Reflection
I did not have any idea about what Electives is all about so my initial reaction
when I found out that Philosophy was part of it was devastation. It was not my first time
attending classes about that branch of Science since we had it in our Senior High
School curriculum too. However during that time, I believed that it was not related to my
strand which was Music, Arts, and Design so I did not take it seriously and just tried to
memorize everything to answer multiple choices exams so it felt devastating for me to
encounter that subject again. I really thought that I’ll be needing to fit years, names, and
theories in my head again which I’m mentally not yet ready for during this time.
Before Philosophy, there was a brief discussion about Critical Thinking. It was
not difficult for me since the lesson was already familiar and it is part of my daily life. As
much as I can, I carefully deliberate even small situations to avoid complications such
as what time should I go to bed so I won’t be late for tomorrow’s class and what
information on the Internet I should believe in so I won’t act wrongly. I understood that
Critical Thinking is like the most important survival skill that would help you do the other
survival skills. For that reason, everyone should practice it everyday to strengthen it. A
person who is careless and ignorant about this skill will be a burden to carry in the
future where they are already expected to help run the world.
As we grow older, we realize that the issues we are facing are not just personal
matters anymore. We are going to be affected by political, social, and economical
issues as well, and how we deal with those will affect everyone. I remember the Late
Senator Miriam Santiago stated that “Now I know why politicians don’t support quality
education. Because they do not want educated voters”. Critical thinking also relies on
awareness. If people are not perfectly knowledgeable about the matter, even if they try
to examine it, they will only come up with improper potential actions and their
accompanying outcomes since they are basing solely on small portions of facts. When I
first heard that she wanted to have a higher literacy requirement for voters, I was one of
the people who were against her idea since for me, it is against democracy. I felt like the
it was anti-poor. Election is the only time where people are supposedly equal. No matter
who they are and their position in the country is, their vote is just counted as one. But
