A lot of professionals in this country are working overseas. Yes, these professionals teach, build structures, take care of the sick and the elderly as well as take care of other people’s children in foreign countries.

These kababayans are all over the world from New Zealand and Australia, other Asian countries,  to the Middle East to Europe to the Americas while others do New York  job search.

As a parent and a teacher, I ask myself: Who are left to teach the children?

Truth is, this is one of the reasons why we homeschool, apart from the fact that we only pay half of how much we would when the children are enrolled in regular school.

photohunt

*kababayan = fellow country men

The love for reading books and spending time playing toys that are not battery-operated and/or plugged seem lost in this young generation because of the presence of tech gadgets and fast-paced television shows (ok then, web TV for some) which most of the time, occupy their spare time.

One of the reasons why we have decided to go cable tv-less is to minimize the TV viewing of the children so they have time to read books and play with their toys.

Yes, my kids  are missing out on some fad animation shows that “everyone was raving about”. So?

I know we miss a lot of great shows too.

The educational shows they can’t watch, we get the DVD.

The animation shows they don’t get to watch can also be watched in the web or again, DVD, at a controlled time, when they have finished their homeschooling tasks.

The breaking news can be watched through the news sites. (My Twitter feed is a wealth of breaking news by the way)

Not all catv channels are good anyway because there are some who just show ads about the latest fitness equipment, the best weight loss products and even the latest kitchen equipment. Yes, and if you call now, you will get a 10% discount

We are learning about animals, we watch one of our collections like the BBC documentaries on animals.

We are learning about the planets, we read “The Universe” book and look at planets taken from satellite images.

So  there, I don’t think they mind not having cable tv which is losing revenue due to web TV so the companies are now thinking of new ways to lure more/new customers.

No can do.

I read this article entitled How Social Gaming is Improving Education.

I agree with most of the points raised in the article. Learning about difficult concepts through interactive means is one of my “tools of the trade” when it comes to homeschooling my two younger children.

We have watched videos of blooming flowers, a spacecraft lifting off, looked at the photos of the different planets and learned about different historical places to visit in the country, among others.

Not only that, my youngest daughter learned to draw difficult figures otherwise not (normally) possible for children her age. Oh, she can now play difficult songs using her recorder whereas a few weeks ago, she was learning three-note songs

Thanks YouTube for having drawing and music teachers who are oh-so-patient.

The son, on the other hand is becoming more savvy with money matters, budgeting and calculating how much he will earn through his Cafe World. We have incorporated budgeting and mentally calculating how much we will pay when we check out items at the supermarket. He loves statistics which is a key factor with some of the game he loves playing with.

Despite these electronically-attached and internet-based learning, they still managed to play with things that are unplugged. Once a week ( i know, this should be more frequent) we de-stress by running.

And yes, we read books too, especially since they are required to do oral book report for the English subject.

Yes, we are running out of books to read as of the moment.

Taylor Mali said:

You want to know what I make?

I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely
beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math.
And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you got this (brains)
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).

Read it all here. Watch the video here.

Thank you very much Myepinoy for sharing this video on Plurk.

Our youngest daughter is good with the arts.

She was able to learn how to play the recorder by just watching YouTube videos. She can also play the piano by ear. She can also draw well by following instructions from yes, YouTube videos. She has a hard time with mathematical problems though. Oh well..

Musician and/or graphic artist in the making? She says she wants to be a teacher. Ahem.

Our son on the other hand is great with numbers.

He is good with statistics and is quite interested in gathering data on things he find interesting like world population, areas of countries, top speed of exotic cars and even world records like tallest buildings.

This early I am thinking that he can do well in actuarial science, you know that discipline about statistics, economics and risk taking (read: life insurance policies among others).

Yes, I know I am getting ahead of time when I think about this since he always say he wants to be a chef. Ok then…

Our eldest daughter, on the other hand, wants to do something that is connected with designing.

Do you know what your children are good at? Do you know what they dream of becoming when they grow up?

The promise of earning dollars in the land of milk and honey otherwise known as the United States of America is a dream to professionals like me. Fact is, a lot of my friends are already there or in other countries, earning so much more than what I am earning here.

End of the story? Definitely not.

It is NOT an easy process to have in one’s hand a contract and an H1B visa. Having both does not necessarily mean the start of a new life.

Read about these Filipino teachers in new orleans louisiana who got recruited cheated by a Filipino-owned recruitment agency.

What could have been a wonderful opportunity to earn for the family back home and learn new things to better their craft turned into a nightmare. Nightmare does not even begin to describe what they have gone through.

Their very own kababayan,  doing this to them come not as a shock to me. Yes, people can do these things all for money.

Part of the article says:

The teachers allege that the firm’s leader, ________, charged recruits about $15,000 to obtain a job, and then required them to turn over 10 percent of their salary for two years.

That the teachers were excellent did not help them retain their jobs. They were fired after two years “because they weren’t able to handle the tough students/classes they were given”.

For more information on Teacher Migration or International Teacher Recruitment, this is a helpful material especially because it has a special section about the Philippines.