Personal Initiatives: Building blocks for Education (Day 12)

Personal Initiatives: Building blocks for Education (Day 12)

by Rey Laguda

(This is the 11th day of 50-day journey of DepEd Undersecretary Rey Laguda as being serialized here with his permission, culled from his Facebook account - Blogger/owner)

Education is everyone's concern. Everyone is a stakeholder. Worth noting though is that beyond being a student or a parent, many actually go out of their way to help and volunteer. Today, I recognize individuals and groups who volunteer their time, effort and resources to help children and contribute to the improvement of the education sector. They have no compelling reason other than to help others. As Mahatma Gandhi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." These people choose to be part of the change they want to see. They choose to act. They choose to make a difference. Nothing is too big or too small. They act locally and respond to needs of communities.

Playing Turtle Principle Molds Me

Sometime in 1960, when I was in grade one, a memorable incident took place and became the greatest influence of my life and made me of what I am today. It started when I was playing with the two tiny turtles from our improvised terrarium inside our classroom.

Principle of Racing Turtles

When I was in Grade one, I belong to section 7, the last section.

Early in the morning at that day, we attended the flag ceremony. After that we proceeded to our humble classroom. Our class adviser, Ma'm Dolores Acot formed several groups and assigned them to their respective ground assignment to clean. I wasn't given any group to work with for I was overlooked. What I did is to look for something to do. Thus, I picked some dried or withered leaves from the bushes along the foot walk, and weeded out and cultivated some ornamental plants at the back of our classroom.