SUMMER UbD SEMINAR-WORKSHOPS 3

Bukidnon Highlights

I went also to Bukidnon and shared UbD to teachers in Holy Cross and Sacred Heart HS. In both schools, the teachers were appreciative of my effort to incorporate their respective school vision to the curriculum. I also highlighted the core values to the delight of the administrators.

Doing my work...delivering what was expected

Makabayan teachers doing "media bias"

English teachers doing the different stages of UbD

Consultation with the coordinators

Was appreciated with a certificate given by S. Lucy

Quite a big group but very participative

SUMMER UbD SEMINAR-WORKSHOPS 2

Camiguin Highlights

I was also in Camiguin to give the same seminar-workshop to two schools. These were Fatima College of Camiguin and the Columbia St. Michael's Parish High School. My trip to Camiguin became extra special because it was also my first time to be there.

First day - giving the overview of the seminar

Consultation with the CL/VE group of teachers

AP teachers going through the different UbD stages

Presenting to the teachers the new syllabus and learning plan

Teachers from Columbia St. Michael's School, Mahinog, Camiguin

SUMMER UbD SEMINAR-WORKSHOPS 1

Surigao Diocesan Schools

I once read that what matters most in life is not how much success you had but how significant your life was. This has never been more true this summer. To help prepare other teachers for the new Education curricular framework, I gave series of seminars to teachers in Surigao, Bukidnon and Camiguin.

Background
Understanding by Design is a revolutionary curricular framework that has in the curriculum planners’ mind the end result of facilitating learning. It is aimed at understanding the bigger ideas and retention of understanding so that it endures throughout life. Maximum understanding and sustained interest are assured through essential questioning and designing assessments of learning that are contextualized and realistic.

Objectives
At the end of the three day seminar-workshop, the participants were expected to:
1. Evaluate the limitations of the present curriculum design, implementation and assessment of learning;
2. Appreciate the backward design process and consider its value in helping avoid common inadequacies in curriculum and assessment planning
3. Provide an initial syllabus for the first grading period/quarter based on the UBD framework and the DepEd learning goals

Surigao Highlights

One of the participating schools

"GOOD BYE, SMA!"

The Imprudent Prude from Prudence

Communication technology has never been faster or more accessible than today. Gone were the days of snail mails that took almost a month to reach their final lonesome destinations. Teenagers today have never been burdened by telephones heavier than a two-pound dumb bell. The youngest of the young today have the cell phone in one hand and the face glued to the Internet. They may be communicating…in more ways than one and in whatever reasons for that matter. The world has changed and shrunk immensely because of technology.

It is this same technology also that blew our top this week – our prefect of discipline’s, the student activity coordinator’s and mine. Some imprudent seniors from Section Prudence took incriminating pictures and uploaded them to the Internet all in senseless glory for the world to see. I have been cautioning our students that though the Internet may be as important as man’s discovery of fire, it could also douse us all to cold for simply being insensitive and insensible.

Students should understand that the Internet is for all people of all ages. What pictures they uploaded that to them were saintly glorious may be obscenely absurd to senior netizens. Ours is a case of wrong judgment. We may be partly to blame; however, I would like to believe that our CL teachers have never missed setting good examples for our students. Our computer curriculum explicitly warns them of the dangers of technology too. Could it be that ours is a case far deeper than what the school can fathom?

EDUCATION: CHANGING LIVES

Nurturing Faith, Building Excellence, Developing Service

Four years ago, dear graduates, you barged inside the gates of St. Mary’s Academy without a single knowledge of why you were there…simply but to study. Maybe, it was even your parents’ wishes that you should be with us. They were keenly aware of how important quality education is in your continuous quest of improving your life for the better. They entrusted you to us with all the hope that with Venerable Ignacia’s humility and the Virgin Mother’s fiat, you will someday change your lives and live them according to God’s plan. This is so, and could only be done by nurturing faith, building excellence and developing service – which is actually what the RVM pedagogy is all about.

In Christian Living, you have learned that God is the supreme author of life and that He alone knows what our respective future holds. Mary and Venerable Ignacia knew this well that was why both valiant women lived by God’s will. Their strong faith in God and that God will not forsake His children have led them to set good examples of how life should be lived for the glory of God and for the good of all people. With the opportunities afforded to you in your four years of stay with St. Mary’s Academy, your belief in God has been nurtured more. It is our hope that this fully nurtured faith will lead you more to be living witnesses of the gospel values and thus, change people whose lives you have touched.

