School cults
School cults
Posted 11:33pm (Mla time) Mar 03, 2005
By Michael L. Tan
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the March 4, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
WE usually think of our schools as safe havens for our children, a second home where they learn to explore the wonders of the world, and to live and work with others.
What happens though when the schools become a breeding ground for cults, where the teachers themselves become cult leaders?
That's what seems to have happened to the JCF School in Cagayan de Oro, the initials standing for Jesus Christ Followers. Last Jan. 28, the school had to be closed down when its officials refused to release a 16-year-old student who had left home after a quarrel with parents and sought refuge in the school.
There was fierce resistance when the police had to be sent in. A feature article last Sunday by the Inquirer's J. B. Deveza said the JCF members fought police "wielding steel pipes, sticks, rocks and human excrement wrapped in plastic." Three policemen were injured in the fracas and 22 JCF teachers and students, including several who were also injured, were arrested and brought to the Lumbia Detention and Rehabilitation Center.
Court hearings have turned into circuses. I caught one newscast and watched with horror as the teachers insulted, threatened and cursed police and government officials while students went into hysterics, refusing to go home with their parents and insisting on being with their teacher-leaders.
High academic standards
It turns out that the January incident was only the latest in a series of encounters between the school and government officials.
The school was established in 1999 by Emelinda and Onofre Tiongco, both of whom had worked in the Middle East. The school's temporary permit expired two years ago and the Department of Education recommended that the school be closed down because it was using a curriculum different from DepEd's. The city council acted on the recommendation, passing a resolution to close down the school, but it was never implemented.
How different is the school's curriculum? Emelinda Tiongco, in a television interview using a pathetically contrived British accent shared by her fellow teachers, said that they were following the "British system." There are no Filipino subjects since these are considered irrelevant. Teachers and students use English, or at least Tiongco's peculiar British-Cebuano patois. The passing mark in JCF School is 90, much higher than the DepEd's current cut-off of 70, but Tiongco said that they intended to increase the passing mark to 95, and then to 100.
So sure are Tiongco and her teachers about their high academic standards that they have now refused the help of public lawyers. They insist that six of their students will be able to defend them in court.
True believers
The JCF controversy reminds us that schools are potential indoctrination grounds for cults, with no less than the teachers themselves taking on the role of cult leaders.
Teachers are often driven by personal ideals and beliefs, which in itself is a good thing. The danger though is that some teachers take on messianic visions of transforming students to fit into their mold.
The students are vulnerable for many reasons. First, they actually spend more time in schools than at home, a ready-made captive audience for would-be cult leaders. It's not just time spent in classrooms. I'd be careful with teachers that require frequent field trips and outings. It's during these times when students become too dependent on and trusting of their teachers.
I'd be very suspicious, too, about teachers who frequently get their students to hang out at their home, or insist on doing things together, whether eating, drinking or watching movies. If you don't end up with cults like this JCF school, there's a strong chance you're going to have sexual seduction and harassment. The worst-case scenario is a cult where the teacher-leader sexually exploits the student-followers.
A second reason students are so vulnerable to cult teachers is that the young see their teachers as all-knowing, and as authority figures. Sure, young people today are sharp, discerning, even cynical, but I'm actually more worried about the bright ones because they're the ones who may eventually be drawn to cult-like teachers, impressed by these teachers' seeming commitment, or by their rhetoric.
Once cult heads have some following, they move on to create true believers, followers who will never question their leaders. Any criticism is dismissed as coming from the ignorant. The leaders also paint themselves as the source of all good: "Without me, you would not be where you are today."
With time, cult leaders draw a following by painting themselves as being misunderstood, as being persecuted by the outside world. A siege mentality is created, with leaders constantly exhorting followers to be absolutely loyal and steadfast and to fight the outsiders, the non-believers.
Social malaise
The JCF controversy reminds us cults aren't just products of rural communities. Cagayan de Oro is a fairly cosmopolitan area, with very good schools like Xavier University. Yet, there was space for something like the JCF School to emerge.
JCF is, of course, an extreme example of schools turned cults, but be on the lookout too for schools that are subtler in the way they indoctrinate students. I cringe at how we call our religious schools "sectarian" without realizing that there's a very thin boundary between being sectarian and being cultish. Schools and teachers that project themselves as the sole purveyors of truth should be looked at with suspicion. Intolerance of other faiths, of other political beliefs, of other lifestyles, has no place in modern education.
Recognize, too, how cults are often symptoms of deeper social malaise. Cults flourish when existing social institutions -- families, faith-based groups -- provide inadequate social support.
Cult followings grow on the anxieties of the times. Listening to Tiongco as well as her fellow teachers, with their "British" accents, I realized how in a way they were actually more of a secular rather than religious cult. They weren't preaching about salvation in heaven and eternal damnation in hell. Their message was that life now, as a Filipino in the Philippines, is hell itself, and that the way out is to use a "British system" in school so one could eventually seek salvation in overseas utopias.
"We will turn this country upside down," Emelinda Tiongco was quoted in last Sunday's Inquirer. JCF alone could never do this, but we better watch out about all the little cults brewing out there, in and out of schools. Cults make us uncomfortable because, even as we shake our heads over the ranting of their leaders, we realize that they, too, are products of our own social institutions and that the values they speak of are those that we cherish and uphold.
