ANGELITO B.

CORPUZ
ED 201 – MAED
December 10, 2022

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL WRITING

1. How can we contribute for the improvement of quality education in the Philippines?

Answer: Education is essential to everyone. It is through education that helps people earn
respect and recognition. It is indispensable part of life both personally and socially, benefitting the
society and his being as well. Providing quality education produces globally competitive
individuals who can cope up with the innovations of the world. Every child should be given equal
opportunities to learn and study. Because the development of a country depends vastly on the
standard of education. In my own words, education is merely a step to make us grow in all aspects
of life, but useless without the proper guidance provided by the teachers and administrators and
the given teaching aids used today. Good Quality education is a given name to those that have
the complete or necessary requirements in having a good atmosphere for learning and proper
growth.
As a teacher, I have to be more equipped with the knowledge and experiences in order for me to
provide the quality of education each pupil should have. Trainings and seminars will be very
helpful because I will be able to acquire different strategies and techniques that I can use to
different pupils at different situations. Not only mentally that I have to be intelligent at all times,
but also physically fit in order for me to impart those things to them. Since the new program of our
country is still fresh to everyone, being a teacher, I should be more prepared than anyone else in
dealing with the new program. I will think of different ways and strategies on how I will teach the
lesson to my pupils. I will formulate techniques that will be much easier for the students to learn
efficiently and effectively. I will provide a child-centered learning environment and make use of
their daily experiences to correlate with the subject. In addition, proper motivation of the students
will be useful before dealing with the subject matter. It is through motivation that students will gain
interest and will be able to participate in the class actively. In dealing with the quality of education
in our country, we should also include the facilities we have in school and the materials that can
be useful for their learning. As a mentor of education, I will provide tangible materials in order for
the pupils to learn effectively. Making their environment in school a more conducive place to
acquire knowledge and skills, ensuring that the school is a safe place for them to learn. Personally
speaking, we teachers should have the goal to achieve this good quality education and to educate
more students. We should teach them the way we want our kids to be learned. New and effective
methods should be exercised in school rather than what we see in the old days because
successful individuals signify the quality of education given by the school in the country. We
should provide good teaching because it is an instruction that leads to effective learning, which in
turn means thorough and lasting acquisition of the knowledge, skills, and values we teachers or
the school has set out to impart. In conclusion, education is absolutely beneficial for society on
the whole. It is a life-long process to each person that need to be reinforced throughout life.
However, we need education system that may eradicate illiteracy and may provide the common
man an access not only to basic education but also to higher and technical education.
2. How can we instill patriotism among our learners?

Answer: According to dictionary.com, patriotism is described as "devoted love, support, and

defense of one's country." This definition brings into mind soldiers or people tasked with defending
the country. Yet, patriotism is not just about being a soldier.
Patriotism can mean so much more and can be practiced by anyone in their own way. There
seems to be a disconnect between what students think patriotism is and what it actually is. Here
is how we should instill patriotism among our learners.

By instilling in them a love for their country

The basic form of patriotism is having a love for your own country. If patriotism were to be taught
in schools, the students would be able to slowly develop and sense of pride for his/her country.

The students will also understand how essential to have respect for the fundamental structures
of the country. Students could even have lessons about important institutions like the government
and the constitution. The goal is to make them feel that the country is worth fighting for.

By giving them a sense of identity

Young people these days sometimes have a hard time identifying with a certain group. They might
feel like loners who have no place where they belong. Teaching patriotism in schools will help
students build up a sense of identity. It will help them feel like they belong in their country.

The students get the chance to understand that they have a purpose in society. It helps builds the
students' character development. A sense of pride grows in them that there is nothing wrong with
strongly identifying with their nationality.

By teaching them to appreciate and respect their fellow citizens

Patriotism does not have to do with only loving your country. It also means loving and respecting
your fellow citizens. Patriotic rituals do not matter but you cannot be patriotic if you do not stand
up and help the people around you. Students should know that they can practice patriotism by
being supportive of their fellow citizens.

You can cheer for athletes representing your country in international competitions or help your
fellow neighbors. Students should learn that practicing patriotism is not just a grand act, but even
small gestures can help.

By teaching them to become selfless and do what is best for the country
In the past few years, the terms patriotism and nationalism have been mixed up. If you are
patriotic, you do not wish for the downfall of a certain section of society. Being patriotic does not
mean you consider yourself superior to other people.

You instead become selfless and strive to do what is right for your fellow citizens. As students
grow older, they will not do things only to benefit themselves but also the less fortunate. They will
work and wish for the nation's advancement as a whole, not for just a few specific people.

On the other hand, some students may not have the full picture when it comes to being patriotic.
As these students get older, they may not get into being patriotic as easily if they were not taught
it in school. Teaching patriotism in schools will help the students see patriotism as more of choice
and not something that is being forced upon them.
The things the students learn while they are young follows them when they become adults. They
take what they learned about patriotism with them to the real world. They choose to become
patriotic and do it properly.

Patriotism is so much more than just loving your country. There are also many more ways to be
patriotic than becoming a soldier or serving the country. Just by being a good person in society,
you have already become patriotic. This is how important to teach patriotism in schools. Students
learn about what patriotism really is, and it also helps positively develop their character at a young
age.

