[Tinig] Teaching People to be Human

It was another Tuesday evening in early October. I was delivering another test lecture via Zoom (this time on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave) to some friends. They were kind enough to let me practice on them after I had told them that I would be joining the Department of Philosophy as one of their new teachers.

I was at the point in the story where the prisoners, after one of them (the one who has escaped and has seen the light) attempts to convince them to go outside, refuse to leave the dark cave they had gotten used to. In so many words, the scene is a symbol of the quest for an education, of moving from a place of darkness to a place of light, from a state of being to a process of becoming. To take a break from the text, I shared stories about some friends from a community in Cardona, Rizal. I had been working with the “momshies,” as they like to call themselves, for nearly a decade.

The Momshies of Cardona

I started with Ate Jhoy’s story. She is a mother who continues to help her children (twins) navigate online modular class while she tries to make ends meet. Her situation has been aggravated by this pandemic. Even with an avid love for reading because of Wattpad, she still finds teaching them difficult. She and her family lost their house to Typhoon Ulysses last November 2020. They managed to fix it eventually.

I then told them about Ate Weng and her daughter Mica. Work was difficult to come by for her and the rest of the mothers there especially at the start of COVID-19. “Mahirap tahi ngayon, sir,” she’d tell me. She would send pictures of Mica’s homework to our group chat after I had offered to help. I found their English homework demanding. “Identify the transitive verb” was one of the instructions. I had to consult with friends just to make sure I understood it correctly.

I opined to my friends that these were not to be taken as stories of resilience. The resilience narrative is not one I want to contribute to; so many fellow Filipinos really just deserve much better governance and living conditions. Rather, I shared these stories to illustrate that these friends—Ate Jhoy, Ate Weng, and the rest of the momshies—clearly know how to think on their feet. They’re smart, and, to quote from a talk by Leland dela Cruz, they are “the experts of their own lives.” None of my friends listening to the practice lecture disagreed, not the least when I asked them whether they could imagine themselves navigating a pandemic without a stable job or a steady supply of food and with children to teach when they had not finished high school or college themselves.

“Madami, Sir, Ayaw po Magpabakuna”

I connected these stories to our practice discussion on Plato with a previous one on Father Ferriols.[1] Our topic was the unwillingness of some people to get themselves vaccinated. Many of my friends shared how much they hated fake news and the decisions people made because of them. “Hindi talaga tayo aasenso kung di tayo mag-isip,” one of them even expressed in frustration.

When I told them that a number of the momshies were hesitant to get vaccinated, there was a moment of silence in the Zoom room. Some of the things asserted during the discussion prior to their learning about this included the “responsibility to educating people unwilling to learn.” But clearly, the momshies were rational people. They could fend for themselves. They seemed to have done very well getting through this pandemic given these difficult circumstances. Most people probably would not have been able to navigate as well as they did. They even ran a community pantry to help others.

Learning Humanity from People

Finally bringing it back to the lesson on Plato, I shared with them that there always seems to be the temptation to think we are the ones who’ve already seen the light. “We are the ‘educated’ ones, right?” But Plato explains in the story that the very act of making sense of the shadows and their shapes (what the prisoners would do all day) demonstrates that they are thinking—that a truth about us people is that we try to make sense of the world and that we think even if we are looking at the wrong things (fake news, believing there’s no hope for other people, our own country) sometimes.

In many ways, aren’t we similar to the prisoners in that sense also? I told my friends and students: aren’t we so used to our ways (even when we know fully well that they are backed with science) when we try to convince others? And when they don’t agree with us, aren’t we quick to say something along the lines of “Kulang sa isip.”

Ate Weng got vaccinated before 2021 ended. I am confident the other momshies will follow her soon. When my friends found out, they were surprised.

She did so because of a close-to-ten-year relationship with some of my former students and myself. While facts and science played a part in her decision, what moved her was a genuine human connection. A genuine relationship--a “pagka-tropa ko 'yan,” in her own words—one built over the course of eating together, meeting each other’s families, etc., one not so easily severed the moment someone said, “Takot po ako magpabakuna, sir,” or “Sir, sino po boboto niyo?,” one built on an actual friendship, the kind that requires no need of proof. This is a humanity that can only be learned through a genuine encounter with other people. As many of my former teachers have taught me also, no number of books can ever replace learning this.

I ended the mock class explaining that I could have taught the lesson on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave by sticking to just the text, but that what I wanted them to take away from these lessons were the very stories of the Ate Wengs, Ate Jhoys, Ate Dhelias, Ate Bengs, and all these other momshies in their own worlds that they could learn much from. This is how we can learn and teach each other to be human: not by just memorizing texts but by realizing making genuine connections with other people, seeing people as more than just a statistic or vote kasi tao din sila.

These momshies from Cardona continue to teach me that. It is the kind of philosophy and humanity I will strive to instill in my students.

[1] The discussion also included Fr. Ferriols and how seeking of truth (with our eyes, dumilat ka!) is something only we can do for ourselves. Both Fr. Ferriols and Plato are part of my Module 1 under Philo11.03: The Ambit of Lived Experience.

Tinig is a monthly opinion and analysis series from the School of Humanities. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of School of Humanities or the Ateneo de Manila University.