It is no doubt that education can be the change agent in everyone’s life. However, this is predicated on quality education that imparts vision. It is the kind of education that teaches the students how to think. St. Mary’s Academy builds excellence among her students mainly through the values of discipline, competence and integrity. A lot of you may have experienced how difficult it is to earn a good grade. You went through lots of pain, but the school has only discipline in her mind. As early as today, you must learn that getting nearer to changing your lives for the better entails self-discipline, above-average competence and uncompromisable integrity. Each of you was honed to be an excellent Ignacian-Marian graduate – well-disciplined, competent and above all, honest in dealing with yourself and others.

Faith and excellence however are all useless if not put into tangible practice. What knowledge you have in your head and what compassion you have in your heart are all for naught if both are not lived as preferential service to the last, the least and the lost. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the ultimate example of giving. We will never experience the same but at least in little ways, we may serve those in need. You have learned inside the classroom many social realities where opportunity to be of service is demanded. St. Mary’s Academy does not have to prod you to move and act. It should be every Ignacian-Marian student’s instinct to help others in need, and in so doing change all our lives for the better.

Changing lives through education has been everyone’s elusive dream before. Indeed education has always been thought as the sole solution to our country’s pervading problems of moral decay and material poverty. It is important to note though that moral uprightness and material comfort are not the only positive realities that improve lives. Education in St. Mary’s Academy is centered on Christian living and witnessing because we believe that together with moral uprightness and material comfort, spiritual fullness is needed in order for us to fully change ourselves and lead our lives all for the glory of God. Graduates, you have been schooled in an institution that puts premium on both internal and social renewal. Do not ever forget that you are always an Ignacian-Marian graduate, nurturing faith, building excellence and developing service.

The challenge has just begun. Good luck on your journey!

HOPE. RECONCILIATION. PEACE

More Than What My Teachers Taught Me...

Last December I read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. Mortenson is an American mountain climber who failed to scale K2 but succeeded in bringing hope to thousands of Afghan girls by building schools. He believes that educating children (not indoctrinating) is the elusive solution the world has been grappling ever since the US led invasion against the Talibans. This wisdom coming from a non-educator humbles me. Four years ago in the 2006 souvenir program I pessimistically ended my first paragraph with a note that the power education has is spiraling down the drain. After reading Mortenson, I acknowledge my mistake. I failed to see the values of hope, reconciliation and peace my teachers have taught me. I was blinded by the myth that education is the cure-all to poverty. Education gives hope. It is this belief in the unseen that will make us rich, not materially but in love, in reconciliation and in peace. Progress and development can only be achieved where peace and harmony abound.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
- Dale Carnegie

Hope I have once read is the belief in the unseen, the waiting for things longed for. It survives us in our daily struggles in life. Mortenson believes that education gives hope. Rizal believes that the youth is the hope of the nation. An educated youth therefore is hope twice as much. Thirty two years ago, I first learned hope from Ma’am Joven Buenconsejo. She made me memorize Away in the Manger and told me its message – hope – the coming of Jesus. Four years after, Ma’am Elena Osorio nurtured this seed of hope in my heart and a year after, Ma’am Susie Zambrano inspired me how hope made her who she is now. Most of my classmates today survive life because of what these three teachers have sown, nurtured and seen to fruition. We were made to hope, continue hoping. This one great lesson I have passed on my students. I believe that survivors live because they continue to hope.

Forgiveness is the release of all hope for a better past.
- Alexa Young

Being baptized Christians, we share in Jesus’ kingly nature. A king does not rule his people but serve them. One cannot however serve if he does not forgive; hence, a king forgives and serves. Jesus is both. I was placed in the second section when I was in Grade III. Ma’am Sincera Dueñas told me not to be angry but see the reason why (which became clearer as I aged). Unbeknownst to me, she was teaching me forgiveness. The next year, I learned more to forgive from Ma’am Carmen Legaspi. It was not from her three-days-of-darkness story but in the way she cared us her pupils. It was in high school with Ma’am Vangie Cisneros that I saw forgiveness. Being a young teacher, her ideas were not always considered. In silence, she bared her soul to us and forgave them who had hurt her. I have learned from these teachers not to harbor ill intent in my heart but see the motivation of others’ actions. They lived Jesus’ example and in their living out forgiveness, I learned reconciliation.

