a KAMALAYSAYAN textbook coming?

Word reached me last night that i'm being considered for a commission to write a Philippine history textbook. a meeting with the publishers will soon be scheduled. Offhand i feel honored. But it will also be a worthwhile effort only if it's about the history that our citizenry needs to know.

Instead of what events happened in the past, it should rather focus on how have most of the people been living, and what factors determined it? what have been their patterns of thinking, behavior and interaction, and what factors determined them? how briefly or how long did those patterns last? what factors accounted for all the quick and the slow changes? what patterns of thinking, behavior and interaction are prevalent in our lives now? and what will they be in the coming decades and centuries?

Otherwise, my book would just be giving our students more trivia, more inconsequential details to memorize throughout a semester only to recall them only once -- during exams. Our sense of history should guide us, enlighten us with experiential lessons in our long paths toward upliftment and fulfillment, invigorate us with a well-deserved sense of pride as tempered by an honest sense of humility. Our collective sense of history should be the pillar of our collective sense of mission as a nation in the service of humanity. This is what Kamalaysayan exists for. This is what its members should be joining, and reamining in, this organization for.

Prof. Ed Aurelio C. "Ding" Reyes
Lead Founder and National Spokesman,
Kamalaysayan (Kaisahan sa Kamalayan sa Kasaysayan)
(Subic, Zambales 08-01-09)