A Summit Unreached

The fourth district of this province had an educational summit last December.

Well, yes, as a matter of fact, it did happen last December. And no, I am not trying to unlock skeletons in their nastily locked closets.

I just realized that, as a mentor, I am obliged to report to the public what I honestly thought went wrong when one tries to keep their minds in the middle.

And no, I have no delusions of grandeur (professionally speaking but personally, theres the Prince William fixation).

Anyway, it was the first time that I attended the said summit (and I believe it is also the first time that we had it).

Our Division, and several key officials from the mother division along with another fledgling town attended the said summit.

The beloved representative, stately and really crushable (no, I am not licking boots here, I am just saying that he is as huggable as a teddy bear and as intelligent as doctors come but really, he speaks absolutely well and is quite brilliant), was also around. In fact, it was this representative who made the summit possible.

Back in college, I did hear about Educational Summits beign held in U.S. states. In fact, during my short foray with extra research on Curriculum Development, most of the policies, changes and problems were pinpointed and identified during such a summit.

I have anticipated the summit since I heard of it weeks before the event. I wanted to see how a summit is being held and how it my fellow teachers are going to react or participate in it.

I actually thought we were on the verge of something really big here.

However, I was bound for disappointment.

Why?

Most of those who came were only interested with the raffle draw and the give-aways courtesy of the congressman.

I was shocked. Even my mother, who was a teacher also, had that same thing in mind.

No one wanted to ask questions and raise points during the open forum. The report of the superintendents became a farcical bragging of lead lions offeiring the proud achievements of their pack.. though one of them really should be commended for his/her exemplary performance.

I got home feeling really evil that night. I honestly had impossible expectations for Philippine Education.

I thought we would, at last, be able to share things with fellow mentors from across the province. Share our minds, give our hearts.

There was one bright moment in the entire event though. We had a good speaker.

The Undersecretary of the Department of Education was a visionary who absolutely had us all eating out of her palm.

She is brilliant. In fact, she has become a sort of icon in my view (especially in this area where icons like her come in as often as blue moons).

I want to be like her.