Unless . . .

THE most important word in "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss, I think, is "unless" and if you've read the book, you'll most probably agree with me on this.

"Unless someone cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

I made the mistake of attributing this quote to the Lorax in my story in the Learning section of the Feb. 27th Inquirer. The words are actually from an older, poorer, wiser and contrite Once-ler, a central character in this cautionary tale from the universally beloved Dr. Seuss.

If you haven't read the book and if you have children in the house who haven't either, I suggest you get a copy and read it (easy at 71 pages) before you all go see the movie, which is scheduled to be shown in March.

"Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" owes its animated 3D version to Universal and Illumination Entertainment, the same team that brought us the immensely wicked and enjoyable "Despicable Me". It features the voices of Danny DeVito as the Lorax, Zac Efron as the boy Ted, Taylor Swift as the girl Audrey, Betty White as the grandma, and Ed Helms as the Once-ler.

The book says nothing about why the boy has wandered into the Street of the Lifted Lorax, but the movie gives him a reason for being there.

"It' a girl, right?" guesses the Once-ler whom the boy seeks out for information on where he can get a real tree.

You see, where Ted and Audrey live (Thneed-ville in the new movie) there are no trees, this being long after the Once-ler and his factory have denuded and degraded the place. Now the town is entirely artificial but for the folks who live there. Thus Audrey's fondest wish is to see a real truffula tree.

The boy has no name in the book, and the girl is not even in the original story, but both are given names in the movie. I like it that they are named after Dr. Seuss, whose real name is Theodore Seuss Geisel (Ted for short), and his wife Audrey.

I've read that Geisel's widow gave a lot of input during the filming, so I have high hopes that this won't be one of those movies that are disastrously far removed from the original material.

Dr. Seuss first published "The Lorax" in 1971, long before Al Gore became the poster boy for global warming due to all kinds of human abuse of the planet. The story is amusing for its use of invented words and clever rhymes, a Seuss trademark (great for teaching phonetic reading to beginning readers) and distinctive illustrations (the trees, in candy colors, look delicious enough to eat).

Beyond this whimsical presentation, however, is a message that seems to have been made to-order for the present time.

Massive floodings? Frequent landslides? We all know what brings about these disasters.

"I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues," says the Lorax to the enterprising Once-ler who has started to cut down the truffula trees at an alarming speed to mass produce "thneeds" or "the things that man needs". We all know that many "thneeds" are really not "needs" but "wants," don't we? Unlike the Lorax, however, we don't put up a fight.

The Once-ler, consumed by greed, doesn't heed the pleas of the Lorax and plunders what is once a paradise for the brown Barbaloots, the Swamee Swans and the Humming Fish. Trees are felled not just to make thneeds but also to make way for a factory and houses for the families who work the assembly line.

Soon after the last truffula tree is axed down, the place turns into a ghost town, breaking the Lorax's heart so bad it lifted itself up and out a hole in the sky.

Is there salvation for the world after this? Fret not because from Dr. Seuss' pen always comes a stroke of hope. The Once-ler, that dirty scoundrel, has saved a tiny truffula tree seed, it turns out. And this is where the "unless" quote comes in handy.

Dr. Seuss came out with a short-film version of "The Lorax" for television in 1972. Logging companies vehemently fought the airing of the short animation, so I've read, and that was that. Almost two decade later, when people had become more concerned about the environment, "The Lorax" was re-issued on VHS format, just in time for my children to enjoy it in their childhood years.

A remastered deluxe edition of this short-film in DVD format was released on Valentine's Day. Also, a pop-up edition of the book.

As for the new full-length 3D movie, it will be screened in the United States on March 2 on the occasion of the 108th birthday of Dr. Seuss.

It is slated for showing locally on March 14, which is too bad because by then the kids will be deep in final exams, if not already off on vacation. There won't be time for teachers to use "The Lorax" story to teach about conservation, about materialism and about the ill effects of progress.

I remember infecting a gifted class of fifth and sixth graders with my enthusiasm for Dr. Seuss. They had as much fun with "The Lorax" as I did teaching it, and what was nice was, well, it wasn't empty fun. (We also took up "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in this Language Arts class around Christmas.)

