Rappler Teaches History As Extensionists Teach Farmers: “Don’t Think, Just Absorb!’”
A good media does not teach Hate – s/he teaches Understanding! A good extensionist propagates Thinking, not simply Memorizing or Remembering.
Rappler, with your
Facebook sharing on Tuesday, 21 September 2021, “Here are eight books on
martial law to furnish your knowledge on one of the darkest periods in
Philippine history,” plus your online entry, “#NeverForget: Revisit The Dark
Era Of Martial Law Through These Books” – thereby you are a Dictator, not a Teacher!
Rappler,
you are dictating to your readers What to Think, not How to Think! A good media teaches how and not what to think
critically. It Engages, Enriches,
Inspires.
(“Engage, Enrich, Inspire[1]”
image from Teachingwithamountainview.com)
This is a teacher speaking, a graduate of UP Los Baños with
a BS Agriculture degree major in Ag Education. In 1966, I taught at the UP
College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños and, having discovered organic farming for myself, began to
change students’ minds about modern agriculture. In 1968, I taught college in
Cagayan De Oro City at Xavier University College of Agriculture, there stirring
the mind of Nicanor “Nicky” Perlas into
embracing organic agriculture and
who later “graduated” into biodynamic
agriculture and won the world-famous Right
Livelihood Award in 2003.
Was the student better than the teacher? Also in 2003, I became
the Editor In Chief of the Philippine Journal
of Crop Science (PJCS), based at UP Los Baños. The PJCS was 3 years late. It was a one-man job – I did
the desktop publishing myself, everything digital, doubly fast. In 2006, singlehandedly
I made the PJCS up-to-date, and in 2007 made it internationally accepted, listed
in that prestigious list called “ISI” (now “Web of Science”).
Yes, I am a full-blooded Ilocano (FBI) with roots from
Rosario, La Union, and President Ferdinand
Edralin Marcos (FM) was an FBI, roots from Sarrat, Ilocos Norte – when
the FBIs are good, they are the best! FM
is the best President we have ever had. The FBIs are also thinkers;
Communist Jose Maria Sison is an
extreme example. At UP Los Baños, we were trying to un-convince some radicals
on their path to perdition, but we failed. But not for want of trying.
Can Rappler be convinced to change its media way of negative
thinking alone and neglecting positive thinking? As a writer, I prefer creative
thinking to critical thinking. Like the British wit Oscar Wilde, I always look at the doughnut, not the hole!
In her practice of journalism, Rappler behaves like many
extensionists of agriculture in this country – they train farmers; they tell
farmers exactly what to think, instruct farmers exactly what to do – and they believe
they are serving the farmers superbly! Those unmindful aggie extensionists do not encourage farmers to think
otherwise, ask questions, explore other options, suggest changes in inputs or
systems of production and processing of produce. They do not engage, enrich, inspire.
After training? They expect the farmers to go on, apply what they learned, and
be successful!
Like
the rabid Rappler journalists, the rabid aggie extensionists are always right!@517
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