. Yet, materialism, commercialism and other stuff occur this time of the year.

When people seem to lack the resources like money, significant companions, new clothes and even social gatherings, the event seems threadbare. This is probably the reason why there is such a thing as “holiday blues”.

Feelings of sadness that last throughout the holiday season—especially during the months of November and December—are often referred to as the holiday blues. The holidays are usually viewed as a time of happiness and rejoicing. But for some people, it can be a period of painful reflection, sadness, loneliness, anxiety, and depression (Cherry, 2020).

According to webmed.com, sadness is a truly personal feeling. What makes one person feel sad may not affect another person. Typical sources of holiday sadness include: Stress, Fatigue, Unrealistic expectations, Over-commercialization, Financial stress, the inability to be with one's family and friends.

But looking into the main culprit of the development of holiday blues, we can glean that it is the inability to understand the event and attach it with something which muddles with people’s emotions. This is probably brought about by traditions, media hype, commercialization and the recently theorized FOMO (fear of missing out) caused by the social media posts.

Ghio Ong of the Philippine Star reports: A man surrendered to police in Taguig City after killing his two children on Christmas day 2020, a day after his wife’s death. Aiko Siacunco, 28, admitted to strangling his three-year-old daughter and one-year-old son in their room at his father’s house in Barangay North Signal, according to a report sent to city police chief Col. Celso Rodriguez. Rodriguez said Siacunco turned himself in after surviving an attempt to hang himself. Following his surrender, police officers rushed to Siacunco’s room at around 7:30 a.m. and found it in disarray. The floor was covered with unidentified stains and the children’s bodies were lying on a mattress on the floor.

In radio interviews, Rodriguez said Siacunco’s wife, Karina, 28, hung herself on Thursday, a claim that her family denied. Siacunco and his wife, who worked as a call center agent, had been arguing over his failure to find a job since the government imposed a lockdown in March, police said.

This might be a sad outcome of the so-called holiday blues phenomenon. If uncontrolled, emotions can cause the neurons in the brain to go haywire. If not for the pressure the suspect felt for the “happiness and joy” they have to feel during Christmas, he could have stayed sane and accepted the fact that the event will only pass.

Emotions become associated with objects, things, places, time periods, and any other element in your life. Once we have formed an emotional association between an object/scenario/thing, etc. and a psychophysiological state, just by simply sensing (i.e. seeing, hearing, tasting, etc.) it again, the same emotion is often evoked. This is one reason to the “attachments” on the Christmas season. We attach it with food, new clothes, gatherings and other material stuff. And without them, we feel depressed.

It was mentioned a while ago that the event is a religious one. So, the attachments people must have with it should be spiritual activities like going to church and reflecting. It is a Christian event so the activities must be in line with what Christ was presenting like humility and simple living. We have to remember that he was born in a barn, not a hospital. Ergo, not lavish but down-to-earth…

Religious people are happier than those without spirituality in their life, says psychologist Dr Stephen Joseph from the University of Warwick, and those who celebrate the original, Christian, meaning of Christmas are, on the whole, happier than those who primarily celebrate the festive season with consumer gifts.

Research entitled "Religiosity and its association with happiness, purpose in life, and self-actualization" published in Mental Health, Religion & Culture reveals a positive relation between religiosity and happiness. The study also suggests that the reason for this is that religious people are happier because they have more of a sense of purpose in their lives than non-religious people.

Dr Stephen Joseph, from the University of Warwick, said: "Religious people seem to have a greater purpose in life, which is why they are happier. Looking at the research evidence, it seems that those who celebrate the Christian meaning of Christmas are on the whole likely to be happier. Research shows that too much materialism in our lives can be terrible for happiness."

With these facts, it is high time for us to detach materialism from this event since it is basically a spiritual journey. We need to be in step with reality rather than getting stressed with something that we do not have.

As entertaining as it can be to escape daydreams from time to time, there are certain lifestyles, attitudes, and behaviors our society presents as being cool and desirable which are actually far more harmful than they are aspirational (Aggeler, 2017).

Ultimately, we can all be into whatever we choose to be into. But when you're deciding how to build your life and what to fill it with, make sure you're making a decision based on facts, and not some romanticized version of reality.

  

Violent Parenting

 

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Kay uman kun pulis an tatay mo? This can be puzzling. Did she mean that the father must be respected because he is an “authority”? Or is this line related to bad parenting when her idea of respect is only limited to those people with “titles” and the rest of humanity does not deserve respect. In the first place, who displaced disrespect first?

Neil Jayson Servallos of the Philippine Star reported: An off-duty policeman shot dead at point-blank range his elderly female neighbor and her son after an altercation in Paniqui, Tarlac on Sunday (Dec. 20, 2020) afternoon. Police Staff Sgt. Jonel Nuezca, 46, of the Parañaque City Crime Laboratory, later surrendered to the police station in nearby Rosales, Pangasinan after he shot twice in the head Sonya Rufino Gregorio, 52, and her son Frank Anthony, 25. The shooting incident was caught on cell phone camera and has since gone viral on social media.

Another video taken during the incident also showed Nuezca’s daughter shouting that her father was a policeman, a few seconds before shots rang out. In the video, Nuezca shot the victims after the elder Gregorio taunted the suspect’s daughter.

People who saw the video online were horrified and castigated the dastardly act of the policeman. The blaming mutated into something which generalized the PNP as killers which can be unfair but people are emotional and these outbursts are expected to happen.

Gun violence, according to the American Psychological Association, is associated with a confluence of individual, family, school, peer, community, and socio-cultural risk factors that interact over time during childhood and adolescence. Although many youths desist in aggressive and antisocial behavior during late adolescence, others are disproportionately at risk for becoming involved in or otherwise affected by gun violence. The most consistent and powerful predictor of future violence is a history of violent behavior.

