An Unending Revolution?: Some thoughts on teaching Philippine history for the 21st century
History is not merely a record of the past. It is not a regurgitation of chronicles or tomes. And above all, it is not a grocery list of names, dates, places and events.
It is a story with a beginning, a middle and an end; it is rewritten every time inasmuch as it is retold. And like all stories, it is an interpretation of reality as seen through the eyes of a writer. It carries with it a message which the writer hopes is sufficient for us to affect our own realities. Any story without that ambition is empty and hollow.
By default, we believe that history is taught so that we can learn from the mistakes of the past. That is not necessarily so. That too is an artifice created by the historian. History can be used similarly to repeat the mistakes of the past (just don’t label them as mistakes) or to justify past acts contrary to our present values. I also find this position tenuous since what we may perceive as mistakes today may have been the best choice during that time. Hindsight, after all, is always 20/20.
And history is not a science of hindsight. More importantly, it is the very art of foresight.
Today we celebrate our 109th Independence Day. Lately, I have felt that the story of our Independence Day has become empty and hollow as the date has been juxtaposed with headlines that state the obvious — the Maguindanao CoCs have been stolen! Is this what we have come to? Is this what we have done with our freedom from tyranny? Sure no society can be perfect, and so I need not point out that over a century since our independence, we still have political killings, poll fraud and vote fixing.
And all this we can trace to the very first elections held for the Malolos Republic.
“Hands that Help Build a Nation” now online at Akomismo!
Over at Akomismo, the “Hands that Help Build a Nation” campaign has begun!It is a revival of an early 90’s nation building campaign which is composed of a series of 11 episodes. Each episode is 1 to 2 minutes long and focuses on the good work done by NGOs.
Even though these clips come from a different time — more than a decade ago — its message remains the same as our challenges are even greater now.
People make a nation work.
Join us from April 22 to May 12 as a new episode is added every two days. Engage the project by commenting and even contributing your own videos and stories of nation-building.
Visit the blog for all the details!
