Driving around the city one day, I saw a sign to one of the schools here – Auckland Normal Intermediate School. It made me recall the countless number of times I’ve passed by Philippine Normal College in Taft Avenue when I was still working in Intramuros. Back then everytime I passed by the PNC campus I can’t help make prying glances towards their students. Inaalam ko kasi kung gaano nga sila ka-“normal”. Hangga ngayon hindi ko pa rin alam kung ano meron ang isang “normal” school. Bawal bang pumasok sa PNC ang mga may sayad sa utak o may disability?
Paki-explain naman kung ano ang Normal school. Tagal ko nang gustong itanong ito eh. Minsan kasi may mga ordinaryong bagay na hindi natin naiiintindihan at nahihiya tayong magtanong dahil baka tayo pagtawanan. Halimbawa yung school na Don Bosco (my HS alma mater, btw), ang akala ng marami pangalan ito ng isang mayamang Don. Actually “Don” stands for “Father”. Don Bosco was founded by St. John Bosco, an Italian priest who also founded the Salesian Order of priesthood.
Incidentally, nung high school ako, muntik-muntik na akong pumasok sa pagpapari. But that’s another story for another day. For today, what I’ld really like to say is that there is no shame in admiting that you don’t know something. Kahit nung nagtuturo ako sa college I was never afraid to say “sorry class I don’t know” (sundan ng “that’s your homework, find the answer to your question” hehe). But seriously, in life it's impossible to know everything. And we should not pretend to know everything either. Ika nga ni Grasshopper: “seek not to know all the answers but to understand the questions.”
26 Comments:
ako rin di ko ma gets ang idea behind "normal school" until I googled it:
NORMAL SCHOOL: A school that trains teachers, chiefly for the elementary grades.
By
Anonymous, at 4:22 PM, April 04, 2006
tsinek ko sa dictionary ang meaning ng "normal" - according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule, or principle b : conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern.
makes sense now dahil ang mga titser ang inatasan magturo sa mga bata na mag-conform sa norm kaya siguro normal school ang tawag.
sa UP definitely walang "normal school".
By
Ka Uro, at 4:32 PM, April 04, 2006
KU, paano yung alma mater ko, Centro Escolar University?..nunca na naging scolar akesh (obvious ba sa spelling na lang eh.)
By
Anonymous, at 11:45 PM, April 04, 2006
Ka Uro,
Maganda ang title nitong entry mo...."Many attend school to seek knowledge, yet very few find wisdom"....malaman.
Ako, kapag may hindi alam, eh hindi ko na lang inaalam. hahaha
By
Unknown, at 4:25 AM, April 05, 2006
ganda ng title..very true! can't say more..inaantok nako eh! hahhaha
By
Anonymous, at 5:14 AM, April 05, 2006
hmn, interesting. ngayon alam ko na kung bakit normal. akala ko rin abnormal lahat yung hindi nakapasok doon eh. hehehe
offtopic: heto, paki-explain nga po, KU. dito sa school ng anak ko (pati na rin ng kay Rhada)...meron silang tinatawag na Teacher's Work Day, tapos walang pasok ang mga estudyante. titser lang ang nasa eskwelahan. hehehe tanong ko, bakit kaya tinawag na "work day"...hindi kaya nila considered na trabaho yung mga araw na school yung mga pagkakukulit na mga bata at tinuturuan nila? hahaha
By
Anonymous, at 7:11 PM, April 05, 2006
hmmm, ako di ko alam kung ano ang "Normal School" kasi ang alam ko lang galing ako sa School kung saan ang ibang babae eh pilit ginagawang lalaki ang sarili, at ang iba pilit ginagawang kikay ang mga hitsura.
paumanhin sa mga tatamaan...
By
Mmy-Lei, at 8:54 PM, April 05, 2006
Ako, alam ko "normal" na usapan na dun sa alma mater ni KU yung white lady na lumalabas dun sa tapat ng school daw. Pumapara sa mga sasakyang dumadaan. Narinig nyo na po yun?
By
Ann, at 9:48 PM, April 05, 2006
ah.. paumanhin po. baka naman po normal na mga tao lang pwede dun. ako kasi medyo may ka abnormalan eh so hindi po ako pwede dun. ehehe...