Prior to the shooting, Jonel Nuezca already had episodes of violence. Two of the cases against Nuezca were of grave misconduct involving homicide. One was dated May 9, 2019, and the other, December 29, 2019. Both cases were “dismissed for lack of substantial evidence,” JC Gotinga reported. In 2016, Nuezca was accused of serious neglect of duty when he allegedly failed to attend a court hearing as a prosecution witness in a case involving illegal drugs. Police involved in the apprehension of drug suspects are supposed to provide witness in court.

With this background, what can we expect of his parenting style? Yes. It is true that any child will be a victim of adult misdeeds and it is not fair to blame her. But what would become of her? Philnews.ph said that a witness said that after the attack the police father put his arm on the shoulder of his daughter or “akbay” and allegedly said, “Mission accomplished baby.” Then they went home and the suspect asked for his helmet from his wife and flew away.

Witnessing violence can lead children to develop an array of age-dependent negative effects. Research in this area has focused on the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional effects of domestic violence. Children who witness violence and children who are abused may display many similar psychological effects (aafp.org).

Some of the men in uniform, specifically the PNP are reacting on the smearing on their image. For them, this is a fallacy of generalization. But history tells a different story.  By late 2016, approximately 9,000 casualties, mostly from the poorest areas of urban Manila, had been ascribed to the war on drugs (Human Rights Watch 2017). In 2018, three Philippine policemen were found guilty of murdering a teenager during a drug sweep — the first conviction of officers in President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs. The victim was Kian delos Santos.

In January 2014, the Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights (CHR) exposed a secret detention facility in Laguna, a province south of the capital, Manila, in which police officers appeared to be torturing detainees for entertainment. The CHR found a large roulette wheel on which were written descriptions of various torture positions. If the wheel was spun and landed on “30 second bat position”, for example, this meant that the detainee would be hung upside down (like a bat) for 30 seconds. “20 second Manny Pacquiao” meant that a detainee would be punched non-stop for 20 seconds. The existence of such a device, apparently for police officers’ entertainment, clearly demonstrates the casual attitude towards torture within the police force.

Still, we adhere to the belief that there are policemen whose mind, heart and soul are dedicated to serve and protect the people.

But then, we go back to the daughter’s would-be psychological makeup. Children who witness violence or are victims of abuse themselves are at serious risk for long-term physical and mental health problems. Children who witness violence between parents may also be at greater risk of being violent in their future relationships, according to womensheath.gov.

The daughter of Police Senior Master Sergeant Jonel Nuezca will undergo counseling following the fatal shooting incident that she witnessed in Paniqui, Tarlac on Sunday (gmanetwork.com).

The fact that people are reacting on such violence presented on different media, it is still our individual roles to raise our voices against senseless killing, violence and bad parenting.

 

 

Romanticizing Calamities

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Kibali bibo kun bahaan? A question occurred on the mind of a sane individual as he sees people showing photos making fun out of the flood which recently took place in the vicinity. There were those young people who made fun out of the situation by posting jokes and insensitive comments as the typhoon intensified.

Being an archipelagic country sitting on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines is a hotspot of calamities. In fact, the past year ended with a Typhoon right on Christmas day wrecking regions in the country’s central islands. And in less than a month, Filipinos again faced another catastrophic event to kick-start their New Year, the eruption of Taal Volcano in Batangas after half a decade (Pangilinan, 2020).

To some, there is this portrayal of victims of calamity as resilient and discerning groups. This rosy view of disaster-stricken people is not only wrong, but also harmful. It allows corporations, governments, and nonprofits to deny this vulnerable population the protections it needs. Romanticizing the poor also hobbles realistic interventions for alleviating poverty.

A lot of people who are also using the social media platforms falls prey on this romanticizing thing. Good for those who make such platforms as sources of information and avenues to facilitate help and rescue but there are those who seem to over-romanticize the events. It is good to be resilient but making disasters as avenues for selfies and posts to gain number of “likes” can be psychologically-skewed.

We also see those who are making the flood look like the worst disaster that happened. Instead of facilitating help, there are some who sends the wrong messages creating anxiety to the families of some in far places. Information can be thwarted, you see…

Jain (2001) said: "Information is power" and it is a catalyst to sustainable development. Complete and correct information to the community is clearly a very important tool to assist in developing a transparent system free of bureaucracy, corruption and general mismanagement of already limited resources.

The role of information and communication changes in emergency situations and can play important role at varied levels based on different needs, Jain continued. Flashing warning news - Incorrect or unreliable information while forecasting the disaster can often result in great damage.

The most effective information dissemination system is community based participatory approach where technical know-how is provided through training to enhance internal capacity of community and local NGO’s of the region. The information and knowledge thus provided enters the system and stays effective in the long run. To accomplish this, the group has now developed an archive of user friendly information packages, which include posters, brochures, pamphlets, information leaflets and training manuals designed for different end users. These include beneficiary families, community workers and site supervisors. These packages include interactive literature in form of user manuals, production manuals, family passbooks, and other documents customized to their needs in regional language (devalt.org).

Legislators and political leaders play a great role in disaster and risk management. In fact, this is one of the competencies the elected officials must have. It was already mentioned that our country is prone to natural calamities and so, the officials must put a lot of premium on this.

Eva (2020) wrote: We see the same things happen over and over again: we weren’t prepared for a disaster, the disaster strikes, and we depend on aid and relief goods with politicians’ names on the plastic bag. It is the inaction from our government that perpetuates the vicious cycle of patronage politics.

BANGON SURIGAO is not just a tagline. It is not only fortifying resiliency. It is in fact a message sent to the local leaders to stand firm and not collapse every now and then when natural calamities strike. A thorough study and recommendations must be in place. The system of disaster preparedness is needed. An orientation on “what to do, when to do and how to do” can empower the vulnerable communities with valuable lifesaving information.

