Sinco: education in Philippine society

Title

Creator

Drilon, Rex D.

Identifier

A book to read

Language

English

Source

The Cabletow Volume II (New Series No. 3) January 1960

Year

1960

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

Sinco: Education in Philippine Society By BRO. REX D. DRILON Member, Rafael Palma Lodge No. 147 From first to last, this new book Dy President Sinco of the state university is a good sample of a vigorous mind immersed in the liberal revisionist con cepts of education as a tool for trans forming Philippine society. The basic idea which runs through the book and which is repeated over and over in ini mitable wavs is that education’s pecu liar function is the rigorous training of the intellect on such a broad scale as to touch -and quicken all its powers and therefore those of the personality. The book contains fourteen chapters, some Fairly long, some quite brief, but all equally meaty and characteristic ally crystal clear. From the mission of the U.P. as a public institution of high er learning to the kind of faculty and student body a true universit)' should recruit, from education as a tool of na tion building to thc improvement of university standard and the role of a university’in Asian cultural cooperation; from the relation of the university with science and research to the identifica tion of vital issues in higher education, etc. — the whole gamut of education's aspirations and problems is treated here in kaleidoscope. This collection of articles is based upon public statements delivered on several important occasions before uni versity audiences and civic organizjations. The highly praised inaugural delivered before a big select audience when thc author assumed the presid ency of the University of thc Philip pines, is included in this permanent collection and stands out as a sound, statesman-like pronouncement by an authority. In this inaugural, the func tions of a true university are outlined within the general-education frame work which Dr. Sinco thinks is the foundation-stone of all education, in cluding specialization. President Sinco criticizes the proli feration of courses which he thinks leads to superficiality and unnecessary expenditure of time and effort and mo ney. He inveighs against the undue emphasis on methods in education at the expense of substance and thorough mastery of subject matter. He deplores mediocrity in faculty performance and student scholarship. He minces no words against the shallowc teachers' col leges and by implication views with suspicion the unproductive scholar who merely' parrots the ideas of others. In short, he looks down upon sloppiness and charlatanism whether these he found in a person or in an institution. Throughout the book he stresses the imperious demands of perfectionist ex cellence as the goal of true education. The public school system as such in this country comes in for a terrific drubbing. Here is a man in high position fight ing the status quo with a stubbomess that could arouse resistance from con formist and obscurantist quarters but 112 admiration from those who plug for new adventures in refreshing change. Stagnation and repetitive routinary mo tion, the servitude to the herd, the fear to re-examine "revered” traditions that are no longer germane to the context of a changed and changing world — these arc the things that Dr. Sinco fights to hasten a new future for a new country'. And so he lambastes commercialism in education, fanatic ism and intolerance in religion, nar rowness in nationalism, crassness in politics, superstition of race. And so he wants the universities of the coun try to purge themselves of their dross; he wants the government university to be the consummate flower of Filipino maturation and thus mark the Philip pines as worthy to be reckoned with among the respected countries in Asia. That is why he wants ideas — fer tilization of ideas — no matter from what sources they come. In private conversations he expresses a conviction that American ideas as such must be fertilized by European ideas, and, as all these come to thc Philippines to blend with Filipino ideas in thc vast backdrop of our Asian heritage, a rich civi lization will develop, as has been de veloping before our very eyes for countless years. Civilization, as thc “sum total of thc contributions of many races, many regions, and many philosophies that have passed through thc process of selection and crystalliza tion in the choice of the best and the noblest,” has meaning for the Filipino only if he first exhausts his own selfdiscovery and contributes his own ge nius to that sum total. That is why thc author has said in public and pri vate that special effort must be exert ed to stress Philippine studies because the Filipino must know the rich trea sure-trove of his past before he can use wisely the accretions from sources outside his own. The style of the book is so clear and thc thinking so logical that there is no mistaking the texture and direction of thc Sinco mind. And yet the very sim plicity of phraseology is deceptive be cause the superficial reader who looks for pedantry and tinsel language will miss what is hidden behind the simple construction of thc pregnant lines and the unusual precision in the use of words. (After all, the profoundest and wisest thoughts in any language are couched in the simplest and clearest terms.) Thc purity of Sinco's English, uncorruptcd by the cumbersome frills and the labored superfluities of writers who are not really writers, is the mea sure of his culture. The fact that his scholarship is broad and sound, whe ther he speaks on education or in the field of law, in which, long before, he had made a name as constitutional au thority, speaks of the depth and breadth of that culture. Thc book has a strong appeal to thc upper crust. Educationists, social scien tists, college professors, government officials, and college students should read it. The reader will profit most from it if he reads slowly and ponders thc implications of thc social assess ments. Isolated direct quotes from the b(M>k could be framed and hung on thc wall with the same pride one gets from older sources. It is not commonly known that Dr. Sinco wrote his fifteen books and nu merous scholarly articles and speeches bv dictating ba a stenographer. He can dictate for hours and hours with sustained concentration no matter SINCO: EDUCATION IN PHILIPPINE SOCIETY 113 what the interruptions are. This new book is a result of such dictation in the midst of other preoccupations in his iob as president of a university. He edits his own works. All this is mentioned not as a digression but as an emphasis that he is his own master in the held of scholarly thinking as well as in his present position as an executive and a leader of men. Since no one ever writes a perfect book, one weakness that might be men tioned in the present volume is that the brief chapters could well have been developed more fully like the others. Thc effect of deliberate abbreviated treatment is like tasting appetizing food at the start, only to find tnat there is no more to eat once the appetite has been fully aroused. Which probably in this case is a device of strength, not a weakness, based upon the “theory of curiositv.” But if it be a weakness, this is anticipated in the author’s in troductory when he says that”...the work is not intended as a unified pre sentation... but rather a series of se parate discussins. . .” Besides, that would have made the book thicker than was originally intended. Elabora tions on Dr. Sinco's abbreviated ideas can. be found in his published and un published works. If anything, Education in Philippine Society could well be a precursor of more books to come in the same field, judging by the healthy restlessness of the author to influence education in this country and to change the face of the University of the Philippines in his capacity as president, just as there were a number of books that flowed from his pen when his chief preoccupations were then those of professor and dean of law. & Williams Visit G L WB Dr. T. Harry Williams of Winipeg, Manitoba, Canada, was a Jan uary visitor in Grand Lodge. He was accompanied by Mrs. Williams. The couple are on a world tour and were very glad to be in the Philippines in the course of the trip. WB Williams and his wife wetre long-time medical missionaries in Chengtu, China, prior to its occupa tion by the Reds which forced them to retire from the service and go home to Manitoba to enjoy their well-earned rest. WB Williams is a Past Master of Szechuen Lodge which was the only lodge operating in China in World War II and also the only lodge which de cided to remain under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of the Philippines when the Grand Lodge of China was organized shortly before the last war. Word of the coming of the Williams was relayed to Grand Master Ofilada by Bro. Dr. Wing Kwong, a member of Amitv Lodge No. 1 of the Grand Lodge of China which is now in Taipeh, and also of Szechuen Lodge No. 106 of the Grand Lodge of the Phil ippines. Lodge No. 106 is presently non-operating. Bro. Kwong now re sides and practices in Hong Kong. A A A Freedom of religion and of thought and of speech were achieved by denying both to the state and to the established church a sovereign monopoly in the field of religion, philosophy, morals, science, learning, opinion and conscience. Walter Lipmann 114

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