Failure of education: ‘MarJo?’ and the task of remembering

People on social media are calling the Department of Education to open the schools after a clip from “Pinoy Big Brother” (PBB) became viral.

In the clip, two housemates were competing in what appeared to be a quiz game. Robi Domingo, the quizmaster, gave them a history-related question:

“Ang tatlong Catholic priests na sina Mariano Gomes, Jose Burgos, Jacinto Zamora na hinatulan ng kamatayan noong panahon ng Kastila ay mas kilala sa tawag na…?”

To which the two housemates answered, “MarJo?” and “MaJoHa?”

Netizens were livid on social media and called this an alarming crisis. Indeed, it is. This could certainly be a manifestation of problems in how Philippine history is taught in our basic education system. Some have also pointed out how online classes have greatly compromised students’ learning of Philippine history. But is this exclusively a problem of our schools?

I recently became fascinated with the idea of collective memory and its relation to history. While both are deeply related, collective memory is sustained by memorializing practices that complement classroom education (e.g., holidays, museums, statues, policies, events, literature, art, films, etc.)—practices which most of us admittedly undermine both at the personal and social level. If you remember, Araw ng Kagitingan was a few days ago. Sadly, almost nobody in my age group knows what the holiday was about. Many did not even realize that it was a holiday because it fell on a weekend.

And this has been the trend with how we collectively remember our national past.

Try to remember how you spent the last historically related holiday. What happened? How did you spend that day? Was there any conscious attempt to remember a historical event or person? Did you happen to come across any activity within your locality that commemorated it? Or was it just another holiday? Do attempts to memorialize Rizal’s execution, the fall of Bataan, or Edsa mean anything to you? Or are these just trivia that you feel have nothing to do with the present?

It is perfectly valid for us to feel alarmed about how these two housemates forgot basic historical facts like Gomburza. But to keep our collective memory alive, remembering facts is not enough—it is the bare minimum.

The lack of efforts to memorialize the past, coupled with a very rote approach to teaching history in our schools (memorizing factoids like names and dates without probing deeper into its implications to the present), has made our generation detached from the collective memories of our experiences with colonization, wars, and martial law. The viral PBB clip is symptomatic of what we are seeing on a massive scale as elections are fast approaching. If you are furious about MarJo, I hope you are also as furious about the tragedy of how many Filipinos have forgotten or undermine the corruption and abuses under the Marcos regime.

Yes, we should open the schools. But the task of remembering should not just be limited to Philippine history subjects inside the classroom. The task of remembering is not exclusive to our students. We are all responsible for remembering our national past; we all have a stake in keeping our collective memory alive.

JUVEN NINO A. VILLACASTIN,
University of the Philippines Mindanao
Davao City, Philippines