Oasis School Free Minds

My teachers and professors in St. Peter's College Seminary taught me to appreciate life. Thanks a lot.

Bakit kaya wala pang release na issue ang Sublime Torch? Alam ko kasi may na proofread na noon, kaso parang natagalan... Ewan q kung kanino?

Sense of Community
By Ferdinand P. Francisco


We are who we are because of the influence of the society. The way we act, move, talk, and express ourselves and our feelings and how we view life are predicated with the issues concerning the society we live in. In a secularized society, everyone is called to take part in a communal collective action which in so doing one may help accomplish communal “collective goal” (Tuomela, Raimo, Cooperation, pg. 26.) and consequently fulfills one’s personal goal. In this regard, sense of community is to be understood.


Concept of Community


The term “community” describes not only geographical location and boundaries but also describes type of human relationship. Community is defined as “a society or body of persons being in the same place, having the same rights, privileges and interests and acknowledging the laws” (Universal English Dictionary). Although there are several meanings of the word community, Wojtyla provides us a dynamic notion of the term community, “being or acting together with others”, which, according to Rolyn B. Francisco, “does not imply that the person is absorbed by the large group of people”. The expression “’acting together with others’ suggests that the human person is the subject of [such] participation”, Rolyn B. Francisco continues. Being a member of the society, a person becomes part of it (by virtue of belongingness).


Sense of Belonging


Maslow argues that “the need to belong was not just a desire, but a deep seeded and fundamental need”. As one of the fundamental needs, it has to be provided. Maslow defines belonging as “the need for acceptance, love and interpersonal relationship–– is surpassed only by the basic needs such as food, shelter and safety.”

The community is the right place to interact with its members as well as the proper place to accept and be accepted. In his book Acting Person, Wojtyla emphasizes the notion that community plays an important role in understanding a person. It is in the community, Wotyla continues, “that a person reveals himself” and “fulfills himself”. It is in the community that one is drawn tremendously to act with others without being exhausted by his act. Thus, it is essential that the community should be conducive enough or at least a place motivating its members to act and participate. Further, the community has an important effect in shaping a person’s character.


Sense of Community


In the community, its members (the community of persons) should aim to establishing among themselves “sense of community” that can freely receive those despised by the society and therefore able to work with others as human beings who are conscious of their actions. James Michener writes, “Sense of community is a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that member’s needs will be met through their commitment to be together”. This notion provides us a concept of sense of community as “one of the means”, according to McMillan and Chavis, that aims “to bring about the kind of world which we and others have dreamt”. Having a sense of community, our sense of belonging grows and our sense of responsibility becomes visible.

A person having a sense of community has a personal conviction inherent to every member of the community that is participation. Participation is a dynamic effort which every member of the community has to contribute. In general use, participation means, “taking part in something or the condition of sharing in common with others” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/participation). It is in taking part in something a person let others have a share of his being and reveals himself through “deliberate action”. This is an act proper to man which gives emphasis on the deliberateness of an act. In other words, if a person performs an act which no one forces him to do so, it is voluntary, actus humanus. And the deliberateness of an act not only makes a person conscious agent but also actualizes potentiality to actuality.


Community and its Relative Concerns

“Does your going to school give you community?” Mitch Albom asks. Impliedly, he says that community is the right place for a person to belong. School plays an important role in the lives of the students. The school should give the students a place proper to learning. Whatever is being promoted in the school, whether direct or indirect, becomes part of the students, more so as members. In the same way, the concerns (cultures of indifference, pleasure, and prejudice) relative to institutional management will eventually affect the students’ rights for proper education. Institution and its stakeholders should be aware of whatever they implement. It will motivate students to act. Further, the effect and contribution of an institution as well as its philosophies to its members could be measured by the liabilities and productive assets it produces.

Doctolero, in his article entitled “A Sign of Contradiction”, published by the Torch, Vol. 7 Issue no. 1, June- November 2012, pg. 19, writes, “these cultures (culture of indifference, pleasure and prejudice) influence us and developed through monotonous complacency, naivety and feebleness” is an alarming observation. These concerns (culture of indifference, pleasure and prejudice) must be addressed as immediately as possible.

Alarming it is that we already have these identified cultures which I think the students should be guarded from. This mentality “creates havoc” among the members of the society which consequently destroys the community. As members of the community who aim for common good (Nabor-Nery, Ma. Imelda, Philosophy of Man, pg. 263), I urge everyone to start contemplating on what really is our role as students and members of the community wherein we are asked to protect from the ideals that may cause its destruction. If the community is vulnerable, its members are divided. Division among the members of the community manifests weak sense of community and ineffective leadership. Failure to lead the community as one reflects plurality of ideals and absence of dialogue.

Dialogue

Dialogue is an indispensable tool to satisfy the needs of the community that “specifically helps deepen the interhuman solidarity,” Wojtyla writes, “even through opposition”. Through dialogue, the community renews itself, gives light to issues, and promotes active participation. Dialogue, therefore, gives community a progressive stance which upholds the good of all.

After having read the article written by the president of the supreme council, I decided to write this article as a form of explication in the light of Carol Wojtyla’s Theory of Participation. The cry to lead others by example not by words is indeed exceptional. Doctolero writes, “the supreme council today aims to encourage the best in every student not only in academics but also in leadership through service and moral aptitude” (Sublime Torch, Vol. 1, Issue no. 6, pg., 23). There are three arguments which I think essential in understanding sense of community in relation to relative concerns stated in the article written by Doctolero.