Designing appropriate relief and mitigation projects for natural disasters requires a solid understanding of the magnitude, geographical distribution and frequency of these hazards. This level of information requires both horizontal and vertical flows within the relief providing organizations and from organizations to community. Information is not an end in itself, but a tool to assist the community to organize themselves in the hour of emergency.

After any disaster, there is sudden decline in the confidence of people in traditional / prevailing building systems. The reconstruction phase is considered as a second chance to start afresh with something more "reliable".

Indeed, let us rise from the old beliefs and inefficient ways. The poor will always be the victims of indifference, natural and MAN-MADE calamities. 

Incapable of Appreciation

          

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Dili mahibayo maghatag nan bili. This is one thing that a lot of people lack; they do not know how to appreciate. Most of the things they see are the mistakes and the errors one can commit. When one displaces a good deed or creates an act of goodness, people dismiss them as commonplace. Although a lot of mature people do not demand for appreciation, it is more on the development of the attitude that matters.

The Harvard Medical School defines gratitude as “a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives … As a result; gratitude also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals–whether to other people, nature, or a higher power”

It is also a social emotion that signals our recognition of the things others have done for us (Fox et al., 2015).

Then why is it difficult to be developed among people? What are the causes of such deficit? You see, we often hear people complain about their life, the situations they are in, their jobs and how they get busy with it. A lot of people complain on almost everything including the weather!

According to Dr. Robert Emmons, the feeling of gratitude and appreciation involves two stages (2003): First comes the acknowledgment of goodness in one’s life. In a state of gratitude, we affirm that all in all, life is good, and has elements that make worth living. The acknowledgment that we have received something gratifies us, both by its presence and by the effort the giver put into choosing it. Second, gratitude is recognizing that some of the sources of this goodness lie outside the self. One can be grateful to other people, to animals, and to the world, but not to oneself. At this stage, we recognize the goodness in our lives and who to thank for it (i.e., who made sacrifices so that we could be happy?).

Despite the great and many benefits that it confers, gratitude is hard to cultivate, because it opposes itself to deeply ingrained human traits, in particular, our striving to better our lot, our need to feel in control of our destiny, our propensity to credit ourselves for our successes while blaming others for our failures, and our belief in some sort of cosmic equality or justice.

According to Burton (2014), since human nature does not leave much place for it, appreciation or gratitude is an attainment associated with emotional maturity—which is why children taught to parrot ‘thank you’ never really mean it. Conversely, many grown-ups express gratitude, or a semblance of gratitude, simply because doing so is useful or the ‘done thing’. Expressing gratitude is good manners, and the aim of good manners is to ape profundity when profundity is lacking.

Emotional maturity and good manners are two major factors of displacing appreciation. These are two main reasons why people lack it. They oftentimes cultivate on envy and other negative emotions to the point that their emotional maturity is curtailed. Manners can be learned from the family and the education that people get. We can then consider the gaps families are giving input to the children which they later practice as adults. And, what about the educational institutions’ role in developing the affective part of the students… is this aspect considered properly?

There are many reasons some people don't appreciate others. One might be that they like to mind their own business. They don't care how others are performing. Another reason might be that appreciation is not in their nature. They don't like saying good things to others. One important reason for not appreciating or motivating others might be that they are jealous of others. They don't want others to do well (Upadya, 2020).

The psychologist Orlando M. Lourenco mentions: Some reasons may have to do with people's biological inheritance. Psychopaths, for example, are not able, say, to put on another's shoes and, hence, they are deprived of any empathetic concerns for others' well-being. Other reasons are situational. If people are born and grow up in a competitive, instead a cooperative, atmosphere and environment it is likely that they fail to value people. Other reasons have to do with people's moral development. The less morally developed people are, the more they are likely to fail to value people. The American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, for example, found that people located at his Stage 1 or Stage 2 of moral reasoning are dominated by egocentric interests and desires and, because of this, think, feel and act without taking into account others' needs, interests and concerns.

Indeed, the harshness of life can affect the things inside people’s heads and their emotions. Yet, it is also the mind that allows us to weigh things carefully including the way we LOOK at things. Self-examination is one key in opening up to improvement and maturation. There is no other person that can help you change for the better but the SELF.

Morality is not an easy thing to master. We have different criteria on what is good and what is not. Also, we need to understand that moral beliefs must be paired with moral actions to make them tangible. But there are things we call as universal values. These can be applied anywhere and to everybody. 

Appreciation is one. While developing this behavior, we are also assured that our mental well-being and manners are nurtured.

 

At Risk

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Amo baja ini ila kahimtang?. This is the thing to register in the head of a teacher as he/she sees the situation of the learner. The heart will then be gripped with compassion. The innate empathy in the educator will then be awakened as a myriad of things bombards the mind: the required readings the teacher gave, the online activities they sometimes demand, the products like collage from magazines and even the bond papers they require for the outputs to be written. These things merge with the muddy area as a porch, the dilapidated house, the near-naked kids the learners are babysitting, the sores on their skin and the putrid smell of poverty.

According to UNICEF, despite rapid economic growth and overall declining rates of poverty in recent years, the situation remains extremely challenging for children in the Philippines. In 2015, a staggering 31.4 per cent of children were living below the basic needs poverty line (down from 2012), with poverty rates actually increasing for children in ARMM: from 52.6 per cent in 2006, to 63.1 per cent in 2015.

With such data, it is not surprising that a lot of learners who have the capability to work are pushed to the work force even if child labor is not allowed by the legislation of the country. The young learners would opt to work so to survive making education as a second priority.

Adding to the difficulties is the pandemic. The COVID-19 is estimated to push an additional 88 million to 115 million people into extreme poverty this year, with the total rising to as many as 150 million by 2021, depending on the severity of the economic contraction. Extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.90 a day, is likely to affect between 9.1% and 9.4% of the world’s population in 2020, according to the biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report.

The corona virus pandemic’s impact on the economy could lead to 1.5 million Filipinos becoming poor, according to the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) in an August 2020 study.