By
pb, at 1:52 AM, April 06, 2006
I say amen to you...better to be true to yourself...nice quote for the day ang sabi ng grasshopper..i'll keep that in mind!:)
By
ev, at 2:00 AM, April 06, 2006
tess,
iskolar ka pala ha. hahaha
rhada,
hahah
pobs,
thanks
des,
yung iskul ng anak madalas meron din silang tinatawag na "teacher's only" day. wala din pasok ang mga bata. pero may point ka, dapat work day din tawag kapag may mga estudyante. o baka naman enjoy sila kapag may mga bata and they see it as "play day". well, not likely. a ewan ko ba. pati ako ginulo mo ang isip. hahaha
mmy,
hindi yata "normal" yung iskul na yan.
ann,
alam ko yon white lady na yon. pero dahil hindi ako tumira sa dorm hindi ko siya nakita.
phoebe,
pareho tayo, may pagka-abno. kaya nga noon kapag nakakakita ako ng mga taga PNC talagang pinagmamasdan ko sila kung tunay nga silang normal. walang biro yun talaga ang akala ko noon.
ev_elyn26,
thanks for reading and leaving a comment. first time yata kitang makita dito. i went to your blogs and found them very amusing and interesting.
By
Ka Uro, at 9:19 AM, April 06, 2006
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
By
UNCLE FOTO., at 10:18 AM, April 06, 2006
in the north american higher educational curriculums and the british, where north american educational system were mostly based - college always represented a preparatory step / stage before university. however, during the start of the american century which meant the economic booms in the end of the 1800's to the early 1900's, where the number of university grads were not able to fill up the high demands of university grads namely in the new york city, chicago and detroit industrial hubs. even with the increased influx of european university grads who were emigres at the time, the high technical employment demands were hardly met.
thus, the u.s. educational system was circumvented to accomodate the demands henceforth the college graduates were the solutions, which worked thus even profelling the u.s.a as a greater real economic power of the time. many technical fields in engineering and sciences were added with vast new career courses added to the college curriculums, including new education or other vocational careers.
in the philippines, when the americans took over the spaniards, they came upon into massive shortages of educators to fill the roll of teachers needed for the indoctrinations of being american surrogate or colony aka the educational system. initially, some teachers were recruiteds from the ranks of elementary graduates, whose good grades and outstanding command of english got bright filipinos the teaching positions.
later on as the american forms of civil services got a foothold and the initial quotas were met. the standard got higher where prospective teachers got e.t.c. rankings and civil servants got the e.t.c. equivalents. so in effect - the philippines normal college, as it was - a regular college, a level below the university status likes of f.e.u. and u.s.t.
so p.n.c was a regular college on the standpoint of u.s. educational system where it was based. a normal college.
how i know this sh*t? my dad and my mom were p.n.c. grads.
btw ka uro sorry abot the postings and the deletions. somebody pointed my grammatical and spelling mistakes. paki erase nalang yung mga deletions ko. sowwy.
on a different thread. i think most of us have a problem answering a simple question with a simple yes or a simple no. i've seen people writing novelas just to answer a simple question. "oo, pero" or "hindi, pero" which sometimes leads to a completely different subject matter or debate.
By
UNCLE FOTO., at 11:10 AM, April 06, 2006
air m,
that's very interesting. imagine after 20 years ngayon ko lang nalaman ang tunay na kahulugan ng Normal college! really, really appreciate your explanation. may historical background pa.
dito sa nz, dahil british commonwealth kapag sinabi mong college grad ka, tingin nila sa yo parang HS grad lang. dapat sabihin mong university graduate kung may degree ka. tulad nga ng sabi mo, college is understood here only as a preparatory to Uni.
By
Ka Uro, at 11:35 AM, April 06, 2006
KU, sa jeep, madalas sabihin ng mga drivers kapag malapit na sa PNU: "oh, yung mga normal jan, bumaba na!" -- it never fails to elicit a laugh from passengers. meron din mga komedyante na nagre-remark ng "bakit kung abnormal nde pwede bumaba?" -- then this would elicit more laughter from the passengers.
nakakatuwa din isipin na kahit nde magkakakilala, we pinoys are typically a happy bunch of people.