Leading is unfounded without sense of community
If there is an established sense of community, chances are:

Everyone realizes not only the meaning of being in the community but also sense of community,
Everyone finds himself accepted.
If everyone feels he is accepted and belong, chances are:
Everyone takes part in a communal collective action and helps accomplish communal “collective goal”
Everyone realizes and fulfills his personal goal.


The question is what then is leadership without first establishing a community in which everyone realizes not only the meaning of being in the community but also sense of community, and, where everyone finds himself accepted. Aware of his belonging, he possesses an attitude that steers himself “to dream more and not to be contented”. Because sense of community is not yet established, he fails to realize that he is part of the community and has a role to act upon. Consequently, he fails to relate himself because he himself is confused, alienated from the community and lost. He also takes for granted participating in an institutional activity “due to grave complacency”.

I am convinced that the attitudes of “monotonous complacency, naivety, and feebleness” are not really the cause of these concerns (cultures of indifference, pleasure, and prejudice) but the result of the inability to establish sense of community.

participation Definition of participation by The Free Dictionary

The problem with today's teachers is that they don't understand their student's diverse needs because they (the teachers) can't transcend their culture as aged and learned for the students to understand, instead they let the students believe that they are the treasury of knowledge and there's no room for mistakes. This is the monopoly of knowledge.

Bitterly accepted teachers could be very effective or very dangerous; they could produce either effective or ineffective members of the society because of the intolerable-immoral scandal they've done on the part of the students.

Further reading:

Philosopher Bertrand Russell's "Essence of a Teacher"
- Leonis Paulus

How ineffective teachers bash?

a story goes like this...

Teacher R: Beware of him. He might be a headache.
Teacher C: Was he your student?
Teacher R: (Censored)
Teacher C: Why?
Teacher R: Bla...Bla..Bla...Bla...
Teacher C: ahm...a black sheep, huh.
Who's the Shepherd?
(a the back of Teacher C's mind, you're the shepherd)

Be free
Be understood
be loved

THE FIRST PHONE CALL FROM HEAVEN by Mitch Albom (). Available at National Book Store and nationalbookstore.com for P695 (Hardcover) and as an eBook from nationalbookstore.com/kobo for P490.39.

"What if the end is not the end?"

From the beloved author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven comes his most thrilling and magical novel yet—a page-turning mystery and a meditation on the power of human connection.

One morning in the small town of Coldwater, Michigan, the phones start ringing. The voices say they are calling from heaven. Is it the greatest miracle ever? Or some cruel hoax? As news of these strange calls spreads, outsiders flock to Coldwater to be a part of it.

At the same time, a disgraced pilot named Sully Harding returns to Coldwater from prison to discover his hometown gripped by "miracle fever." Even his young son carries a toy phone, hoping to hear from his mother in heaven.

As the calls increase, and proof of an afterlife begins to surface, the town—and the world—transforms. Only Sully, convinced there is nothing beyond this sad life, digs into the phenomenon, determined to disprove it for his child and his own broken heart.

Moving seamlessly between the invention of the telephone in 1876 and a world obsessed with the next level of communication, Mitch Albom takes readers on a breathtaking ride of frenzied hope.

The First Phone Call from Heaven is Mitch Albom at his best—a virtuosic story of love, history, and belief.

Here is what is sure to be the Event of the Year for 2014!!! Bestselling author of “Tuesdays With Morrie,” “Have A Little Faith” and “The Time Keeper,” Mitch Albom () is coming to Manila!!! Purchase a copy of his latest book “The First Phone Call from Heaven” at any National Book Store or Powerbooks store and get a chance to have any Mitch Albom book signed on February 22, 2 PM at the Glorietta Activity Center and on February 23, 2 PM at the Ayala Cebu Activity Center!

Click here more details: https://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Book-Store/72546266913?id=72546266913&sk=app_208195102528120.

God has given us all the choices.

“I know my fate. One day my name will be associated with the memory of something tremendous — a crisis without equal on earth, the most profound collision of conscience, a decision that was conjured up against everything that had been believed, demanded, hallowed so far. I am no man, I am dynamite.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo

This act is innate to human beings.

Mga turista sa Coron Palawan na naestranded nakipagbayanihan sa pagrepacking sa mga relief goods para sa mga biktima ng bagyong Yolanda.

1 like = 1 respect & salute!
God bless you guys..

Like: www.facebook.com/OfwWorldFamily

Some tips and ideas:
– Fun ways to teach grammar to teenagers http://goo.gl/UJFE2U
– New ways to approach grammar. Free, downloadable poster http://goo.gl/KcPv4i
– LearnEnglish Grammar app http://goo.gl/aWQ9ij
– Fun grammar videos for older students http://goo.gl/2YWH9F
and younger ones http://goo.gl/6Sfr8G with worksheets and downloads

"The mystic emotion, if it is freed from unwarranted beliefs, and not so overwhelming as to remove a man wholly from the ordinary business of life, may give something of very great value - the same kind of thing, though in a heightened form, that is given by contemplation.

Breadth and calm and profundity may all have their source in this emotion, in which, for the moment, all self-centred desire is dead, and the mind becomes a mirror for the vastness of the universe.

Those who have had this experience, and believe it to be bound up unavoidably with assertions about the nature of the universe, naturally cling to these assertions. I believe myself that the assertions are inessential, and that there is no reason to believe them true.

I cannot admit any method of arriving at truth except that of science, but in the realm of the emotions I do not deny the value of the experiences which have given rise to religion. Through association with false beliefs, they have led to much evil as well as good; freed from this association, it may be hoped that the good alone will remain."

"Mysticism" by Bertrand Russell

From Religion and Science (Oxford University Press, 1961)