Although there is this cliché that poverty is not a hindrance to success, come to think of how one person can learn with an empty stomach? Aside from it, there is this looming fear that the virus can be acquired by them. Experience has taught the poor that they are the most vulnerable to calamities, illness, violence and oppression.

This is the one of the reasons why the teachers visit the learners. They need to encourage them to pursue their studies so that they will become empowered. Current research findings support the continued use of teacher home visit programs as a tool to encourage students’ academic success and parent involvement in the classroom, with many studies also noting teacher home visit programs’ improvement of students’ behavior (Lin & Bates, 2010).

With the distance learning modality, a lot has changed in the delivery of the curriculum. The educators were groping in the dark how to come up with a feasible modality where learning can take place. As part of the teachers’ job, they are expected to visit the learners who manifest difficulties based on their tracking forms. This is not a unique task of the teacher but with the health risk, it is an additional hazard to their safety. Still, they adhere to the belief that NO ONE must be left behind.

Teachers later understand that they also benefit with the activity. They commented on their teaching beliefs and practice as impacted by their home visit. Results of a study indicated that home visits enabled educators to see the families and children that they work with from a different and more positive perspective. The guided home visit questions/tools allowed them to better understand children and their families from historical and cultural perspectives. Also, teachers were better able to create a more diversified learning environment and lesson plans for their learners (Lin, Bates, 2010).

Empathy, the ability to connect others’ feeling without losing himself/herself (Chiu and Yeh, 2017), is found to play an important role in education (Ahmetoglu and Acar, 2016). Research has suggested that empathy is one of the crucial factors that influence how successful teachers are in leading their personal and professional lives (Vucinic et al., 2020). Therefore, empathy is regarded as one of the core contents of teachers’ professional development (Bullough, 2019).

The more empathetic the teacher is, the better he/she understands the situations of the learners which can lead to a more compassionate adjustment he/she will do to make learning take place. Empathy will also make the teacher’s life more meaningful. The educator will then understand his/her role in molding the community through the students and eventually makes the world a better place.

In social psychology, empathy can be categorized as an emotional or cognitive response. Emotional empathy consists of three separate components, Hodges and Myers (Encyclopedia of Social Psychology) say. “The first is feeling the same emotion as another person … The second component, personal distress, refers to one’s own feelings of distress in response to perceiving another’s plight … The third emotional component, feeling compassion for another person, is the one most frequently associated with the study of empathy in psychology,” the authors  explain.

There is a need for the educators to feel more empathy. The activity sheets which are allocated with a lot of funds are just papers. The one using them is the main concern. Without affection, all of the printing efforts and the gargantuan cost will be put into waste.

You Want To Be the Boss?

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Di mahibayo mangamo. It is a sad thing that others did not reach the position that they aspired. They wanted to be the one to man a group but they were not blessed with the opportunity to be the boss. Yet, their hunger to be the one to direct people overpowers their  sanity to the point that they often have problems with both the authorities and with their companions.

For adults, attention-seeking behavior is a conscious or unconscious attempt to become the center of attention, sometimes to gain validation or admiration. According to the National Library of Medicine, histrionic personality disorder is characterized by feeling underappreciated when not the center of attention.

Since the person is probably not equipped with competence and the necessary behavior to become a leader or being the boss, the conscious and unconscious behavior to compete with the appointed or designated leader is intense. He or she will try to look for the weakness of the present boss and highlight this in his and her words around to gain sympathy. The person will even resort to perform character assassination so that he or she may sound right.

A persistent pattern of anger, defiance, and vindictiveness against authority figures could be a sign of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). It is a behavioral disorder that results in defiance and anger against authority. It can affect a person’s work, school, and social life (Gotter, 2018).

According to Healthline, there is no proven cause of ODD, but there are theories that can help identify potential causes. It is thought a combination of environmental, biological, and psychological factors cause ODD. For example, it’s more common in families with a history of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

It is also possible that ODD develops as a result of learned behaviors, reflecting negative reinforcement methods some authority figures and parents use. This is especially true if the child uses bad behavior to get attention. In other cases, the child could adopt negative behaviors from a parent.

So, if you noticed that you have a problem with your boss and you feel that you are better that him, try to reflect on the genetic history of your family or remember the way your parents raised you in terms of the way they impose authority over you. This might help you to understand your behavior and start taking control over that behavior not on the roles of other persons.

Also, some people are predisposed to “control aversion” given their neurological structure, according to a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience. The control averse doesn’t like it when others hold sway over their decisions and actions and feel strongly inclined to rebel. This tendency is linked to strong brain connectivity between the parietal lobule and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, two regions “commonly associated with attention reorientation and cognitive control,” the study’s co-authors note (Belanger, 2018).

On the flip side, more compliant people just might not have the skill set to rebel, a study published in the British Journal of Social Psychology found. Their brains might not be as hardwired to express their desire to skip certain tasks through “silence or hesitation, groaning or sighing, laughing nervously, challenging the authority figure, refusing to carry on” or other means.

Whether or not the behavior of these people is caused by nature or nurture, it is but proper for them to consider personal reflections so that they know how to situate themselves in an organization or a group. If they persist, they will constantly encounter trouble and misunderstanding with the leader or the companions. There is no other person to take control over the behavior but the SELF.

Social psychologists have found that respect for authority is a universal instinctive trait in human psychology. As Haidt and Graham (2007) explain, "People often feel respect, awe, and admiration toward legitimate authorities, and many cultures have constructed virtues related to good leadership, which is often thought to involve magnanimity, fatherliness, and wisdom…[Societies may also] value virtues related to subordination: respect, duty, and obedience."

While respect for authority figures is a universal human trait, it is more salient for some. These individuals believe strong authority figures are necessary to maintain social order and prevent society from devolving into chaos.

Biblically, it is also mentioned in Romans 13: 1-3 - Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.  So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you.