3. Discuss your own understanding about “Tabula Rasa.”

Answer: The term Tabula Rasa suggests that we are born as a “blank slate”, implying that we
are born without any form of conscious knowledge whatsoever, and that we gain our information
through sense experience of the world.

This emphasizes that everyone is born equally. Although there are many brilliant scientist and
philosophers that chastise this theory, I believe that everyone is equal. Let us then suppose the
mind to be, as we say, white paper void of all characters, without any ideas; how comes it to be
furnished? To this, I answer, in one word, from experience: in that, all our knowledge is founded;
and from that it ultimately derives itself.” Another way to think about this is by comparing it to a
file cabinet. In this analogy the experience plays the role of the files, and the mind is equivalent
to the cabinet. Without files the cabinet will be empty. The cabinet is not congenital with files
inside; someone must physically put files in for the cabinet to be full.

Just like the file cabinet, the mind will be void of knowledge without experience, because it does
not come with inherent knowledge. Although we are not born with innate knowledge, we are “born
with a variety of faculties that enable us to receive and process information (the senses, memory,
our ability to use language) and to manipulate it once we have it.” Also, this discusses innate
religious tendencies, and innate morals. Regarding innate religious tendencies, it discusses
whether or not humans are born with a belief in God. It quickly became obvious that people are
born without a belief in God, because there are many different religions in the world who believe
in different gods and some that do not believe in any god. According to Judaism, which Christianity
derived from, one will never understand God. The reason why one may not understand God or
his morals is because he has never experienced anything similar to God.

Therefore, they will never be able to comprehend what God is. You can think about it like this.
One will never be able to picture a new color because he has never seen one. Everyone is born
with free will. Also, we need a good education. The only fence against the world is a thorough
knowledge of it. This shows that one needs an education to be able to have their own perception
of the world. After all everyone is born without any knowledge, so education is the only way to
acquire any form of understanding of the world.

However, it doesn’t just end with a good education one needs to be able to apply the information
to thinking about the world and developing original perspectives. Education is very similar to
experience. They both give us the tools to be successful in life. On the other hand, everyone is
born with an innate evil nature as well. This nature causes them to steal, cheat, kill, and commit
other evil deeds.
Because of this we are required to rule with harsh reprimanding governments to prevent the
citizens from being evil. Another thing we must do is to provide every child with a good education
in order to erase their evil tendencies and teach them to do well.

4. Why is “Orbis Pictus” considered the original visual aids?

Answer: Because “Orbis Pictus” is the first children’s picture book, originally published in 1658 in
Latin and German, the Orbis with its 150 pictures showing everyday activities like brewing beer,
tending gardens, and slaughtering animals, is immediately familiar as an ancestor of today’s
children’s literature. The Orbis was hugely popular. At one point it was the most used textbook in
Europe for elementary education, and according to one account it was translated into “most
European and some of the Oriental languages.” Its author John Comenius, a Czech by birth, was
also well-known throughout Europe and worked in several countries as a school reformer. His
portrait was painted by Rembrandt, and according to an 1887 edition of the Orbis, Comenius was
even “once solicited to become President of Harvard College.” Even if he is less celebrated today
by name, his innovative ideas about education are still influential. In his Didactica Magna, for
example, he advocates for equal educational opportunities for all: boys and girls, rich and poor,
urban and rural.

5. Give your own reflections on the following lines:

A. “Know Yourself”
Answer: Begin to look inward, feel your heartbeat throughout your body. Feel your breath
as it rises from the bottom of your stomach, makes its way up through your chest, and the
warm air leaves your lips. Be mindful. Be present. Be you.

Take a moment to find yourself. Take a moment to get to know yourself and who you truly
are. By being present within the now, it allows us to disregard everything that is outside of
ourselves. We rid ourselves of the past, we stop looking into the future, and we disconnect
from the external world and society that plagues our being.

But what exactly does that mean? Is it some cliché Instagram post or Facebook status?
I’ll tell you what it isn’t, to find yourself, isn’t a consequence of any outside forces, actions,
beings, or persons. There is no-thing outside of whom you are that is the key or gatekeeper
to whatever lies within.

The ancient Greeks traveled to the Oracle at Delphi to seek wisdom and knowledge.
Before they entered the Oracle, there above the entrance, was in scripted “Gnothi
Seauton” or translated “Know Thyself”. This saying was purposefully placed above the
oracle, and would soon after be a prominent hashtag, as those who seek wisdom must
first know who they are before obtaining any wisdom and enlightenment from outside
forces.

If you know yourself, you will come to realize that everything that you need is within you.
All of the power in the world lies within each and every one of us. It is deep within, waiting
to be unburied.

Those who truly know who they are didn’t always have the easiest path or journey to self-
actualization. They fought with society and the image that they were told to be, and, to
play the part. They had battles with their emotions, some they won and many they lost.
They went to war with their insecurities, a victory often hard won.