Women who have an education are not likely to condone their son getting into violence.
- Greg Mortenson

Violence is characteristic of a cultureless uncivilized society. When violence erupts somewhere, we conclude that people there are uneducated. This is true, sadly. Situations dictate violence. However, when one is schooled, a student learns that situations never control. A human being controls the situation and so he does with emotion. Peace because of non-violent thoughts and actions I learned very well from Ma’am Inday Legaspi. She instilled in my mind what order is and what one deserves if order is disturbed. Ma’am Dolores Almagro is an epitome of peace. I learned from her, graciousness of words. From both Ma’am Pompeia Carin and Ma’am Rosal Saniel I learned how to temper violence with humility, charm and wit. War can only be won if children are educated that the world is supposed to exist in peace and the people, in peaceful co-existence. For sure, I am not the only one who has realized this after going through years in school.

We are in our penultimate year as Catholics emulating for almost three centuries the Christian values of peace and reconciliation lived by Sr. San Guillermo de Aquitania. Besides the Church and our families, we have also the school to thank for where we are now as people of God and what we have accomplished so far. Education has always played a pivotal role in any civilized society. Sadly though, education and our accomplishments have seemed to reach a nadir. Why are families disintegrating? Why are the Church and her members divided? Why is the government struggling? Why has peace continued to elude us? Why has the country lagged behind among ASEAN nations? I am an educator and I am shamed. We, teachers, have our share of blame. Only a few of my teachers before are regrettably living to witness how the hope of the fatherland has become hopeless. My great teachers before have never failed. They have lived up beyond the education myth…but what about us, the newer generation of pedagogues? Do we share with the greatest Teacher the passion to change the lives of our countless students? Please keep the hope alive!

THEN A HERO COMES ALONG

An Inspirational Story of Dylan Wilk by Nellie Samson

He didn't look like a knight in shining armor, straight out of a meeting at Arthur's Round Table. Nor did he come riding in on a white horse like the man of La Mancha, fresh from battling windmills. Dylan Wilk, this "knight" of the 21st century, if you will, strode into the room, smiling his open, friendly smile, dressed in a blue short-sleeved shirt and jeans, and holding a cellphone in his hand.

"Magandang hapon po," was his greeting in (almost) accent-free Filipino.

He had come from some other office close by, possibly from the Couples for Christ offices out front. He looks young, and yes, he is young - he's 30 years old - with a determined and "I-know-what-I'm-saying, I-know-what-I'm-doing" air about him. These are traits that must certainly be among those that have made Dylan the man that he is now. In his mid-twenties he had come into his own; he owned at least three luxury cars -- a Ferrari, a Porsche, and a silver BMW M3 (this last-named being the famous one that evolved into some 63 GK houses in what is now known as BMW Village); was living a lifestyle he only used to read and perhaps dream about, and was well on his way to making more of the kind of money he wanted and knew he could make.

First question that comes to mind: What on earth is this young, good-looking, green-eyed, white-skinned guy doing in an office like this?

"In 20 years or so I'll be like one of them," he said, referring to pot-bellied, wealthy, successful gentlemen with the perennial drink in hand, sitting in leather upholstered chairs in exclusive clubs, twice or thrice-divorced, hated by their children who hardly see them, substituting money, beautiful houses, fast cars, expensive resort vacations for love and warmth and caring and a sense of family. "I decided that wasn't for me," he said.

He knew that there must be more to life than material success, money in the bank, opportunities at his fingertips; that fulfillment went beyond luxury cars and living in luxury hotels, moving within the circles of "the rich and the beautiful," drinking expensive wines, dining in expensive restaurants. He wanted so much more than that. He wanted to make a difference.

So he traveled the world, looking for causes, searching for one that he made sure will not be lost, keeping a dream that he made sure will be realized.

Dylan knows about being poor, for he was born poor in a city called Leeds which began in 1086 as a village with a population of about 200. Of course when he was born some 10 centuries later, Leeds was esteemed to be the wealthiest city of its size in Britain.

He is a product of a quick-thinking, technology-savvy generation and his computer games firm made him the ninth richest man in Britain before he reached thirty. Luckily for us, he is also a man with lots of heart and an overwhelming sense of bayani and bayanihan --words he quickly translated to action.