Whatever the situation might be, there is a fact that we are oftentimes blessed to have the positions that we have right now. Then, out from this reality, we can work on our own by displacing the best that we can give. Then, we will try to develop respect to the persons appointed or even anointed to manage us.

If we still could not accept these facts and continue to rebel, we might as well seek medical interventions. The battle-cry for mental health is loud during these trying times.

 

The Hunger for Power

                                              (image: pinterest.com)

Pinakadato, Pinkasikat, Pinakagamhanan… There are those around you either in the office, school or anywhere else who is feeding on power, fame and/or the root of all evil – money.

Frederick Herzberg (1923 to 2000) and Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 to 1915) were towering figures who presented differing motivational theories on money. Taylor stressed money as a motivation in the workplace. Indeed, workers were motivated only by money, Taylor said. That's why his theory is often referred to as the money as a motivator theory.

Herzberg said his study found that factors other than money are the best motivators for workers. Things like achievement, praise, responsibility, meaningful work, and advancement are the true motivating factors, he argued. By contrast, Herzberg classified things like money, benefits, insurance as "hygiene" factors: items that are necessary to employ workers but that do not lead to satisfaction.

It can NOT be argued however that most of the people look for jobs for the salary. But that can later be clouded with the MEANING of his/her work. If the person finds a sense of purpose on the job, the individual will be more motivated to work because he or she finds meaning to what the tasks are. But, we cannot deny the fact that there are also those who do not transcend to the next level. Performance will be affected once the money won’t come in easy,

David McClelland built on his motivation theory in his 1961 book, "The Achieving Society." He identified three motivators that he believed we all have: a need for achievement, a need for affiliation, and a need for power. People will have different characteristics depending on their dominant motivator. According to McClelland, these motivators are learned (which is why this theory is sometimes called the Learned Needs Theory).

McClelland says that, regardless of our gender, culture, or age, we all have three motivating drivers, and one of these will be our dominant motivating driver. This dominant motivator is largely dependent on our culture and life experiences.

Those who are hungering for power have these characteristics: He/she wants to control and influence others; likes to win arguments; enjoys competition and winning; enjoys status and recognition. These are the things to motivate the person to work hard. Once power is not felt, the individual will NOT be motivated to perform well.

Those with a strong power motivator are often divided into two groups: personal and institutional. People with a personal power drive want to control others, while people with an institutional power drive like to organize the efforts of a team to further the company's goals. As you can probably imagine, those with an institutional power need are usually more desirable as team members!

The New York Times reported: For most of its existence, the field of psychology has ignored fame as a primary motivator of human behavior: it was considered too shallow, too culturally variable, too often mingled with other motives to be taken seriously. But in recent years, a small number of social scientists have begun to study and think about fame in a different way, ranking it with other goals, measuring its psychological effects, characterizing its devoted seekers.

These yearnings can become more acute in life’s later years, as the opportunities for fame dwindle, “but the motive never dies, and when we realize we’re not going to make it in this lifetime, we find some other route: posthumous fame,” said Orville Gilbert Brim, a psychologist who is completing a book called “The Fame Motive.” The book is based on data he has gathered and analyzed, with the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

There are those who will grab opportunities to have positions in the government or companies to satisfy the FAME need. By hook or by crook, they oftentimes “buy” these positions out just to address the need. They do not care if they have the capacities or not. They simply do not understand what drives them.

This is where self-discovery comes in. The process of self-discovery is one in which a person is guided, through self-questioning and examination of one's own thoughts, words, and actions, in order to reach his or her own conclusions regarding who they truly are.

Mubashir Mazhar (2019) mentioned that the way to discovering yourself involves a lot of breaking up your life into different layers and removing those layers that do not serve any purpose. Once you know that your layers consist of only those memories that reflect who you truly are, you can start the crucial act of building up new layers that are based on what you learned from the previous experience. These new layers enable a person to recognize their true potential while allowing us to be open to new experiences and lessons. 

With such realizations, we then can focus on MEANING and PURPOSE. We then can infer the importance of a more deep motivation in us.

Intrinsic motivation is the act of doing something without any obvious external rewards. You do it because it’s enjoyable and interesting, rather than because of an outside incentive or pressure to do it, such as a reward or deadline (Santos-Longhurst, 2019).

Let us be contributors to the healing of the universe, not for its destruction.

Submerged

                                      (photo: Malacanang)

Tabang! Tulong! Tulungan n’yo kami!  Eerie sounds and pleas for help can be painful to listen as the video showed nothing but darkness. The audio was hauntingly real as we can imagine kids, elderly persons, women, the sick, pets and other helpless individuals being submerged as the floodwater continued to rise. The social media sites were then filled with screen shots of messages coming from the people who were trapped at their houses asking for help.

We thought that Marikina, Rizal and nearby places were the ones severely affected by Ulysses. We were not prepared when the images of devastation materialized on our phones via the newsfeed. Cagayan Valley, Isabela and other parts near these areas looked gloomy as brown water swallowed their place only showing the helpless roofs and the tips of the surviving trees…

 Emmanuel Tupas of the Philippine Star reported: Ulysses (international name Vamco), the 21st and deadliest cyclone to hit the country this year, tore through the main island of Luzon late Wednesday into early Thursday, just as the country was reeling from Super Typhoon Rolly (Goni), the world’s strongest typhoon of 2020, which killed 25 people and flattened thousands of homes.

Tens of thousands of homes were engulfed by the floods, and as the water receded in areas such as Marikina, homes covered in debris and caked in mud emerged.

The report continued that the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported yesterday that the number of people who died during the onslaught of Typhoon Ulysses has climbed to 53. It is mentioned that 17 of the fatalities were recorded in Cagayan Valley, followed by Calabarzon with 12.

As the sad facts were being presented, there are pictures of the so-called “Filipino humor” posted on the social media sites cropping up. There were those who made their flooded houses as pools where the people are enjoying the dip. Some were shown drinking with their buddies amidst the flood as if everything is normal.