Posted 11:33pm (Mla time) Mar 03, 2005
By Michael L. Tan
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the March 4, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
WE usually think of our schools as safe havens for our children, a second home where they learn to explore the wonders of the world, and to live and work with others.
What happens though when the schools become a breeding ground for cults, where the teachers themselves become cult leaders?
That's what seems to have happened to the JCF School in Cagayan de Oro, the initials standing for Jesus Christ Followers. Last Jan. 28, the school had to be closed down when its officials refused to release a 16-year-old student who had left home after a quarrel with parents and sought refuge in the school.
There was fierce resistance when the police had to be sent in. A feature article last Sunday by the Inquirer's J. B. Deveza said the JCF members fought police "wielding steel pipes, sticks, rocks and human excrement wrapped in plastic." Three policemen were injured in the fracas and 22 JCF teachers and students, including several who were also injured, were arrested and brought to the Lumbia Detention and Rehabilitation Center.
Court hearings have turned into circuses. I caught one newscast and watched with horror as the teachers insulted, threatened and cursed police and government officials while students went into hysterics, refusing to go home with their parents and insisting on being with their teacher-leaders.
High academic standards
It turns out that the January incident was only the latest in a series of encounters between the school and government officials.
The school was established in 1999 by Emelinda and Onofre Tiongco, both of whom had worked in the Middle East. The school's temporary permit expired two years ago and the Department of Education recommended that the school be closed down because it was using a curriculum different from DepEd's. The city council acted on the recommendation, passing a resolution to close down the school, but it was never implemented.
How different is the school's curriculum? Emelinda Tiongco, in a television interview using a pathetically contrived British accent shared by her fellow teachers, said that they were following the "British system." There are no Filipino subjects since these are considered irrelevant. Teachers and students use English, or at least Tiongco's peculiar British-Cebuano patois. The passing mark in JCF School is 90, much higher than the DepEd's current cut-off of 70, but Tiongco said that they intended to increase the passing mark to 95, and then to 100.
So sure are Tiongco and her teachers about their high academic standards that they have now refused the help of public lawyers. They insist that six of their students will be able to defend them in court.
True believers
The JCF controversy reminds us that schools are potential indoctrination grounds for cults, with no less than the teachers themselves taking on the role of cult leaders.
Teachers are often driven by personal ideals and beliefs, which in itself is a good thing. The danger though is that some teachers take on messianic visions of transforming students to fit into their mold.
The students are vulnerable for many reasons. First, they actually spend more time in schools than at home, a ready-made captive audience for would-be cult leaders. It's not just time spent in classrooms. I'd be careful with teachers that require frequent field trips and outings. It's during these times when students become too dependent on and trusting of their teachers.
I'd be very suspicious, too, about teachers who frequently get their students to hang out at their home, or insist on doing things together, whether eating, drinking or watching movies. If you don't end up with cults like this JCF school, there's a strong chance you're going to have sexual seduction and harassment. The worst-case scenario is a cult where the teacher-leader sexually exploits the student-followers.
A second reason students are so vulnerable to cult teachers is that the young see their teachers as all-knowing, and as authority figures. Sure, young people today are sharp, discerning, even cynical, but I'm actually more worried about the bright ones because they're the ones who may eventually be drawn to cult-like teachers, impressed by these teachers' seeming commitment, or by their rhetoric.
Once cult heads have some following, they move on to create true believers, followers who will never question their leaders. Any criticism is dismissed as coming from the ignorant. The leaders also paint themselves as the source of all good: "Without me, you would not be where you are today."
With time, cult leaders draw a following by painting themselves as being misunderstood, as being persecuted by the outside world. A siege mentality is created, with leaders constantly exhorting followers to be absolutely loyal and steadfast and to fight the outsiders, the non-believers.
Social malaise
The JCF controversy reminds us cults aren't just products of rural communities. Cagayan de Oro is a fairly cosmopolitan area, with very good schools like Xavier University. Yet, there was space for something like the JCF School to emerge.
JCF is, of course, an extreme example of schools turned cults, but be on the lookout too for schools that are subtler in the way they indoctrinate students. I cringe at how we call our religious schools "sectarian" without realizing that there's a very thin boundary between being sectarian and being cultish. Schools and teachers that project themselves as the sole purveyors of truth should be looked at with suspicion. Intolerance of other faiths, of other political beliefs, of other lifestyles, has no place in modern education.
Recognize, too, how cults are often symptoms of deeper social malaise. Cults flourish when existing social institutions -- families, faith-based groups -- provide inadequate social support.
Cult followings grow on the anxieties of the times. Listening to Tiongco as well as her fellow teachers, with their "British" accents, I realized how in a way they were actually more of a secular rather than religious cult. They weren't preaching about salvation in heaven and eternal damnation in hell. Their message was that life now, as a Filipino in the Philippines, is hell itself, and that the way out is to use a "British system" in school so one could eventually seek salvation in overseas utopias.
"We will turn this country upside down," Emelinda Tiongco was quoted in last Sunday's Inquirer. JCF alone could never do this, but we better watch out about all the little cults brewing out there, in and out of schools. Cults make us uncomfortable because, even as we shake our heads over the ranting of their leaders, we realize that they, too, are products of our own social institutions and that the values they speak of are those that we cherish and uphold.
posted by Dante at 4:53 PM
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