To write about Dylan is unavoidably to write about Gawad Kalinga, the Couples for Christ spin-off that, wonderfully, has proven to be a workable, even successful, solution to our slums and our homeless poor. Dylan believes fervently in the Filipino's optimism and unfading hope that things can always get better; in his bayanihan spirit that makes him readily offer a helping hand.

"There's a hero, a bayani inside every Filipino," Dylan says. "It's what makes him build his own house and when that's finished, turn around to help build his neighbor's house."

And the GK houses? They call them sites, they call them projects costing about 50 to 60,000 pesos each. They call them cluster houses, villages, communities. In reality, they are dreams come true, dreams that have evolved into cement and hollow blocks, galvanized roofing, wood and plaster, doors and windows, paint and plants. A structure called a home, occupied by people called a family, filled with laughter, happy voices, clean kids - a home filled with hope and love.

The key words they go by? A meaning to life, self-respect, upliftment. The houses are not mere shelters, a roof over their heads, four walls to protect them. They are so much more; they give meaning to existence; give self-respect to each individual; teach each one to be generous, concerned, caring. Neighbors weren't just people who live next to each other; they were neighbors in the true sense of the word, helping each other in every way that help was needed.

What more can be said about Dylan that has not already been said? He fires other people's enthusiasm by his own fiery enthusiasm . . . charms them with his wit . . . inspires them with his sincerity and passion.

He travels all over the globe, speaking before Filipinos who have long been away from their native land and may have forgotten - or may not wish to remember - how it is with us here, how misery can compound misery and poverty can dig deep down into the dregs; how hopelessness begets hopelessness.

Speaking before Filipinos, talking to them and letting them know things don't have to be this bad, things could be a whole lot better, just give their kababayans a chance, because a glimmer of hope can be a blazing light that can turn a kababayan into a bayani , a hero among other heroes, reaching out to pull others up, offering a helping hand to put a neighbor's house together. A hero in small, everyday ways that put all together does make a big difference.

How can his audiences not respond to this Briton who has so identified himself with the Filipinos he works with, lives with, and believes so wholeheartedly in?

"I first came here in January 2003, after hearing about the Philippines and especially about poor Filipinos living in the slums or being utterly homeless." He returned in April of that same year, and stayed on.

And will he return to his native England someday in the future?

"I'm married to a Filipina," he says, "and my children will be raised as Filipinos, so I suppose I'll stay here forever," he smiles. He's married to Anna, the daughter of GK executive director Tony Meloto. And that's about as committed as anyone can get, certainly.

His fervor and untiring efforts have inspired the families in these GK communities to move on, to make dream a reality, to dare to hope. They're putting to practice an old truth that most of us know by heart even as grade school kids, having seen these words written on the blackboards of our schooldays: "IF THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S A WAY." Perhaps we can modify that to read "If there's a Wilk, there's a way."

After all, it's every man's right to dream, to keep a dream in his heart. But only a rare few, like Dylan Wilk, are blessed with the privilege to make other men's dreams come true.

RANDOM 1 - OUT OF THE NORM

Mark, Norman and Joe the Barber

Today, seldom will you see TV programs that are so spiritually uplifting. What the boob tube unfortunately and in gracious hefting serves is mega doses of violence, sexuality and profanity plus a little of senseless slapstick that always leaves me bewildered of how we can be so violently insane. This is the reason why I never liked sacking myself in the couch munching on something inedible watching TV. To be fair though, there are still good TV shows that definitely touches my heart. I do not know how others take this one, but I always appreciate reality TV programs that highlight the true spirit of humankind. Some say these are subtle forms of exploitation - only for the rating game and the dollar they pour to the dying entertainment industry. To each his own; however, if these programs glorify the triumph of man over adversities and atrocities to teach the many a lesson or two, then I think the exploitation allegation is justifiable. One such program is Bio Channel's Random 1.

Random 1 chronicles chance meeting of people. Its premise is simple. A group of good Samaritans (R1) still believes in the inherent goodness of man. On the street and anywhere they approach ordinary people, talk with them and learn more about their lives. They believe each person has a problem or two which are bothering him or her. Random 1 likes to help ordinary people with their problems, may it be simple like a lost contact lens or something more profound and bigger such as recovering from alcoholism. Random 1 makes chance encounters happen which hopefully save the person's problem. Basically, it is helping people solve problems by facilitating random meeting with other kind-hearted individuals.