Some politicians and even writers started having commentaries and suggestive inputs the Filipinos are indeed resilient with such natural calamities.

But there are those whose senses are intact. As Typhoon Ulysses caused widespread damage to Luzon last Thursday, many people were demanding a much more efficient government response. Moreover, holding leaders into account for negligence was called for. However, there are some who highlighted the resiliency of the Filipino race (Corcuera, 2020).

Ella Hyacinth Golez from Forum-Dimensions said that “We, Filipinos, are more than our stories of struggles and resiliency. We should be the reminder and the face of accountability. We deserve better.”

Joshua Corcuera of The Daily Guardian wrote: We tend to over-romanticize individual stories of suffering and recovery to the extent that we forget holding into account those who are unresponsive to the plight of such individuals. As a result, the resiliency of the Filipino has been abused. It is important for all of us to call out those in power and force them to do their jobs, and not merely sharing how the people — whom they should serve — are standing up to their suffering. Merely telling such inspiring stories imply that the people are on their own and cannot expect anything from the government.

Accountability is not simply taking the blame when something goes wrong. It’s not a confession. Accountability is about delivering on a commitment. It’s responsibility to an outcome, not just a set of tasks. It’s taking initiative with thoughtful, strategic follow-through (Bregman, 2016).

But we as a people must also understand that we have to learn from our mistakes. We just do not have to accept the fact that “KAYA NATIN” is always applicable to every situation be it tragic or not. There is always a room for us to be able NOT to waste resources and worse, lives.

Personal accountability simply means you choose to take responsibility for your words, actions, and behaviors, and for the outcomes that they produce, managing those outcomes if necessary. And that you do what you tell yourself you will do. In this case, we need to do what is best like: following orders from the local government to evacuate, do something to protect the environment and the like.

A responsible citizen does not just blame the government officials but becomes a good team player with them. Based on the principles developed by Glenn M. Parker in the best-selling Parker Team-Player Survey, this shows in detail the four primary team-member styles in action -- the contributor, the collaborator, the communicator and the challenger. The object is to make the most of each team player's unique perspective. To accomplish this goal, team players must learn to identify their own style and the style of other team members, use the appropriate style to maximum team advantage, and learn to switch their style when it suits the needs of the team.

We need to work hand in hand and be part of the efforts to learn from our past mistakes. Pointing fingers will always be counterproductive and this is high time for us to ascend from being submerged.

Instead of saying “Kaya natin ito,” let our mantra be “Hindi na dapat maulit ito”.

  

Indolence

                                 (art: artnet.com)

Poloho! There are theories that as people age, their drive towards being productive would lessen. A lot of studies refuted that. There is no direct relationship with age and the interest to be functional. Although physical movements can really be affected as time goes by, it is the mind that stimulates the so-called interest. Motivation, as countlessly mentioned, comes from a psychological point of view. That is addressing the needs or deficits in a person. Ergo, the motivation of a person simply depends on his or her drives to satisfy a certain need. If this will be curtailed or impossible to attain, the person would simply become unmotivated.

According to Kiki (2019), many people have a lack of responsibility for their life and live blaming others, justifying, seeking pretexts and even giving up their dreams. They believe that the world is against them and that the “enemy” is outside them, not inside. They fail to realize that their own enemy is themselves.

One of the major reasons why people become unmotivated is that they are SELFISH. They do not perform anything which cannot benefit them in one way or the other. LIFEHACKS mentions that focusing on yourself will not get you far. You will be your own enemy when you refuse to give, help and serve others. You should be a generous person who knows that by giving and sharing (time, effort, knowledge and even money) you are sowing the seed to make a better world and leave your mark on it. Helping others will come back to you, sooner or later.

But is laziness or sloth an innate characteristic developed during childhood in the confines of the home? The probability is strong. Children are great mimics and can adopt the behaviors of their parents until sufficiently motivated to change their own behavior, most likely in pursuit of a relationship or objective goal. This was theorized by Levine in 2015.

This is one of the problems in organizations during these demanding times. There are those who do not SEE the enemy in them. The Dalai Lama said: When your mind is trained in self-discipline, even if you are surrounded by hostile forces, your peace of mind will hardly be disturbed. On the other hand, your mental peace and calm can easily be disrupted by your own negative thoughts and emotions. So I repeat, the real enemy is within, not outside.

Usually we define our enemy as a person, an external agent, whom we believe is causing harm to us or to someone we hold dear. But such an enemy is relative and impermanent. One moment, the person may act as an enemy; at yet another moment, he or she may become your best friend. This is a truth that we often experience in our own lives. But negative thoughts and emotions, the inner enemy, will always remain the enemy.

They are your enemy today, they have been your enemy in the past, and they will remain your enemy in the future as long as they reside within your mental continuum. Therefore, Shantideva says that negative thoughts and emotions are the real enemy, and this enemy is within.

When the person cannot identify the inner foe, he or she will continue to blame the outside forces and then become unmotivated and eventually become unproductive. There is nothing more powerful for self-motivation than the right attitude. You can’t choose or control your circumstance, but you can choose your attitude towards your circumstances.

A person is being lazy if he/she is able to carry out some activity that s/he ought to carry out, but is disinclined to do so because of the effort involved. Instead, s/he carries out the activity perfunctorily; or engages in some other, less strenuous or less boring activity; or remains idle. In short, s/he is being lazy if the motivation to spare effort trumps the motivation to do the right or expected thing (Burton, 2014).

Synonyms for laziness are indolence and sloth. Indolence derives from the Latin indolentia, ‘without pain’ or ‘without taking trouble’. Sloth has more moral and spiritual overtones than laziness or indolence. In the Christian tradition, sloth is one of the seven deadly sins because it undermines society and God’s plan, and because it invites sin.

