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Gender and Giftedness:
Does Numerical Disparity Tell the Whole Story?
The Philippine Science High School-Central Luzon Campus (PSHS-CLC) held its first parenting seminar-forum spearheaded by the PSHS-CLC Gender and Development (GAD) Committee for the parents of PSHS-CLC scholars. The event, conducted on January 16, 2017 at the campus Residence Hall, is entitled “Gender and Giftedness: Does Numerical Disparity Tell the Whole Story?” It primarily highlighted how it is to be parents of Pisay scholars which essentially focused on the sharing of their significant experiences, encountered challenges, and best parenting practices.
The GAD Committee invited two (2) of PSHS-CLC Alumni’s parents as the key sharers of the said seminar-forum. Mr. Joselito Tutanes, father of Carl Tutanes, and Romel Cruz, father of Roma Elaine Cruz, were the resource speakers of the event. Carl and Roma are part of the pioneer batch of PSHS-CLC. During their stay in Pisay, they were exemplars of a well-rounded student. They excel not only in the sciences, mathematics, and technology, but also in the arts. They were able to make it to the director’s list and were students of good values.
As the speakers of the seminar-forum, their parents shared their secrets for raising good children like Carl and Roma. The first speaker, Mr. Joselito Tutanes, talked about some parenting tips. He emphasized on the need to nurture the nature of children, to provide opportunities for them to better themselves, to set achievable expectations for them to have a goal, to keep constant communication with them, to teach them to strike a balance between their studies and other activities, to ask God for guidance, and to provide them a safe home – a refuge where they feel love and genuine acceptance.
The second speaker, Mr. Romel Cruz, began his talk with an anecdote of his experience when he was in college. He shared that most of his engineering classmates were from science high schools. This made him tell himself that he was going to send his children to a science high school one day, and he succeeded on this. He made sure that he did not put so much pressure on his children. He also took into consideration the differences between his son and daughter. He mentioned that boys are really different from girls. According to him, girls are more serious, more disciplined, and more competitive than boys. But whatever the differences tell, he ensured that he always supported his children. Mrs. Cruz added that she and her husband always taught their children to choose good life over easy life, to share their blessings, and to be compassionate.
After the sharings of the speakers, the floor was opened for questions and other sharings from the parent audience. The parents shared their own experiences with their Pisay scholar children. While they face different circumstances, they found out that they also share the same sentiments in dealing with their scholars. Some shared how important it is not to put so much pressure on the children. Some advised not to pamper their children and trust that they would attain a sense of accomplishment if they would be given opportunities to mature in their own way with the sufficient guidance from the parents. They also agreed that continuous monitoring of and communication with their children helped a lot in understanding and guiding them well. It was also essential for them to encourage their children to engage in other activities so that they would have a break from their hard work in their studies. One parent, Mr. Fronda, former General Parent-Teacher Association President who has a Grade 11 son in Pisay, also commended PSHS-CLC in its efforts to provide opportunities to its scholars to involve in extra-curricular activities like clubs, sports, music, and other forms of arts. He took pride in the school’s endeavors to develop holistic scholars.
Overall, the seminar-forum was very much appreciated by the 129 audience, parents of PSHS-CLC scholars, because it was able to impart to them significant parenting insights, to provide them a venue where they could share their own parenting thoughts and experiences with other parents with whom they share the same parenting challenges and sentiments, and to be their starting point towards better parenting undertakings.
