Critical Commentary in Core Values:

Every school has its own culture that expresses shared values and expectations for
students, faculty and staff. Core values help communicate a school’s story – its
mission, standards and desired outcomes. Establishing those ideals provides the
foundation for building the type of atmosphere you want to foster. These standards
also offer a way of thinking about which educational philosophies or initiatives your
school supports.
Well-established core values can help strengthen a school community. However,
determining what those can be a challenge. The following are three steps to get
you started:
1. Identify which values are most important to your teachers and staff
members as well as to your students and their families.
2. Establish a school-wide community code that connects your shared set of
core values.
3. Incorporate character education to encourage your students to develop a
deeper understanding of humanity and what they can do to support
themselves and others.
Learning for life, in the liberal arts tradition, encourages us to pursue knowledge
and truth throughout our lives in ways that improve our communities and ourselves
and that strengthen our understanding of each other.
MLQU commitment to the liberal arts and sciences, as well as to a variety of
professional programs, is a commitment to education as a means of liberating
people to live meaningful lives as well as earn a decent living. In accord with the
value of learning for life, the University enrols students of all ages and supports
programs and activities that expand the knowledge of members of the boarder
community, whatever their age or formal education.
Moral Righteousness - Acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or
sin. It differs somewhat from one religious tradition to another but in the whole it
denotes making prosocial choices with relative comfort, doing the right thing by

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oneself and one’s community. A truly righteous person is concerned with his own
choices rather than judging those of others and is not self-righteous. There is a
genuine humility to him or her that makes the real thing appealing and
approachable. In applying prosocial behaviors are those people who intended to
help other people, it is characterized by a concern for the rights, feelings, and
welfare of other people. Behaviors that can be described as prosocial include
feeling empathy and concern for others and behaving in ways to help or benefit
other people.
Love of Country – I estimate that if we do these basic things wholeheartedly, we
have accomplished nearly all our duties as citizens and we understand what loving
our country entails. In these challenging times, it is urgently relevant that each one
of us from garbage collector to police officer to company president keep these tasks
in mind. We must perform our roles well if we want our country to be able to stand
on its feet, to proceed on the right path, and to prosper. Incidentally, the road to a
better future remains bumpy as our tasks as citizens are frustratingly difficult. This
is because Filipinos are inundated with “pressing” problems that make these tasks
tough, if not impossible. For instance, because of perennial poverty, people are
concerned more on where to source their basic needs like food, than worry about
how to be good citizens. Moreover, the leaders whom we look up to as models of
integrity and honestly are themselves the perpetrators of wrongdoing. This is the
reason why people are apathetic and passive about our country’s affair. This epic
challenge is upon us. For too long, we have been victims of our own undoing. It is
time for each of us to ruminate about our love for our country. Sooner or later, its
essence will show up in our deeds, and can even be admired and emulated by
generations to come.
Quality learning – Quality learning is most likely occur when students are actively
and purposefully engaged with issues and activities they regard as important, are
willing to try new things and to take risks in applying strategies to solve problems
in conventional and creative ways, are involved in the planning of their work and
take responsibility for their learning, believe in their own ability to learn and are
able to discuss and reflect on their own learning, want to work independently and

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in groups and are given support to do so, are committed and self-motivated and
can seek out appropriate resources and help from a variety of sources; appreciate,
respect and care for the concerns, views and feelings of others, know that their
family and community members are welcome in the school, are able to discuss
issues which are said to underpin our society such as democracy, fairness, equity,
and justice and relate them to their own lives, and are able to develop positive
relationships with teachers, students and other adults.
Unity - “Unity in Diversity” is a phrase implying unity among people with diverse
cultural, religious and other demographic differences. The origin of phrase dates
back to ancient times and has since been used by various political and social groups
to demonstrate unity among different individuals or community. People of varying
cultures, religious beliefs and social status, living together in peace and harmony is
a perfect example of “Unity in Diversity”. A democratic nation has people having
different religion, cultures, beliefs, sects, languages and other demarcations, but
they all live in unity and harmony, following a uniform law. Importance of Unity in
Diversity: Unity in diversity boosts morale of people at workplace, organization, and
community, It helps in enhancing esprit de corps, relationships, teamwork among
people thus improve performance, quality of work, productivity and lifestyle, It
makes communication effective even in bad situation, Keeps people away from
social problems and help to manage conflicts easily, Improves healthy human
relations and protects equal human rights for all. Unity in diversity teaches us that
though we are from different caste, creed or race but these differences could not
keep us apart and we are always united for the betterment of our nation. It is the
most unique phenomenon which is showcased by our country. It not only makes
the nation integrated and strong but it also keeps alive the age old tradition of
coexistence with love, peace, dignity and respect. The difference in culture,
customs, festivals, music and dance makes the country as a land of vibrancy and
makes India an incredible country in the world.

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Critical Commentary of Steve Jobs English Speech: Stanford Commencement
Steve jobs delivered his speech “Stay Hungary, Stay Foolish” to the graduates of
Stanford university. His style of presentations. However, this is a speech worthy of
study.
He makes the audience feel comfortable and builds a connection straight away.
Jobs opens with a compliment for the audience: “I am honoured to be with you
today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world”. He
follows that by showing humility in admitting that he never graduated college. In
just a few sentences, he has made the audience feel very good about themselves
and increased their receptiveness to his message.
While this opening might not be the most memorable one, what jobs does well is
he lays the foundation for his important 3 messages. A great example how simple
opening could lead the audience to be more comfortable and connected.
1. Simple Sentences – We are already aware of jobs love for simplicity. He
showcased it with Apple. He showcased it with his speech structure. And he
showcased the same with his sentence structure.

Just like drops of water make an ocean. Simple words and sentences make a
super simplistic speech. Even the great Steve Jobs loves to make it easy for
common people like us.

He guides the audience through the 14.5 minutes with simple sentences.
 “Today I want to tell you three stories.”
 “The first story is about connecting the dots.”
 “My second story is about love and loss.”
 “My third story is about death.”

2. Theme – This is one of the fascinating things about this speech for me. The
underlying theme of this talk is deep. It’s painful at times while inspiring at

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 others. The theme connects with the audience on a deeper level. Moreover,
the repetition of the theme in jobs speech makes it even more enchanting.

In literal sense, Jobs talks about his birth in his first story, and about
confronting death in his third story. However, this speech contains numerous
other metaphorical references to these “circle of life” concepts:

 In addition to his physical birth, he relates how the original couple

decided they wanted a girl (a symbolic “death” since his life with them
was “snuffed out” due to gender). He then tells about how he
experienced “rebirth” with his parents.
 His college career had a short “life”. The “death” of his formal
academic career made way for the “birth” of his normal learning
process.
 His relationship to Apple (in his 20’s) was “born”, grew, and then
“died”. Later, when next was purchased by Apple, his career at Apple
is reborn.
 He uses the word “renaissance” (a rebirth or revival) to describe the
current state of Apple.
 He receives the cancer diagnosis (a “death sentence”), but later is
saved by an operation (a rebirth).

3. Rhetorical Devices – Jobs employs numerous figures of speech in his

remarks.

An antithesis (or antitheton) is a figure of speech using the juxtaposition of

contrasting words, often in a parallel structure. Jobs uses several well-crafted
examples:

“If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in…”

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 “Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect
them looking backwards”.

“The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a

beginner again…” Note also the alliteration of “being a beginner”.

Although there is room for improvement, this is a truly inspiring speech which is
structured in the most simplistic way. With an underlying theme and flawless use
of rhetorical devices, Jobs leaves imprints for all succeeding graduates.

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