Bam Aquino preps the crowd
Mike Luz
Joy Abaquin
Bong Mojica
Fr. Jomar Legaspi
Pilar Habito
The exhibit
The crowd
The forum
The SmarteesLast year, I was lucky enough to be able to attend the first Why Not Forum and the forum is addicting. (Unfortunately, I didn't get to attend the following forums until yesterday.)
As with the previous forums, Why Not Forum 5.0 was teeming with ideas and tons of thought-provoking questions. I'm quite sure that everyone in the room started formulating their "Why Not?" questions at the end of the forum.
Yesterday's set of speakers included former DepEd Usec. Mike Luz, Multiple Intelligence Int'l School Principal Joy Abaquin, Learn.ph Foundation President Fr. Jomar Legaspi, Cahbriba Alternative School Foundation's Cielito and Pilar Habito, R. A. Gapuz review center founder and owner Ray Gapuz, and Smart's Wireless Consumer Division Head Bong Mojica.
Each speaker had their own why not questions and in a short time of 18 minutes, they talked about their ideas passionately and got everyone in the room thinking.
Mike Luz opened the forum and talked about the state of education in the Philippines. His question was "WHY are we NOT yearning for more learning?" He gave a really good picture of the education landscape in the country - the present, the future (if we don't do something about the present), the reality, and ways to move forward (by implementing systemwide solutions).
Next was Joy Abaquin who gave a wonderful talk on MI. Her question was "Why not use one's intelligences to make a differences?" I learned about Gardner's MI concept when I had an Educ elective back in grad school in Diliman, and it was a theory that I really liked and believed in. Gardner's concepts breaks the traditional and it just shatters the thinking that some individuals are, forgive me for writing this, "slow." Abaquin stressed that a teacher should not just be a teacher, but a thinking teacher.
Following her was Rey Gapuz whose question is something I've seen on his review center's billboard not too long ago, "Why not pass an international nursing exam at the age of 61?" Gapuz shared how his institution helps the reviewees pass the exam by teaching them about functional concepts, test-taking strategies and giving confidence boosters.
Then it was Bong Mojica's turn. I know the guy as a boss and as an executive, but yesterday afternoon I saw him in a different way - a teacher. And he seemed like a teacher who enjoyed teaching. Mojica's questions were "Why not break the rules?" "Why not experiment?" and "Why not just do it?"
Meanwhile, Fr. Jomar Legaspi also offered several ideas that would make educators stop for a while and ponder on how they teach. The guy is not your typical priest. There are probably two kinds of priest-teachers - the usual who teach students to be good and be traditional and those who encourage learners to be thinkers. Legaspi definitely belongs to the latter. Kind of reminds one of Robin Williams' John Keating character in Dead Poets Society.
Closing the forum was the tandem of Cielito and Pilar Habito who talked about the Life Learning system they use at the Cahbriba School. The couple talked about the role of socio-emotional relationship in learning and the important of experiential learning in a learning community.
Bam Aquino hosted the event. DLSU Pops Orchestra entertained the audience with their music.
Why Not Forum 5.0 rocked! Wait for the videos to be uploaded on the Why Not site.
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