Proem

A few days ago I had a conversation with an elementary schoolteacher. She confided the fact that her pupils do not seem to be interested in their lessons. They are reluctant to perform their assignments and ask too many questions that are difficult to answer. The schoolteacher was wondering as to what causes such a situation.

Difference in Approach

My response to the schoolteacher runs like this; all your textbooks are based on the English language approach. It is presented to answer the question "what." Your pupils are Bisayans, and their language is geared towards asking the question "ngano (why)."

Now I see, she said. We had a lesson about plant grafting. The textbooks defines "What is planting grafting?" Then it is followed by "How to do plant grafting."

What was exasperating to the teacher was that the pupils always ask, "Ngano nga mag-plant grafting man ta? (Why will we do plant grafting?)" Unfortunately, the answer to the question "why" is not found in the textbooks.

That is the reason why the pupils are disinterested. Their question "ngano (why)" is not answered.

Religious Influence?

It is generally agreed that Boholanos are very religious. In fact it has produced more bishops in the Roman Catholic Church compared to other provinces in the Philippines.
Have you ever observed that anything you do in church will answer the question "why?"

Ngano nga mosimba man ta? (Why do we go to church?) Nganong mag-ampò man ta? (Why do we pray?) You can answer it with "Aron mahilangit ta. (So that we will go to heaven.)" Since the basic question "ngano (why)" is always answered, it is no wonder that Boholanos are very religious.

In Graduate School

Last Sunday I had a lively discussion with the elementary schoolteachers of Cordova, Cebu. They agreed that the pupils ask the question "ngano (why)" while their textbooks answers the question "what." The problem is that the schoolteachers do not find anything wrong with the teaching approach of their textbooks.

Masteral Thesis and Doctoral Dissertations always ask the question what, how, etc. among the thousands of theses and dissertations you can hardly find a question why?

The schoolteachers answered that is how thesis and dissertations are done. I countered by saying, "Do you know that the advances in science and knowledge is always done by asking the question why?"

Why does the moon appear to be larger at moonrise than when it is overhead? If you accept this proposition, then you will proceed to "What causes the moon to appear larger at moonrise?" In fact this is the thought pattern produced by the Sugboanon Bisayan language.

In our graduate and post-graduate schools, all questions starts with what, how, etc. and it is presumed that once these are answered it already answers the question why?

Teaching Mathematics

Many studies have shown that basic mathematics is easily understood by children if taught in their mother language. Therefore, the best approach in teaching arithmetic is to use the Sugboanon Bisayan language.

The schoolteachers in Cordova, Cebu that I trained in Sugboanon Bisaya since the month of June have no problem with this approach. In fact they agree that it is the best approach. But here is the hitch. I told them to use the logic of the Sugboanon language, that is, you must always answer the question "Why?" Why do we have only ten numerical symbols? Why is it that two plus to is equal to four?

Why is five minus three equals two? Why is three minus five equals minus two? Some teachers said that you could not subtract five from three. I was surprised with this response. I found out later when I came home that no elementary school math textbook has a subtrahend larger than the minuend.

Apparently, the schoolteachers could not teach mathematics to answer the question why. They requested me for a demonstration. I told them to gather 20 Grade II pupils and I will demonstrate how to subtract numbers. I would even demonstrate how to subtract numbers by addition as is done by the inner wiring of electronic computers. So today I will be in Cordova, Cebu to do a demonstration teaching before the teachers, principals, and supervisors and possibly before the media.