By
Anonymous, at 11:48 AM, April 06, 2006
pao,
hahaha. that reminded me of almost the same thing that jeepney drivers say in our province of pampanga when they stop at a town, say for example san fernando and tell those passengers from san fdo to get off the jeep.
kung tatagalugin ko eto ang sinasabi nila: "yun pong sa sn fdo, dito na lang".
but in kapampangan, "sa sn fdo" is "king sn fdo", hence the whole sentence above is as follows:
"deng pu king sn fdo, keni na mu".
sasagot naman ang mga lalaking komedyante: "e kung t_t_ pwede rin bang bumaba?". hahaha
By
Ka Uro, at 12:47 PM, April 06, 2006
gusto ko sana sumagot KU kaso wala rin akong alam, hinarang kasi ako ng guard nung minsang pumunta sa PNU!hehe
ok yung post ha, napag-isip ako kung bakit nga ba...
By
Anonymous, at 5:53 PM, April 06, 2006
major: me sagot na sa taas ang haba pa nga. comment ni ir milikay..
wow ka uro, ako naman ang me natutunan dito. un pala un. dati hindi ko naiisip un "normal" na un..
nag titser ka pla dati ka uro...
and yeah right, walang pwedng makaalam ng lahat ng bagay. there's always the unknown. baliw ang nakakaalam ng lahat..there are things beyond the mind's capacity of understanding.
what we need is to understand what we know..
By
Anonymous, at 8:03 PM, April 06, 2006
If there's one thing that have mastered is that I always ask questions, clarifications, instructions etc, precisely why I'm into consulting. It is only in asking that you'll be knowledgeable and hopefully, gain wisdom.
Aliw naman ako sa comment ni pao at yung kapampangan way of saying "para"
By
darlene, at 10:30 PM, April 06, 2006
galing nitong post mo ka uro at least maraming naka-alam kung ano kahulugan ng philipine "NORMAL" College, ngayon ko lang din nalaman kung ano talaga kahulugan nyan.
By
jlois, at 10:48 PM, April 06, 2006
naaliw ako sa depinisyon ng "normal" :-)
By
Anonymous, at 2:12 AM, April 07, 2006
Ka Uro said,
...but in kapampangan, "sa sn fdo" is "king sn fdo", hence the whole sentence above is as follows:
"deng pu king sn fdo, keni na mu".
sasagot naman ang mga lalaking komedyante: "e kung t_t_ pwede rin bang bumaba?". hahaha
that Sn fdo papamgueno jeepney driver was funny, but what if this Sn fdo jeepney driver decided na mag pasada ng linya sa PNU,
"deng pu king "normal", keni na mu".
By
Anonymous, at 10:08 AM, April 07, 2006
Ka Uro said,
...but in kapampangan, "sa sn fdo" is "king sn fdo", hence the whole sentence above is as follows:
"deng pu king sn fdo, keni na mu".
sasagot naman ang mga lalaking komedyante: "e kung t_t_ pwede rin bang bumaba?". hahaha
that Sn fdo papamgueno jeepney driver was funny, but what if this Sn fdo jeepney driver decided na mag pasada ng linya sa PNU,
"deng pu king "normal", keni na mu".
By
Anonymous, at 10:08 AM, April 07, 2006
Interesting post. I never really paid much attention to the term "Normal" in school because I always considered myself "Abnormal". Hehe :P
By
Anonymous, at 10:57 PM, April 07, 2006
..at talagang pinag-isip mo ko dyan KU hehe..malamang ako ang di normal kase wala akong maisip na sagot eh!nyeee...
nice post..
happy weekend.
cheers,
-kathy-
By
Kathy, at 7:20 PM, April 08, 2006
pat,
siguro kung may PAC, doon ka nag-aral. Phil Abnormal College. hahaha. magkakaclase tayo nila Phoebe, KD at isa pa yung si Major.
KD,
sino nagturo sa yo niyan? si ann ano? tanong mo sa kanya kung dalawa yung bola sa ilalim ng tulay. hahaha
By
Ka Uro, at 11:36 AM, April 10, 2006
Post a Comment
<< Home