Digesting the Newspaper

I am newspaper freak. I enjoy reading the headlines in bold, the articles written in Times New Roman script, holding the crisp texture of a freshly printed broadsheet, and the feeling of having in your hands the events that happened a day ago. 

I probably got the habit of newspaper reading during high school back in O.B. Montessori Center (OBMCI). We would have our daily dose of The Philippine Star delivered to our tables before the first subject starts. While waiting for our teacher, my classmates and I would scan through the pages, spreading them widely with our arms stretched as our eyes wander through articles we barely understand. Back then, when I was still ignorant to the incorrigible truth about the world, I would flip through the news pages until I find the page where the horoscope of the day and the “Believe it or Not” is. The horoscope was my news and “Believe it or Not” is my feature.

As a requirement for our highs school Revitalized Homeroom Guidance Program (RHGP) subject, of which scope I find vague, we were required to cut from the Opinions page the columns, “By the Way” by the late Maximo V. Soliven (MVS), “A Point of Awareness” by UNESCO Secretary General Preciosa S. Soliven (PSS) which comes out every Thursdays, and "As A Matter of Fact" by Sarah Soliven-De Guzman, the daughter of the first two mentioned. 

After we cut the said columns from the opinion page of the newspaper, we compile them in a separate O.B. Montessori notebook labeled as “MVS/ SSDG columns” in the front and “PSS Columns” at the back. Yes, our high school only allows a particular brand of merchandise. We have OBMCI Notebooks, OBMCI Quiz notebooks, OBMCI Spelling pads, OBMCI Pencils, OBMCI Clipboard, OBMCI Calligraphy paper (which is no different from the usual pad paper except for having an OBMCI logo and three holes at the side for easy filing in our OBMCI binder), OBMCI Graphing pad paper, etc. Good thing we didn’t have the OBMCI bags back then before I graduated. But the thing is, we lived and breathed the merchandise of our school. 

Going back, we paste the articles in the left side of a page. Yes, paste is more preferred over glue since glue runs quickly and has higher changes of sticking two separate pages together – a lesson learned through experience. On the other side of the page, we write our brief reaction, often composed of 2 to 3 sentences, regarding the article. If I feel extra generous with my talent of writing, I would fill the entire blank side of the page with a reaction as long as the column itself, or maybe even longer, extending the usual 2 to 3 sentences to 2 to 3 pages. How’s that for a brief reaction?

If I were still studying in O.B. Montessori right now, I would ask my teacher on why the columns of those three mentioned above are the ones to be cut and pasted in our notebook while there are just as interesting columns like those of Anna Marie Pamintuan, Jose Sison, and Cito Beltran. Probably their answer would be: Because the Solivens own our school.

This leads me to an interesting observation. Is it just my casual observation or are there really few people who read the newspaper these days? I hardly see the newsstands empty up in the afternoon, or someone carrying newspaper around for them to digest and understand, or even just a person stopping by the newsstands is already quite a hard find. 

I’ve always believed that an informed citizen could be a productive one. As Dr. Allan de Guzman, a research professor from UST said to us in a research consultation, “Knowledge is important because of two things: it guides the decision making process and allows the people to plan.” This made me ponder on the reason why we keep on putting incompetent people to public office then rally to the streets proclaiming they should be ousted when everything seems to be messed up. It is because we never really bothered to know what happened to the past, making us unable to plan ahead, turning the course of the country’s events into a vicious cycle that would just repeat over and over. Now, if we would just read the newspaper, know what is currently happening and the issues that it entails, probably we could keep these things from happening again and focus on the new issues that are yet to be solved.

Please do your country a favor and read.