By Adrianna Coloma

By Reign Querido

A walking encyclopedia — full of parabolas, history dates, and participle tenses — teachers serve as the picture-perfect image of a book. Search a PNG image of a teacher and you see them holding a large book, ask a first grader what he thinks of his adviser, and they would say they’re ‘smart’ and ‘reads,’ and approach one outside the workroom and you see the books and papers held tightly in their hands. Teachers are the epitome of knowledge, stuck in the codes of what they teach in a textbook. In a library filled with educators stacked on shelves with labels written on them, we find something beyond — as we uncover beyond the paperbacks of the subjects set to them, they’re here to recommend more than what is written as their title. 

f(x) = Classics, Timeless and Eternal

 (TW: The books might contain themes of suicide, death, and violence.)

Classics are a relic found in the Penguin cover and hardbound books of a library. It persists to find and enter the crevices of a reader’s mind and exist in the present.“Modern works, in one way or another, always go back to the influence of the classics.” Was this said by a student who reads classics? An English teacher? Maybe a future philosopher? No, it’s just Sir Luis Melosantos, a teacher from the Mathematics department, who teaches functions at day and the Z-table at night. Famously known as Sir Melo, he walks in the hallways of HumSS due to his love for reading and finding meaning in these pages.  “I recommend always going back to the classics as these works touch on eternal themes and truths about our lives,” he exclaimed. 

Books from William Shakespeare, who has long inspired a wide range of modern works, are some of his recommendations — one being “Romeo and Juliet,” reigning as one of Shakespeare’s most popular books due to its tragic verses. Another would be one of his personal favorites, sitting on his shelf with over 20 copies of different title covers, is “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes. The premise of this recommendation is Quixote, who, after reading as many chivalric romance novels as he can, turns into a knight errant because of his madness. Sir Melo also dives down to the famous whale and suggests “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville, a story of revenge towards the animal that destroyed a captain’s ship. Nevertheless, these recommendations might be decades, even centuries back, but as Sir Melo says, it’s so easy to delve into the classics where we find the truth of our lives. No matter how long the time passes, it’s the classics that stay constant in the variables of our shelves.

Sociological Imagi-Neuron

In the world of social science, some things often make the pursuit of discipline clearer by looking in and out. It tries to pinpoint where exactly human understanding lies in each theory, and in a place where one finds the truth within themselves, Sir Danielle Aguilar strives to recommend something exactly just that. As his subject encompasses basically everything, from the humanities down to natural sciences, he sought out a book that could complete biology and anthropology’s missing knowledge puzzle. He recommends “The Secret of Our Success,” as he believes that— “Joseph Henrich has done a remarkable job of weaving together a voluminous collection of evidence from biology and anthropology to comprehensively one of culture’s most powerful characteristics: ‘Culture and biology are interrelated,’ as good ‘ol Macionis had said.” In a book that, quite literally, reveals the secret of success, it emphasizes collective brains and their use in evolving. By exploring how humans evolve from a collective intelligence through this book, we find the missing piece and put together social science with biology — a perfect recommendation from Sir Danielle. 

Moreover, if you either sit through one of Sir Danielle’s size 2 quizzes or have even heard it from a HumSS friend, you would know why he describes it as a “squeeze” to one’s brain. He owes this to the concept of neuroplasticity — a brain physically changes due to cognitive pressure — which brings to his last recommendation: “Neuroplasticity” by Moheb Costandi. “The book comprehensively explains an elegant “superpower” of the human brain. It is not fixed. It is ever-changing. We are not stuck insofar as we make an effort to try not to do so.”  As this book focuses on how one’s biology evolves, one awakens with a profound change that starts from inside one’s mind. Both books serve as a reminder of how growth, inside the mind and outside one’s culture, will never be static. There will always be a buzz for curiosity, especially in the minds where social science is inhibited.

Verses, Proses, and Real Life Stories

(TW: The books might contain major themes of sexual abuse, violence, and torture.)

In the crevices where writings and passages are created inside our heads, novels and fictional poetry become alive. We drown in the passages that are meant to entertain and create, but there are some that are meant to archive the pain that refuses to erase itself. In the mind of a Creative Writing teacher, who breathes in imagery, diction, and figurative language, Sir Kent De Lima gravitates toward that narrative. He recommends “Mga Daso: Stories of Martial Law in Bicol Region,” a collection of narratives that recount how the contributors lived through the Martial Law era in the Bicol Region. Attending the book launch last September 20, Sir Kent suggested this as it is a— “localization of an otherwise national (that is, Manila-centric) memory, aiming to preserve the horrors of the time through accounts unique to the Bikolanos.” Amidst the creative paragraphs in the books we see every day, Mga Daso is a collection that guides the public through the darkness of Martial Law. This collection sees the injustice left in this country and aims to suggest stories where creative writing is a tool for remembering.