A mature person must understand how to situate in the community where he or she belongs. The understanding of what the person can give to others is the main consideration since selfish motives are beyond the individual’s mind and intentions. The person is able to transcend the SELF and has defeated the inner enemy.  He or she must find the meaning of life through the small tasks he or she is doing. The person is not indolent for it kills the inner gift to be of purpose to the greater good.

Else, the person’s life will become meaningless if not absurd.

Albert Camus introduces his philosophy of the absurd in his essay of 1942, The Myth of Sisyphus. In the final chapter, he compares the absurdity of man’s life with the plight of Sisyphus, a mythological king of Ephyra who was punished for his chronic deceitfulness by being made to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll back down again.

There is more to life than doing nothing. There is meaning in life when we work hard in serving people. There is no other enemy worse than the inner one. Let us conquer it and become better versions of ourselves.

Insatiable

 

                                  (image: medium.com)

Kuyang pa! Yes, it is true that we are consumers. But it seems that we are obsessed of consuming even if we already have enough. What is the reason why you bought that new shirt when in fact you have around 20 of them? Is the 21^st significant or you just played the victim to consume more?

A marketing strategy refers to a business's overall game plan for reaching prospective consumers and turning them into customers of the products or services the business provides. Peter Ducker aptly said that the aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself. But it was Sergio Zyman who intelligently said that the sole purpose of marketing is to sell more to more people, more often and at higher prices.

Have you ever wondered why cellular phones are constantly upgrading into new models? This is for the consumers to continuously buy them. If one stops and be contended with the old one, the business won’t thrive. Fashion is evolving. Without the new trends, why buy for more?

Products and events are marketed for the consumers to have more…

Take for instance the celebration of Halloween (which is not a Filipino tradition but a copied one). We see spaces being populated by the commercial establishments indirectly telling us that we must wear costumes. The social media sites are posting little kids doing “trick or treat” and we fall into that marketing stuff. We even fail to dig deeper why we encourage kids to be exposed to scary props with decapitated heads. We just want to do them since others are doing it! Costumes and customized items for the event are saleable during these induced events.

But, what is really is the deeper motivation of this?

It is said that without GREED we would still be living in caves but, left unchecked, the insatiable desire for more and better material things can be destructive.

The definition of greed is an extreme or excessive desire for resources, especially for property such as money, real estate, or other symbols of wealth (Taflinger, 1996). In basic terms, "excessive" is possessing something to such a degree it's harmful. But how could a desire for wealth be harmful? Every person needs a degree of wealth to survive: you need to buy food, pay the rent, clothing, transportation, haircuts, and cable TV. Without money, you could starve or freeze to death.

People who are consumed by greed become utterly fixated on the object of their greed. According to Neel Burton, M.D. (2020), their lives are reduced to little more than a quest to accumulate as much as possible of whatever it is they covet and crave. Even though they have met their every reasonable need and more, they are utterly unable to redirect their drives and desires to other and higher things.

These people are fixated to their desires and will forget to be humane. They see others as competition. They compare their possessions to others. With the social media sites where people display their acquired wealth, new clothes and travels, the need to have more intensifies.

The FOMO (fear of missing out) was theorized with the coming of the information technology. It refers to the feeling or perception that others are having more fun, living better lives, or experiencing better things than you are. It involves a deep sense of envy and affects self-esteem. It is often exacerbated by social media sites like Instagram and Facebook (Scott, 2020).

Greed, Burton continues, is also associated with negative psychological states such as stress, exhaustion, anxiety, depression, and despair, and with maladaptive behaviors such as gambling, scavenging, hoarding, trickery, and theft. By overriding reason, compassion, and love, greed loosens family and community ties and undermines the bonds and values upon which society is built.

The psychologist Abraham Maslow called the bottom four levels of the NEED pyramid ‘deficiency needs’ because a person does not feel anything if they are met. Thus, physical needs such as eating, drinking, and sleeping are deficiency needs, as are security needs, social needs such as friendship and sexual intimacy, and ego needs such as self-esteem and peer recognition.

On the other hand, Maslow called the fifth level of the pyramid a ‘growth need’ because it enables a person to ‘self-actualize’, that is, to reach his or her highest or fullest potential as a human being. Once people have met all their deficiency needs, the focus of their anxiety shifts to self-actualization, and they begin—even if only at a subconscious or semiconscious level—to contemplate the context and meaning of their life and life in general.

With these theories, one can conclude that people who are still on their “deficiency needs” are the ones who are trying to accumulate more. They often feel empty even if they have enough since there is the absence of MEANING to their existence. Self-evaluation is necessary to transcend towards the next stage which has the “growth need”.

By doing so, the hunger to have more will be replaced by the need to have meaningful relationships, contribution to the society, humane and altruistic, and the spiritual awareness to be one with the universe.

The Will to Learn

 

                                            (photo: sunstar.com.ph)

Padajon! This was overheard as someone encouraged a student to endure the challenges encountered with the new learning modality. You see, a lot of the learners are given modules and worksheets which require them to read. Yet, reading is a least favorite among the learners. People who are even using social media sites skip those posts with lengthy words. They skip such blogs and proceed to a more visual and entertaining content.

People consume a lot of entertainment these days. The media platforms provide such to the point that hilarious posts and vlogs are the viral ones compared to the more serious and academic posts.

Phil (2017) posits: I think some people just aren't "built" to enjoy the written word as much as readers do. How long does it take you to read an average book? Let's say 10 hours. In that time someone else could watch 5 or 6 movies or hockey games or a whole season of Game of Thrones or play Call of Duty or just go talk with friends for 10 hours and they would get more pleasure than if they read the same book as you did. There's nothing wrong with them; we're all just different.

This is consistent to the theory of Multiple Intelligences of Howard Gardner. In his 1983 book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, he suggested that all people have different kinds of "intelligences." In order to capture the full range of abilities and talents that people possess, Gardner theorizes that people do not have just an intellectual capacity, but have many kinds of intelligence, including musical, interpersonal, spatial-visual, and linguistic intelligences.

