Critique on Skip Telling Our Kids To Dream High

Using Reader-Response Criticism

A 26 year-old UP Los Baños teacher and a lingguistics graduate student in UP Diliman
had written an article about Skip Telling Our Kids To Dream High. Daryl Pasion, the author,
discussed in this article the difference between the word high and depth which commonly is used
to illustrate dreams. It showed that a single word can change the lives of kids. “Our language can
influence our thoughts and affect our behavior” (Daryl Pasion, 2018).
The article aims to encourage the parent/guardian or the reader itself not to skip telling
the kids to dream high but to teach/persuade them to dream deep. “For instance, it is typical for
Filipino parents to tell and expect their children to dream high – or, in our language, ‘mangarap
ng mataas’” (Daryl Pasion, 2018). “But what magic would it do if, instead of teaching our
children ‘mangarap ng mataas,’ we teach them ‘mangarap ng malalim’ (to dream deep)? In our
culture, dreams or ‘pangarap’ are expressed in height not in depth. That is why our metaphors for
dreams include those that are above us, like stars” (Daryl Pasion, 2018). “Depth or ‘lalim,’
meanwhile, is associated with emotions. That’s why we are inclined to describe our ‘galit’
(anger) at our enemies and our ‘pagibig’ (love) for our parents as ‘malalim’, not ‘mataas’” (Daryl
Pasion, 2018). There is really a difference between the two. “To teach our children ‘mangarap ng
malalim’ is to give them not wings to fly, but roots to grow (Daryl Pasion, 2018).
The writer at some how explicity state his thesis statement for at stated in the citations
above, he used different terms to explain some terms in the thesis statement but he did not
explain further the details it have. What is written on the 2nd paragraph is also considered as his
assumptions mentioned in the work and they are somehow explicitly discussed. The difference
between the term dream high and dream deep is the problem/issue that is discussed/presented in
the work, for that word high and deep means different in some aspects like its meaning. The
information the author used is also stated in the article itself when he used terms to explain the
difference of dream high and dream deep, and to not skip telling our kids to dream high but to
teach/persuade them to dream deep. There are other ways in supporting the arguments used in
the work, but I’ll choose to stick with what he has done for as what he stated in the article, I also
understand it pretty well.
Skip telling our kids to dream high but to dream deep. “Always dream and shoot higher
than you know you can do” (William Falkner (n.d.)). “Imagine if dreams are fueled by strong
emotions, longing and desire. This way, children see the depth in their dreams – that they dream
to become a lawyer or an engineer or a doctor, not to qualify as ‘may mataas na pinag-aralan’
(well-educated), but to be a lawyer for the unheard, or an architect for the homeless, or a doctor
for the poor” (Daryl Pasion, 2018).

References
Falkner, W. (n.d.). Reach Your Dreams by Achieving Your Full Potential. Goalcast. Retrieved

from https://www.google.com/url?

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rl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.goalcast.com%2F2017%2F03%2F01%2Freach-your-

dreams-achieve-full-potential

%2F&psig=AOvVaw3rQBTpvOg5zgBcYU4UrK8m&ust=1569482004768763

Pasion, D. (2018). Skip Telling Our Kids To Dream High. Inquirer.Net. Retrieved from

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