The premise sounds absurd at first. When you start watching the program, however, you will realize that indeed it can work. It works to Mark, Norman and Joe the Barber. All three are alcoholics. They are chronic alcohol drinkers, alcohol deviants if I may, because their lives have been totally devastated by the habit. Mark in his 40's has his life wasted in the very eyes of his father who has faith that his only son still can change. In a tent city, Mark met Norman and because they share the same passion for alcohol, bonded together and saw both of them drown in the spiraling vortex of alcohol addiction. It is in this utter squalor that Random 1 chances on Mark. After this random meeting, Mark gets to be introduced to Joe the Barber who has an equally interesting past to share.

With the help of his father, Random 1 was able to help Mark become somebody new again. This is not the most exciting part of the story though. Mark wanted to help Norman too. Norman in his early 50's was left alone by his three children because of alcoholism. With Mark's help, Random 1 was able to film a clip of Norman and showed it on TV. Norman's children saw it and felt pity for the father they have not seen for 13 years already. Random 1 facilitated the reunion of Norman and his three children. The meeting was tense-filled. Random 1 did not know what would transpire. Norman without any remorse in his heart hugged his children, now adults. He could not describe how he felt most especially when he learned that he is now a proud grandfather of two grandsons and one granddaughter.

Norman promised to change for his children and also for his grandchildren. With Mark and his father's encouragement, Norman entered a detox center for alcoholics. It served as a middle house before the real rehabilitation. He survived the seven days of sobriety and felt ready now for the rehabilitation. Entered Joe the Barber. After Mark and Random 1 fetched Norman from the Wilson House (detox center), they passed by Joe to give Norman a new haircut. Joe himself is an alcoholic but for 27 years now is clean and carves his own niche in the local community - he is everybody's friendly barber. He gave Norman a token of some sort which the latter has to hold on when tempted back to drink again. Today Norman is a changed man, thanks to Random 1 and chance meeting with modern day good Samaritans.

I was so moved by this Random 1 episode. It stunned me sitting on the couch. Men don't cry, alcoholic men most especially because they would like to believe that they are strong. Physically yes, but sadly, they are not emotionally. Norman is a big man but when he cried his heart out, tears pouring out of his eyes down his bearded cheeks, I cannot imagine how unfair society was for him - how unfair for us to judge the many Normans around us. Random 1 has opened my eyes on this sad reality that we can be so judgmental. Shows like Random 1 give me so much hope that we can indeed make a difference if only we care. Random 1 in all its simplicity and with all its unconvoluted plots is more than entertaining. It is spiritually uplifting. It is good for the heart...and the soul.

TEXT YOUR MIND

$Pe@K uR w3IrI) WuRlI)

Good day to all of you. Now, would you care to greet me "good day" too? Yes, and in the polite way too, if you must. Oh, you can't do it? Is it because you'd rather text me "gUd Pm!" by way of your cellular phone, or drop me a friendly twit via Twitter or an offline PM through Yahoo Messenger? How sad! You sad little thing. You must have forgotten the fringe benefits of going through the personal exchange of greeting in your relationships (besides passing English IV).

Admit it. The English and Filipino vernaculars are becoming ugly barnacles. Enough words have been "coined" today to even say in the least that they are worth a coin to hear. To add insult to injury, more and more of these words are used by teenagers today as part of their language. What happened to the days when a "Good morning!" earned you a show of praise from everyone around you? Lately, it's quite the fad to twist "Good" to "gUd", "I have to leave" to "gtg" or "go na meh", or even "I adore you" to "I luv u! mwah mwah!" Indeed, these greetings have become a sign of the times, and if you are part of "the times," den u'd $1mPli B cA$t oWt 4 n0t F1t1ng n.

On one side of the coin, you can be sure that push-button greetings will save you time and money. Should bookshops ever run a shortage of fancy old English greeting cards, you have your cellular phone to compensate for things. If text-based greeting cards aren't your kind of dish, then you can always send a mushy-mushy e-card to your sweetie. Sure, the benefits may seem healthy for your wallet, but will anybody really appreciate it that much if all you did all year was to send "haP1 b-dAy! Luv ya! Mwah mwah! Xoxo (insert name here)"?