We don’t meet or get to know ourselves just by being born. Birth is something that is gifted,
a gift that is unknown to us, at least until we have enough self-awareness to realize the
blessing of what it means to be alive. However, being alive and its accomplice of what is
called life, is still incomplete if you never find your reason of why. Of why you are who you
are, of why you were gifted life and to know what it means to be you.

Let’s just be who we really are. It takes continuous self-reflection to get to know who you
are. If you are like me, this self-reflection is often un-voluntary and begins to force itself
from the deepest cracks of your internal being. But, it is also a sign of your internal power,
which is, at the very least, a sign of order. That life is okay the way that it is. Everything
that is outside of your own being begins to show itself as it truly is. They are things that
you can mold, bend, and adjust accordingly to fit into your reality.

Nothing outside of yourself has any dictation on who you are and how you go about your
life. When you know yourself, you will realize this, that life is so simple and that you control
your own destiny.

Knowing who you are will always be more important than others knowing who you are.
Some people will never get it; their egos won’t let them. Ego is the main threat to self-
awareness; it is the evil villain in your superhero story. We rid ourselves of ego through
practice, such as mindfulness, and as a result, we begin to be at peace.

When we get to know ourselves, we get to know the world. We start to see other people
as our brothers and sisters. We begin to see life in the way that it is, that we are all truly
connected and infinite beings. Knowing yourself is the greatest weapon that you can have
in your arsenal. Its power lies in your strength and the confidence gained when you truly,
know you.

Focus on who you are, block everything else out, nothing else matters.

B. “An unexamined life is not worth living.”

Answer: Life is a matter of choices. We have choices for we have freedom. God gave
us freedom but that freedom is not absolute. There are realities in life where in we
cannot control or we have no freedom at all. Best examples are the face we have, our
skin color, our parents, to be born in a rich or a poor family, to be born in what religion
and where or in what country to be born. We have no choice in these things. I agree to
Lady Gaga’s song “Born This Way.” That is why we have no right to criticize others
whom we think ugly because on the first place it is not their choice to have that face. The
one who gave that face to them is God. Criticizing them means criticizing God the
Creator.

If there are things in life where in we have no freedom at all, there are also things we can
control. We can control our fate. We are not destined to be failures. We can change our
life and be successful. If you are born on a poor family, work hard and someday you will
become rich. If you feel you are the evilest person living, you can still change and get
converted. It’s a matter of choice. There was once a famous poet who said “I am the
master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” I agree with him. We are the ones who
make our fate. Who we are in the present is the product of who we are in the past. Who
we will be in the future is both the product of our past and the present. Our past is
important but our present is more important. The wrong decisions we have done in the
past cannot be change anymore. The present gives us the ability to change our self and
our life. The wrong decisions we have done in the past are mostly product of our failure
to examine our self. There are times where in we examine our self but still we enter into
a wrong decision or maybe it is just the product of our not examining our self well. That
is why it is important for us to pause, take time to go deep within our very self and
examine our life. It is in silence, focus and intentionally taking time for examining our
self-wherein we encounter our true self and God.

An unexamined life is not worth-living as Socrates would say. I can say that He is really
an intelligent, God-fearing and a person with high morals because of that line. In life, we
have to examine our self for us to know where we are in the present. I mean we become
aware of who we are in the present. In that way, we will be able discover both our good
and bad sides and we can find ways in changing our self. It is also in examining our self-
wherein we will know what our passions in life are and we will discover the things that
make us happy, complete and fulfilled. That is why in the seminary, there are pauses
after prayers and there is silentium magnum for us to reflect and discern for our true
vocation in life and for our future. Through reflection (with silence and focus), we will be
able to know our self-more and more and we can have good decisions in life. If we have
no time in examining our life, for sure we will not be taking the good path, make wrong
decisions that we will surely regret in the future and we will find life meaningless.
C. “Don’t do unto others what you don’t want others do unto you.”
Answer: It’s the golden rule "Do unto others..."it’s the ultimate norm of high morality
in our culture. Sure there are other Sure there are other morals by which we live, but
this one phrase embodies our most cherished value: That we should treat people as
we would like to be treated.

We are taught it from childhood. We learn it from our parents. We learn it at school.
But more than any other place, we learn it in our churches because it comes straight
from the Bible. Found in Matthew, chapter 7 verse 12, it is in essence a summation of
the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes from Christ's teaching. If you don't want
to be ripped off, don't rip off others. If you don't want your spouse to cheat on you,
don't cheat on your spouse. If you don't want to be judged, don't judge.

Now it's true we don't always abide by the Golden Rule. We often hurt others in ways
we, ourselves, would not like perpetrated against us. Some of life's hardest lessons
are actually reminders that we have treated another in a way we would hate to be
treated ourselves.

Do unto “others” as you would have “others” do unto you.” But who exactly are the
“others?” This is the first flaw of the Golden Rule. Does it apply only to family and
friends? Some apply it that way. Does it only apply to those who share the same
religious beliefs, ethnic heritage, racial background, or social status? Many apply it this
way. Apparently it’s extremely difficult for people to extend the “others” beyond people
similar to themselves. Pick up a newspaper and it becomes pretty apparent