Cross currents
Media
Part of The Carolinian
- Title
- Cross currents
- Creator
- Abao, Sixto Ll. Jr.
- Language
- English
- Year
- 1957
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- by SIXTO LI. ABAO, JR. ACROSS R E N T S ^^URS is said to be an age of crass materialism. So that one's outward appearances become the yardstick of man. Today, a person's worth is gauged by the size of his bank-roll, the grandeur ol the house in which he lives, the quality of the clothes that he wears, and the num ber of costly shoes that he owns. We most often forget that beneath an ordinary or lowly exterior so many great and holy things may be hidden. We have forgotten that Christ identifies Himself with the meek and the humble, the lowly and the poor. These are facts too sad to be true. But that is truth. Mr. Libarios of the Power (Saint Paul's College, Tacloban City) has this to say; "Whatever may be one’* profes sion In life, let us not forget that man's success during his lifetime is not meas ured In the eyes of God by the amount of money he might have amassed for himself and family. Neither Is It gauged by the site or grandeur of the residential mansion nor by the number or the vastness of his planta tion. The criterion of real success Is a positive evidence of a more endur ing value of man’s actual service ren dered In the name and to the honor of his God and country, to his com munity and fellow human beings." Similar sentiment is expressed by Miss Lucy Soquena of the Augustinian Mirror (San Agustin University). We quote: "Educational attainment or degree Is not the ultimate criterion to Judge a man's education. It Is not the amount of knowledge that he has amassed that makes It; neither a number of books that he has read or possessed. But hl* dealings and deeds. To judge man of his education It Is not always neces sary to ask how long he has stayed In school, or how much knowledge he has earned. For the true measure of man's education Is only revealed by the purity of his heart, the godliness of his conscience, the nobleness of his actuations, and the usefulness of his life." Perhaps, many will agree with Miss Soquena in theory. But I doubt if people will still have the same point of view when they're in a store of coins. For the truth is: a man to day is to be sized up not in terms of his education or his knowledge of things. What matters now is the "round thing''. No matter who you are or what you are as long as you have it, you are always a "sweet smiling baby." We talk of real happiness but too often we do not really know what it is or what it consists of and what we ought to do to attain it. From the Caritas (Immaculate Heart of Mary College): "In this world real happiness con sists In fhe peace and joy of a peace ful conscience and In fhe hope of an eternal reward which springs from a well-spent life... How to attain It? Let us try to live a holler and more chrlstian-llke life. Let's try the best that we can and be faithful to the re solutions that we made. Let us learn to look for and to get the best In life and not to find misery and dis comfort in It, but to find goodness and beauty, even through the ugly and the grim." I hope that the New Year will show us how to elevate ourselves to the kingdom of Christ by becom ing good people. And the New Year to sublimate the passions of men to noble ideals. But are ideals necessary? If so, what does it prov ide us? From the Sillimanian (Silliman University): "Ideals are vitally necessary If we are to live like men and not dogs. Ideals point the way: they give us direction and provide us Incentive. They sustain us In moments of trial, ideals are to a man as the lighthouse is to a ship tossed by a tempestuous sea In a dark, dark night." There are some of us who claim to have no ideal. This is not true. The naked truth is: any man, no matter if he denies it, perhaps be cause of defeat and frustration, has always an ideal, be it small or big. Man, being what he is, cannot just live for nothing; otherwise, he would be reducing himself to an auto maton whose category is much lower than the brutes. Students, as well as teachers, are limited beings. Their compre hensive powers differ but both have their own limits. A teacher may have greater power to understand things while a student may have less or vice versa. To a student in a classroom, the easiest way of clarifying his doubt about certain subject matters is to raise a question, so that as a result, questions after questions maybe raised to reach a point of agree ment. On the part of a teacher, it may be boring but the student must be enlightened. Teachers are teachers and should understand the shortcomings of their students. They should, therefore, answer the questions point by point not in anger but in sober explanation. Unfortunately, some teachers do not allow their students to ask ques tions because they consider them as a personal challenge or reproach to their teaching capacities. Let us give a listen to The ICC Star (Iloilo City Colleges): "No student can ever hope fo learn when he cannot understand what his instructors are talking about. What can be more natural and proper than to ask a guestion when one wants fo be clarified? It Is distressing to note, however, that some instructors have a (Turn to next page) JANUARY, 1957 Page 27 CROSS CURRENTS (Continued from paije ) THE WOMEN wrong conception of questions asked inside the classroom that they consider it as a personal challenge to their capacity and know-how. They, there fore, instead of giving light to the matter, present their argument, pre judiced, biased and belligerent. How can a student then be clarified If fhe instructor starts his clarification by trying fo prove that fhe student is wrong and confuse all fhe issues? Others will nof permit questions not directly connected wlfh fhe subject matter, though logical and practical. They have perhaps forgotten that col lege educafion is buf a small part of our lives. What will be the use of theories and lectures, if after all. one does nof apply them practically fo his dally life? Perhaps these instructors should be students in practical living." PILGRIMS in Chaucer’s CanterburyTales INTRODUCTION 1 see all the pilgrim#, their humours, their features and their very dress, as distrietly as if I had supped with them at the Tabard in Southwark. — DRYDEN — Among students and teachers, as among nations, mutual friendship should be indispensable. Comment ing on a special degree of symbio tic relationship between instructors and students, the Rizalian (Rizal Memorial Colleges) says: "Classroom studies require a special degree of symbiotic coopera tion, especially betwilt professors and the students. The former guide the latter to discover and achieve something better. The learning process will be impossible if this harmonious interrelation doesn't operate. For in stance If a professor gives an assign ment, but the students do not care to work on it, what will happen? Con versely, think of the students who are eager and willing to learn, but unfor tunately, the professor concerned is inactive what will follow? In the ab sence of this sort of persons and family relationship between these two groups of people inside the class, school life will be as dry as the de serts of Africa." Bright idea but this is enough to beat the deadline. J IF CHAUCER had written only the "Canterbury Tales" and nothing more, he would still occupy a unique place in English literature. Like Spencer's "Faery Queen" or Bacon's "Instauratio", Chaucer's masterpiece was never completed, but he, nevertheless, achieved his magnificent purpose: to paint a picture of the varied aspects of social life in contemporary England. So vividly does Chaucer present his motley pilgrims that the reader feels they are personal acquaintances with whom he shares the joy of living, its dreams and its failings. Though only twenty-four tales were written, they cover an unusually wide range of narratives, including satires, fables, exempla, ro mances of chivalry and love, and the vulgar comedy of low life. The stories are extraordinary in their variety, particularly in their digressive tendency characteristic of medieval story-telling. With casual informality, Chaucer interrupts his narratives to indulge in philosophical or moral commentaries. Here and there he repeats him self without embarrassment, throwing in words or lines without sense, promising to bring a story to a close quickly but dragging on tediously. This deliberate carelessness contributes to the holiday mood of the pilgrimage. The portraits of the pilgrims shift from the attire, to a facet of character, then back with an apparent lack of organization. Yet each pilgrim stands out distinctly as a type of medieval character and also as an individual personality. In the light of the usual predominance of women—in number, at least—in matters of religious practices or demonstrations, especially today, it seems rather odd that of the thirty or so pilgrims only three are women, two of whom are religious and the third, a coarse though good-hearted libertine. Certainly, they must have been conspicuous by their number and, in all probability, must have received more than the usual share of attention from the rest of the company. Page 28 THE CAROLINIAN