Adopted Healthy Baby
She supports
Relevance of the Title to the Content
The “Adopted Healthy Baby” is about
a chemistry professor who’s about to
lose his job and was considered as
the “adopted healthy baby” of the late
Ma’am Mendoza because he had a
good heart. To her, his heart was
pure, so pure that she believed it was
healthy for him and for others who
had a chance to be with Howell, even
a brilliant feather she wanted to flock
with.
Choice of Characters
Howell is an assistant chemistry
professor who chose to plagiarist the
research of Ma’am Mendoza. He is
the bread winner of his family, that’s
why he is very desperate to be
tenured. He always asked everyone
around him to pity him cause that’s
what he do best. He does not believe
in what he is capable of doing and
consider himself as the weakest
adopted baby of Ma’am Mendoza.
He’s very dependent on Ma’am
Mendoza that’s why he no longer
tried his best to prove his skills to
others. He is known to be fat, funny,
and gay at the university, he let
others belittle him, but despite all
that he is very kind and helpful to
others that’s why he received the
support and trust from Ma’am
Mendoza, he may not be the brightest
among others but still he stood out
because of the heart of gold he
possessed.
Mila is a chemistry professor who is
known to be rigid and doesn’t know
how to listen to others.
her youngest child because she
believed that he was the weakest
among them. She doesn’t favor
anyone who chooses what is wrong,
she believes that there’s always a way
to everything, and getting what you
want is never easy because you need
to put a little effort to achieve
something. That’s why when his son
plagiarized her research she didn’t
think twice of telling the panel about
it, causing his son to fail the subject.
She wants Howell to do the right
thing by conducting his own research
despite what he is going through and
what he believes he is not capable of,
she kept telling Howell that he has a
potential that’s why Ma’am Mendoza
always took his side.
The personalities of both characters
significantly contrast with each other
that gives the piece a sort of “cat and
mouse” situation as they both try to
convince each other with their own
opinions and thoughts on matters,
mainly with Mila convincing Howell
to do the right thing and recreate his
research on his own effort, and
Howell persuading her to give him
the keys so that he could use Mrs.
Mendoza’s work for his own.
Setting
The story took place at the university
where Howell teaches, exactly at
Ma’am Mendoza’s office where the
cabinet of her research was located.
Howell was desperate to take the
research out of the cabinet for his
journal and get him to be tenured
and have the chance to continue
teaching at the university, because of
the implementation of K-12, he might
lose his job and the only way for him
to keep his job was to pass his
research and not to get rejected.
Unfortunately, the key of the cabinet
was given to Mila because they
shared the same office and the only
way Howell can open the cabinet was
to convince Mila to give it to him.
Purpose and Moral of the Story
The purpose of the whole story was
to tackle some of the most trending
issues in education in the Philippines
the time that this was published and
could be even be experienced right
now, the implementation of the K-12
Curriculum in schools nationwide,
and the cases of plagiarism in
schools.
The ‘Adopted Healthy Baby’ is about
a college teacher’s fears about losing
his job because of the
implementation of the new K-12
curriculum and had to plagiarize a
work of his mentor to become
tenured and keep his job.
The story showed what the teachers
and professors were facing and what
adjustments they had to do for the
new curriculum of our country. It’s
never a joke to lose a job it’s really
hard to find a stable job that can pay
the bills and sustain the needs of
one’s family.
Some tend to do the wrong thing
because of their needs, it’s not wrong
to ask for help as long as you know
that you are not going to hurt
someone and it’s for everyone’s good.
Just like in the story Mila kept on
pointing the fact that Howell has a
‘good heart a pure one’ and he
doesn’t need to do bad things
especially things that won’t help him
grow, which was to pass someone
else’s research as his own, which was
a very selfish thing to do. We need to
remember that what we give to
others, life gives us the same in
return. Your life is not an accident or
a coincidence, but it is the shadow of
your actions. Howell just didn’t see
the bright side of his life. It was a
blessing that Ma’am Mendoza helped
him get in the university, but for him
it still wasn’t enough. Howell didn’t
try hard enough to do things for his
own; he was entirely dependent on
one person for everything he had.
We need to learn how to stand on our
own and not always depend on
someone because it will be the reason
why will be seen as weak by others.
And even though we are stronger
because of that other person, we can’t
always depend on others because just
like what happened with Howell, he
didn’t know what to do next because
the person that he looked up to and
depended on the most died, leaving
him with nothing.