V. Integration of Education for Sustainable Development to Literature

     The Integration of education for sustainable development to literature through rendering some services to the cause of letters in this country by helping stimulate interest in local writing in English this will be done through inspiring and guiding many students in the pursuit of the humanities which believes to be true foundation of a complete man. Today’s generation must give emphasis in education especially in science and technology at the expense of a liberal arts education, when college students are often merely instructed rather than educated.

    The main concern in Philippine Literature is the English part of it. We must treat Philippine literature as it is: with humility, but also with respect. We must not call it great, for it is not; we must not treat it patronizingly, for it deserves respectful treatment. We also need to have a literary critic that is naturally careful to offend no one, which tantamount to saying that criticisms lack courage and intellectual honesty. The truth that is it prefers to encourage more than discourage, to build rather than destroy, rather than mislead.

     A true Filipino intellectual with more practical sense than just rabid nationalism and we believe that the English language, judging from the way better-educated Filipino have handled it. Is here to stay despite the way it is being slaughtered by those who lack competence on it. Though colonial in origin like Spanish, English is a language that has become such a part of the national culture that it seems permissible to suppose that its use need not signify subservience or a colonial mentality and that perhaps a worthy literature in that language might evolve in the Philippine soil if it is not already done so. No one can deny the fact that English has become the language in the Philippine and there is nothing incongruous is the fact that when Filipino writes, they write for the most part in English. Filipino is an evitable heritage that any right-thinking Filipino should not be ashamed of.

     In analyzing the growth of Philippine letters, it says that the most serious drawback to its development is not economic nor merely linguistic but cultural. The tree cannot grow unless it is in contact with the elements. Likewise, art is a lifelong pursuit. There is no shortcut to greatness, not even in literature language cannot be legislated and imposed upon a people. The solution is to see our culture not as well to be emptied or refilled but as a seed to be nurtured, to be allowed to grow, to flower, to bear fruit and for the fruit to ripen on the tree.

     Philippine literature must not be isolated or cut off written and from without if it is to flourished. It must deep roots; it must draw vitality from the soil erosion elegance from civilized art and university from Christendom.