In reference to the alleged
plagiarized speeches of Senator Sotto, I am irked with a lot of people who kept
referring to Sarah Pope as “just” a home economist. One article from a blog
even made a title that read; Original Author of Sotto Speech, Just a Home
Economist. Although I go with a lot of the writers in the call to pass the RH
Bill, I cannot help but be irked with the obvious belittling of such a noble
profession.
I should have
expected better from the Filipinos when it comes to treating home economics
since we are a people that are forever bound to our homes. In other countries,
changing places periodically at the whims of job or career opportunities is
quite easy. For Filipinos, it would not matter whether you commute for many
hours just to get home to a house you own with your family inside it. We always
hear “nothing feels like home” or home is where the heart is” from people who
have travelled far but would always come back to savour the feel of home. We Filipinos take pride of our homes for we
equate it to our family. Special holidays and occasions are usually spent at
home.
Given these
strong indications of what a home plays in our lives, it is quite surprising how
we term home economics as a mere “just”. This accusation is undeniable for even
at our elementary and secondary school days most of us have taken our EPP and
the TLE/THE for granted. We see it as a fly-by subject where we get to make
mats or knit some mufflers or cook some delicacies or draw some weird boxes at
different views. Maybe for the younger generations this subject was just spent
exploring the computer and all the fun it brings like tetris or facebook. Maybe
some would even see TESDA as a bloated extension of our TLE classes. Maybe this
early life introduction to home economics distorted our respect of this
profession.
When I was in
college, other students would tease us that the College of Home Economics is
actually the College of Home Ekananay- a college where future mothers are
nurtured. For me I am proud that our college is indeed training ground for
future mothers. Who would claim that a chemical engineer is better than a
mother? Or an architect or a lawyer for that matter? Behind every professional
child is a mother that played a part on how they got there. Now why would we
look lowly at a profession that produces people whose professions we so highly regard?
Even without the achievement of their children to pull up the reputation of
mothers as home economists, their skills and knowledge cannot be easily dismissed.
Making
marmalades and jams that suit the taste of the family is the doing of a fine
home economist which is no lesser than the feat of a chemist in trying to achieve
the best flavour in food additive. Both went through the scientific method of
trial and errors and come up with the best product that would suit the
requirements. If home economists are
inferior to the food chemists then botulism would have flourished in our homes.
