On Education: "First Red and then Expert"

Barry Gutierrez of Akbayan has shown here that he's indeed a UP educator. I feel so sad that "Maoist" kids (such as Anakbayan's Vencer Crisostomo) are letting long-standing hatred of the old and pure ideology get the best of their innate intelligence and promising bright future. Atty Barry Gutierrez, who is also a law teacher in UP, is basically reminding these "Maoist" kids of one of Mao's important dictums on education: "First Red and then expert."

It is essential that the importance of social and political consciousness should trump pure expertise or pure ideology! Again, recall Mao: "First Red and then expert"; or, the UP's motto "honor and excellence". This ought to be the first concern of educators. The consequences of not doing so are vividly portrayed in the current news and (under)developments. It is high time for academics and scientists and students and civil society and all Filipinos to become aware of what is at stake and what is threatening our democracy and our human survival: the drift to barbarism, mediocrity, violence, injustice, and extinction.

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Meanwhile, I read this commentary just now from one of my mentors — Jacques Hersh, a Monthly Review author — though written in a different context it essentially applies to the current political tragedy in the Philippines: 

"... prepare for the worst as it is yet to come! In the meantime kabuki political theater is being played on the stage of politics by both the crypto Right or the incoherent Left so that the differences between them are diluted and the desperation-level of the victims increases."