PARADOXICAL

Testing the Kids' Hyperlocal Knowledge and Pride of Place

Someone wisely said that, "Whoever has children has the future."

I had this in mind when I was assigned once again to formulate a new set of questions for a Tourism Month quiz bee--my third so far.

This meant another shot in the dark, as I wondered if kids today still knew and cared about the things that I believe should make them proud of their hometown.

So my theme for this year's quiz bee experiment is anchored on the question, "What makes you proud as Bayambangueño?"

It was question made out of personal curiosity.

To those in the know, this question was taken from an educator, Dr. Efren Abulencia, after asking it on a post published on our culture mapping FB page. But I didn't tell anyone my hidden agenda, except for our head, of course: to educate the latest batch of young ones on the various points of pride for our town--both old knowledge and new discoveries.

To avoid any leakage and get real results, only four select people knew about my questions and, of course, they were sworn into secrecy. The queries were thrown at random to give a feel of, statistically speaking, a random sampling method. I avoided questions that had already been asked in the past two quiz bees. Though education is about repetition, our local history and culture is too rich to bore ourselves with constant repetition.

Grade 4, 5, and 6 students from 20 local schools participated, a huge turnout compared with last year.

Do local learners--the academic cream of the crop, at least--still know about their own town's history and traditional culture, and do they care about current events--despite these things never being taught in school? In my youth at those ages, I knew nothing about Bayambang or its history, not even the name of the capitan of our barangay and that of the mayor.

I am happy to report that, against all expectations, the kids do know a number of things I believe they should know as local residents.

Based on the answers to the questions fielded, with not a few calculated to border on trivia, today's schoolchildren know about Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo's stay here, the Matalunggaring Dance Troupe, the Varsitarian dance group, the name of the town's first lady vice-mayor, that the father of Philippine cycling was also a renowned media man, that the local parish is 412 years old, that the world's longest barbecue on Guinness World Record is 8.016 kilometers, that the giant St. Vincent Ferrer statue in Prayer Park is in Brgy. Bani, that 'JKQ' in JKQ Medical and Wellness Center stands for Julius K. Quiambao, that we have a dairy farm in Brgy. Mangayao, that the LGU built a new school in Brgy. Ligue, that the foremost Filipina feminist is named Sr. Mary John Mananzan (who's from here), that the father of universal tertiary education is Prospero de Vera, that Rusty Lopez is synonymous with a local brand of leather shoes, that national scientist Carmen C. Velasquez pioneered in parasitology, that Col. Edwin Ramsey's aide-de-camp is named Claro Camacho, that a local martial art is called escrima or arnis, that there used to be a huge American military camp here called Camp Gregg, that an issue or issues of "La Independencia" were once published here, that Aguinaldo's daughter is named Flora Victoria, that a president (Ramon Magsaysay) once held a cabinet meeting in Mangabul, etc. etc.

I am not surprised, of course, to find out that they haven't heard (yet) about National Artist Napoleon Abueva as the sculptor of the Emilio Aguinaldo statue, that a certain Prof. Rufino Menor formed the Pangkat Kawayan, that the town has produced a Secretary of Labor named Onofre Guevara and an Assemblyman (today's Congressman) named Dr. Raymundo O. Camacho, that before Halloween and trick or treats, there was a local indigenous practice called panagkamarerwa, that we currently have six Rural Health Units, that MTV VJ and actress Donita Rose has roots here, that there is a diparan or Pangasinan saying that goes, "Aga untitit so bulilit no aga napildit." (Hindi iingit ang daga kapag hindi naipit.), and so on and so forth.

Still, I believe that our humble social media campaign in this regard, fueled by passion, with lots of research work on the side--and held throughout the years at no cost to local government--has not gone to waste.

Note that these topics can hardly be Googled and thus beyond the reach of AI so far. There is no subject in school called Introduction to Local History, Culture, and Arts after all, and there is a paucity of materials outside of it.

With such a lecture wrapped in quiz bee format--in categories of questions classified as 'easy,' 'average,' and 'hard,' with the 'clincher' round as tie-breaker--I hope these knowledge of our town's history and culture have strengthened even more today's young learners' pride in their hometown of Bayambang--which is the real agenda of the whole exercise.

posted by Resty Odon  # 5:29 AM