Outside the creative writing world, another globe where social science frequents, collides. Sir Kent, who studied anthropology and sociology for his undergraduate thesis, recommends “Making Sense of the City: Public Spaces in the Philippines,” edited by Remmon E. Barbaza. “With the chaos of the city and with my simple Bikolano upbringing, the book helped me not only understand myself as a dweller in the city but also as a writer making sense of their environment.” As he teaches how to see the world through writing, books like Making Sense of the City are a launching pad to enhance the world into a place where the humanities are flying. To make sense of creative writing, Sir Kent sees that it’s beneficial to first make sense of the city to which we offer this writing. Because, between the words we write, we truly start the creative process by seeing the reality of the world we live in. 

Linguistics at its Core

(TW: The books might contain heavy themes of police brutality, 

drug use, murder, rape, torture, suicide, self-harm, and mentions of sexual assault)

ASHS,  a home for opportunities, offers several language-based subjects and involvement. Ranging from Komunikasyon at Pananaliksik sa Wika at Kulturang Pilipino to the Silk Road, languages become a way to break obstacles against languages. The very language we speak every day or the variety of linguistics offered to us, it works as a tool to serve the truth by encompassing the barriers within it. As Ma’am Ayn Elisha Capili goes to school with the intention of teaching the English subject, she grants this kind of truth in the books she dabbles in beyond her class. She recommends “Some People Need Killing” by Patricia Evangelista, a journalistic book that documents the extrajudicial killings during former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s time. In a subject that goes with technique and structure, this book confronts the truth and lets ethical reasoning arise.

Additionally, Ma’am Capili recommends “The Book of Ichigo Ichie” by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles. In finding the art of making the most of every moment, the Japanese way, this book walks you through the hows and whys of finding happiness through mindfulness. Another suggestion from Ma’am Capili would be a non-fiction book recalling the events of the author’s conversations with her therapist about mental health: “I want to die but I want to eat tteokbokki” by Baek Sehee. A book written originally in Korean, it captures just how important mental health is and caters to empowering selfhood. All of which are available in the ASHS library, and as Ma’am Capili stated, should be borrowed and read more. Outside the grammar and structures found in most subjects, Ma’am Capili’s recommendations go way beyond and see the world through the outstanding use of the English language. These books utilize language to be honest in the words chosen to serve the integrity of the stories that need to be spoken. 

On the other hand, where the country’s language is used and empowered, Bb. Bea Bautista offers several books that could give readers a fresh view of the place we live in, and even offer a helping hand to those struggling to speak it. Reading in one’s own language requires recognition; reading beyond it needs empathy. Doing both is exactly what Bb. Bautista’s favorites. Among her recommendations are “Dekada ‘70” by Lualhati Bautista, a novel about a family webbed in Martial law during the seventies, and “Para Kay B” by Ricky Lee, a book revolving around five women who fell in love, broke their hearts, and found love again within themselves.  Some books she also suggested come in the form of the English language. Some of which are “By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept” by Paulo Coelho, an originally Portuguese book that captures the sentiments of emotional and spiritual growth through a story of a guarded woman and her childhood friend, who is a spiritual leader. “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is also another one of her favorites, a compilation of four stories that time-travelled to the past through a cafe by sitting on a seat before the coffee gets cold. This book, as supernatural as it may be, is an emotional recount of how bittersweet time can be. In these recommendations, language is not a boundary meant to overcome, but rather, something that can be authentic in understanding. 

A walking encyclopedia — full of wisdom, knowledge, and surprises — teachers serve as the picture-perfect image of someone who doesn’t use a textbook to be restricted, but rather, a guide to open doors to opportunities. Books are very diverse, and it chooses you. With vast genres, it breaks barriers to the typical opinions of ‘read this because you’re—!’ You’re a HumSS student, read sci-fi! You don’t like dating in real life, read romance! Books do not revolve around assumptions and stereotypes because learning is not boxed to subjects. In the books suggested by teachers, we see just how they go beyond their subject departments and see the opposites attract in the world of books.