| 9 Black or White The Philippine consul general was a well-built,
courtly person, and over the last couple of weekends leading up to that crucial juncture,
I was helping him and his office secretary acquire the basic knowledge of desktop
publishing at the consulate. He was reading some of my BUGS & BYTES issues. I
was reading some of his memos. Up to that point, I also wrote him letters such as this:
BUGS & BYTES
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
26 November 1994
The Honorable Consul
General Bahnarim Guinomla
Philippine Consulate General
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Dear Sir:
Assalam alaykum and
good day.
Before anything else, let
me ask for your forbearance in my writing you this letter. I do not want to make this a
habit, and if you recall, the first letter I wrote you a few months back about school
favoritism and cheating was done only because we did not get any relief from the Acting
School Principal when my wife first brought the matter up with him. In fact, it was him
who suggested to my wife that
(1) My wife and I should
go to each and every teacher to talk to them about the matter;
(2) My wife and I should
write you a letter regarding the issue.
Needless to say, we were
disappointed by this response, but in any case took heed of his second advice, knowing
that you will be a better person to talk to. In any case, we always welcome the
opportunity to be able to consult with our Philippine officials, although we would not
want to unduly bother you with these things if we can help it.
Having said this, let me
proceed to my main purpose of writing you this letter:
We are all aware of the
recent incident whereby a parent has physically hit a teacher as a result of an
altercation about student grading and teaching method. This is a sad incident for the
academe as well as for me, personally, because both parties are good and long-standing
family friends. What had happened runs contrary to my earnest desire of a harmonious
parent-teacher relationship and full cooperation from all segments of the academe to
promote the interests of all our children in PSJ.
But be that as it may, I
have taken the liberty to do two tasks, without anybody asking me to do them, for the sake
of preserving the harmony there still is among us parents and teachers, and hopefully, for
the sake of promoting and enhancing this harmony for the betterment of all.
With the help of other
well-meaning friends of the families, we have mediated and reconciled the two parties to
come to terms with each other and resolve their conflict amicably last Thursday, 24
November, lest it develops further into a more complicated and unmanageable situation.
With all sincerity and
openness, I shall be appealing to your experienced leadership and good sense to take the
lead in promoting a concerted effort to address the following issues that I would like to
highlight here:
Not An Isolated Case
The unfortunate incident
should not be viewed as just an isolated case of a particular parent getting into a heated
argument with a particular teacher. Nor is it an isolated case of a problem parent that
needs to be disciplined, or a tactless teacher that needs to be taught how to be more
diplomatic. Settling the conflict between the two parties is just a part of the answer to
the situation.
More importantly,
everybody, from parents to teachers to school officials and even the students themselves,
must be made aware that behind this incident is a crippling problem that needs to be
addressed by everybody. With this problem simmering there for so long now, the recent
incident was bound to happen sooner or later. In fact, it has been happening all of the
time, except that these things never reached the extreme point as it did now. I am
referring to the frequent squabbling between parents and teachers during every grading
period and about the unhealthy quarreling and intrigues going on among the teaching staff.
As a case in point, just very recently too, one teacher started shouting and chasing
another teacher in the school. To the credit of the second teacher who knew her
responsibilities and proper composure, she just went into a closed room and never even
bothered to confront the belligerent teacher. A lesser level-headed person would probably
have created a much more serious fracas.
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