On the flip side, the teenagers prefer to think that as the world works the calendar with technology, shortcut methods of doing possibly anything becomes more and more recommendable. The case at hand holds a lot of water because of this. Any Filipino teen would think it is "jologs" not to use a cell phone or an online messaging application to greet someone these days, and they consider it even more "bukitit" to use formal language alone to do it. What they miss is the point that personal exchange and suitable language ability without any means of technology gives them more credit. For instance, going to the house of a friend and greeting her a "Happy birthday!" formally instead of button-pushing the greeting will be more appreciated. It may look more taxing but the personal exchange and suitable language ability are there. "Textspeak", twitspeak" and "chatspeak" may be popular with Filipino teenagers today, but I tell you, you'll regret the day you've mangled your last English phrase now most especially that some of you failed in English IV.

What do these signs of the times aim to show? That the present Filipino youth is becoming more "hip" with the kind of language they set for themselves? The fact that we make even hacker language slowly look more understandable besides human speech is also embarrassing. Language and, all the more, our ability of human speech can't be bought off any sari-sari store. Why murder it then? Filipino and English are the key ingredients in the melting pot of cultures of the country; ergo, they must be preserved for the use of future generations. Consider all these the next time you press that "send" button on your Nokia/Sony Ericsson/Samsung phone or one of your AIM/YM/MSN chat window.

Greet with a touch of formality, and do so with a touch of finger too less often. You'll be happy to know then that you've saved yourself from the subtle maneuver of the machines that are slowly replacing you. Or maybe the next time you will receive the report card, you pass English IV already.

FACELESS JUDAH BEN HUR

Strong Faith, Strange Fate, Stark Hate

Learning English as a second language demands mastery of the four macro skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Of these four skills, I believe that speaking is the most challenging to master. I further believe though that writing well makes speaking a lot easier. Being secondary learners of the language, speaking well before writing comes with too much practice and experience. We just don't have that much experience conversing in English. Speaking well, however, may come from writing very well. One of the reasons why we don't want to speak in English is lack of confidence that we have mastered English structurally. When we can write well, it follows that we know the structure and the meaning of the English language.

We usually fail to learn well the structure of the English language because we lack the much needed confidence to learn it. We have reached fourth year high school sans belief of our capability of learning the structure of the English language - that it is not as confusing as what of us mostly believe. Could this have been caused by wrong instruction by English teachers before who were not confident teaching the language? This lack of faith may have rubbed off among the students that only a few really know the structure of the language confidently well. Lack of strong faith in one's ability to grasp the meaning and structure of the language, therefore, deters functional use of English.

By strange fate, the gentlemen are not at all gentle in their functional understanding of the English language. Could it be in the genes that only a few men like English? Immature men (a.k.a. children) hate English. They always think English has to have them twist their tongues to pronounce words clearly. They fail to understand that speaking the language and communication for understanding demand clear articulation. Strangely, because of how atrophied men's brain have come to be, they fail to comprehend that global issues are resolved and business deals sealed using English as the medium of communication. Fatefully strange, this seemingly brainless logic perpetuated by moronic Adams contributes to our failure of fully appreciating the function of the English language.

Lastly, men's stark abhorrence to anything less manly makes them look more like apes than humans. Why hate the English language which has moved men to fight for freedom after King? Why such hate to a language which has catapulted so many men to glorious victories as it did to Churchill? After Romulo in the United Nations, the Philippines has never again a nameless spot in the world map. It was MacArthur's well-meant promise to return that gave us all hope to a better Philippines. All these done in English, the language men oh-so-hate. In English, all these men communicated their ideas. Why hate so much the language that has freed us from all the bondage of ignorance, oppression and pain? Have we regressed and have grown tails already? Have we become monkeys now?

When we cannot seem to sketch who Judah Ben Hur is, weaving words of the English language, chances are we are either monkeys or apes, not humans at all. Humans have faith in themselves. Man always has faith that he can learn. By fate and not strangely, both men and women are endowed with innate capacities to learn, enough gray matter for more complex intelligence. Apes are not as intelligent as we are. We are also supposed to be appreciative, not full of hate. We are more civilized than monkeys that if the latter race is capable of appreciating, how much more are we? If still we cannot sketch Judah Ben Hur, then we might as well be caged with the monkeys, or better free the monkeys and have us aping instead. Long live the monkeys!