Differing intelligences require varied preferences. Probably, most of the learners now are not inclined to have linguistic intelligence.

According to Heick (2019), students are increasingly seeking briefer, more visual, social, and dynamic media. Because not only are these media forms effortlessly entertaining, they rarely require meaningful investment of themselves. And it is this kind of connection that makes reading–or any other media consumption for that matter–feel alive and vibrant and whole. When readers are younger, there is a natural ‘give’ between the reader and the text, their imaginations still raw and green and alive. But as readers grow older, there is less give–and more need for texts to be contextualized differently.

(But), data from Learner Enrollment and Survey Form (LESF) showed that 8.8 million parents preferred modular, over the 3.9 million who voted for blended learning, which is a combination of different modalities: module, television and radio or radio with online. Parents who opted for online only numbered 3.8 million (Ciriaco, 2020).

Since modular learning is the preferred modality, it is now time to adapt. It is expected that difficulties and challenges will be encountered since this is a novel delivery of lessons. Intelligent WILL must be embraced by both the parents and the learners.

Modern psychologists, according to Graeme (2011) often use the word volition in preference to “Will”. Volition is the cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular course of action. It is defined as purposive striving, and is one of the primary human psychological functions (the others being affection [affect or feeling], motivation [goals and expectations] and cognition [thinking]).

The author continued that volitional processes can be applied consciously, and they can be automatized as habits over time. Most modern conceptions of volition address it as a process of action control that becomes automatized.

Within Gary Kielhofner’s “Model of Human Occupation” volition is one of the three sub-systems that act on human behavior. Within this model volition considers a person’s values, interests and beliefs about self-efficacy and personal capacity.

In this case, the cliché “If there’s a will, there’s a way” can be applied.

If modular learning is the most feasible way to continue learning, parents and learners must WILL themselves to gain a lot from it and allow the processes to hone their capacities NOT to curtail their mental development. Later, if this will become part of the norm, we will see the silver linings on the seemingly dark clouds.

Padajon!

 

 

Module Legends

                                      (image: read.cash)

Kaarang ini na modules! This is just one of the lines we overhear from TV and on the social media sites as the opening of classes took place on October 5 of this year.

Over 24 million elementary and high school students start their classes Monday after four months of delay due to the continuing threat of COVID-19 that has so far infected more than 322,000 people in the country. But unlike in previous years, campuses remain closed, following President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to suspend face-to-face classes until a vaccine against the new coronavirus becomes available. Instead, students will be learning from their homes through a mix of modular learning, online learning, and television and radio broadcasts (philstar.com).

Meanwhile, Members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) held a sunrise protest at Mendiola in Manila on Monday, the first day of classes for school year 2020-2021, according to Super Radyo dzBB reporter Isa Avendaño-Umali. ACT Philippines secretary general Raymond Basilio said basic needs for blended learning such as printed modules were still not yet in place a day before classes were to start (gmanetwork.com).

Despite the protests of ACT and some parents, DepEd successfully opened School Year 2020-2021. Claiming victory over the coronavirus pandemic that forced students and teachers to shift to distance learning, Department of Education Secretary Leonor Briones formally declared Monday the start of the new academic year.

“Today, we celebrate a great victory. We declare our victory over COVID-19, the destroyer of our lives, the destroyer of our economy and our way of life and society. But we will not allow COVID-19 to destroy our children's education and their future,” Briones said (Cabico, 2020).

As the day progressed, pictures of teachers on top of school buildings looking for internet signal were shown; one was featured swimming a river to allegedly deliver modules to the other side and many situations which could oftentimes degrade the teaching profession. Of course, we understand human interest stories but when these stories are induced for gimmickry that is already another story.

With the importance of managerial skills which school heads are expected to acquire, seeing teachers on top of the roof looking for internet signals is a question of management. Why is it that the school head was not able to link with the stakeholders for internet connectivity? Seeing a teacher swimming in his uniform with the unwrapped modules on his hands, a viewer can question the integrity of the story and the storyteller itself. The one who filmed it was riding a boat while the teacher swam?

Education is a serious matter. Educators must have a progressive mindset with the intentions to serve not to be served. The professional educator, in accepting his or her position of public trust, measures success not only by the progress of each student toward realization of his or her personal potential, but also as a citizen of the greater community of the republic.

On the other side, there are parents who are complaining about the modular delivery modality. The question to come up in this writers mind is: Can they propose a better modality which allows the learners to learn? If we stop educating the young as what others are proposing, how will we deal with learning gaps?

Generally speaking, learning gap refers to the relative performance of individual students—i.e., the disparity between what a student has actually learned and what he or she is expected to learn at a particular age or year level. One of the more consequential features of learning gaps is their tendency, if left unaddressed, to build up over time and become more severe, which can increase the chances that a student will struggle academically (fsdeu.com.au).

Why do learning gaps form? In general, learning gaps are compounding, which can be troublesome for students beginning to fall behind. But, it's not always easy to identify. As learning is based on building blocks, students are always challenged to expand on topics over time and apply them to new concepts as they progress. Learning that is achieved at one grade level serves as the foundation on which the understanding of more complex ideas and concepts is built.

According to tutordoctor.com, this learning structure grows throughout a student's academic career, with new skills developing from the skills the student has already mastered. Not every student learns at the same pace, though – which is why what starts out as a small learning gap can eventually become a more serious problem.

Also, the modular delivery modality will allow the learners to value reading. Since they do not have anything to do but peruse the materials. This will eventually turn their minds to be critical-thinkers. Allowing the mind to dwell into an analytical state through reading hones mental capacities and skills.

Reading improves vocabulary, organizational skills, and the ability to read, comprehend, and analyze text. ... Moreover, literature can help students develop the critical-thinking skills many employers think are lacking in today's college graduates before they even get to college (Maxcer, 2015).

Whatever our perceptions are, we still have this collective belief that education is very important whatever delivery it may be given.