Summary:

The poem entitled “Kamote” written by a Bicolano writer Kristian Sendon Cordero that tackles
the power of knowledge holds. As L. Frank Baum quoted, “No thief, however skillful, can rob one
of knowledge, and that is why knowledge is the best and safest treasure to acquire. The poem
depicts the reality of the educational system where students struggle to learn at school, but because
of the misguidance of their teacher who forces the students to absorb everything, scaring them that
if they won’t be able to acquire “knowledge” they will end up planting the crop in the future.
The first stanza clearly tells the way of encouragement the teacher tells her students. It shows her
insignificant way of encouraging her students to plant “kamote” which means to those students
who aren’t doing well in class, they should just grow the crop if their performance in class isn’t
well. The second stanza now tells that as time passes by, the crop is growing, it is slowly
consuming the head of her students. Instead of teaching her students she let the crop slowly devour
the minds of her poor students.
The third stanza now describes the poor way of her teaching system, the crop has now covered
everything there is to teach, the vines and leaves has concealed what there is to know. From the
great heroes, to the image of God, to the broken chairs, to the books that they use until it goes to
their heads. It has come to a moment where the students no longer has anything to absorb for the
crop has invaded the classroom. Their heads have now been filled with “kamote” and the only
thing to do is to harvest this crop. The final stanza is the harvesting time. The teacher has harvested
the crop she has planted, the knowledge she has implanted… but, only rotten kamotes are inside
her students’ heads. Rotten knowledge in which she has put inside her students’, and when the
superintendent has visited all she can offer were the rotten knowledge she has planted, because of
this she hit and cursed her students’ for knowing nothing but heads filled with rotten kamote.
Irony and Symbolism:
The irony of the story for us was the phrase, “Para kaming sinasakal, hindi kami makagalaw. Walang
makita, di makabasa at di makasulat” because it shows that even if their teacher encourages them in a
different manner, it wasn’t effective for them as the students. Instead, their teacher’s mindset on
encouragement and the lack of resources in the school only pulled them down and resulted to nothing.
While the symbolism used in the story is the “kamote” itself. The usage of kamote in the story does not
literally mean a root crop, it pertains to the way the teacher tries to encourage her students to do well in
class. In the past, students who were considered stupid or not doing well in class by their teachers, were
often told not to study but plant kamote in their homes instead. In a way, they might have the reason to
study harder, because they won’t be told to plant kamote anymore. So, in the story, she always tells them
to plant and grow kamote.
But what happened in the story wasn’t the same in comparison to the students who already did well in class.
The teacher tried to do her best, encouraging her students in a way that they were embarrassed because they
were told to plant kamote instead. These root crops spread through the whole class, where in fact, the
teacher should have made a way to avoid it. And when the superintendent visited them, she found out that
her students didn’t improve a bit, in which was pointed out in the story as the rotten kamotes in their heads.
As a result, they were deeply scolded by their teacher by hitting and cursing them.