Unfortunately, I cannot find my lesson plans for these Seuss stories, or I would have posted them here. But I know they will turn up one day when I'm not looking for them and when they do, I will definitely share them with our readers.

The possibilities for teaching a classic like "The Lorax" are almost limitless. You can plan all kinds of age-appropriate activities for the kids in their art, science, language and values classes. And the teaching doesn't have to be left to classroom teachers only.

Parents will get as much satisfaction from imparting to their kids the ideas and values in both the book and the movie. "The Lorax" is definitely a family story and will make for a great dinner-time family discussion.

The local distributors of "The Lorax," United International Pictures and Solar Entertainment, have teamed up with Greenpeace on a massive eco-awareness contest for students. For more, check out the Feb. 27, 2012 Learning section story on "The Lorax" (just click on the blue title).

The Valedictories that Made Me Cry

In the Feb. 6, 2012 LEARNING section, we excerpted from the heart-tugging valedictory addresses of two students of Sisters of Mary in Silang, Cavite. To understand why they spoke that way, you will need the back story...



STRANGE, a graduation in December, I thought, when I got the invitation from the Sisters of Mary, who in my book are the most adorable nuns in the world.

The Sisters of Mary (SOM) Residential schools for high school girls is called Girlstown. It is located in Biga, Silang, Cavite. Its counterpart for the boys is Boystown, which is in nearby Adlas.

SOM students come from the poorest families in the country. All of them would have stopped schooling after sixth grade if not for SOM. The sisters are not exaggerating when they say "our students come from the poorest of the poor families".

Sixth grade students in public schools in the most impoverished areas throughout the country who pass the SOM exams are accepted if their average grade is at least 80. Those who are from towns in Luzon and surrounding small islands are welcomed by SOM in Silang, Cavite. Those who are from the Visayas and from Mindanao go to SOM in Cebu.

Sometimes those who pass end up not coming to SOM because the parents don't want to let them go. There are parents who insist on the child helping out with the farming, the fishing or their particular livelihood. Some parents say they cannot bear the children to live apart from them, yet they have no money to send them to high school. In these cases, the sisters will go to the homes of the children who are serious about receiving a high school education and talk to the parents.

The sisters said they used to allow all the kids to go home at Christmas and for the summer break. But then they observed some of the kids would not return from vacation because their parents needed them to be home to help out with the farm or the household, or for some other reason. Because of this fear of not being permitted to come back to school, the students themselves would refuse to go home on breaks.

So SOM is home to these students for four years. This explains the tears at their commencement rites.

Students of SOM are educated, fed, clothed and housed for FREE. They have basketball courts, taekwando, swimming, and other sports. Plus a huge gym. They have a beautiful auditorium where they put up cultural presentations. They have a wonderful rondalla and a superb choir (everybody can sing in SOM). They have a nice kitchen where they learn how to cook and bake. They have greenhouses where they plant and harvest the vegetables they eat.

Both Girlstown and Boystown have impeccably clean campuses. The facilities are well-maintained. Considering SOM has thousands of students (11,000 including SOM in Cebu), this is amazing!

The students do the cleaning and other chores themselves. Across their classrooms are their living quarters. I've seen how clean and organized those quarters are. (The tables are set for lunch even before classes begin in the morning.)

Both SOM Girlstown and Boystown are our Inquirer in Education partner schools.

The students at both locations received free copies of the Inquirer, compliments of Bench, when we serialized Gilda Cordero-Fernando's story "The Magic Circle" (which was wonderfully staged in UP Diliman recently) in 2009.

Last year, they got free copies of Inquirer again, this time from Citibank, when we serialized a financial literacy module called "You can bank on it: Money matters for teens."

The teachers are dedicated. They have to be, to teach in these out-of-the-way schools. And they are among the brightest teachers I've met.

What is most commendable about the Sisters of Mary is that they don't just teach these kids academics. They make sure their students have livelihood skills so when they leave SOM, they are employable.

SOM Boystown and Girlstown depend on their generous benefactors for upkeep. If you care to make a donation, whether large or small, in kind (shoes, slippers, socks, etc.) or in cash, please call (046) 4140575 or 8652546 or fax (046) 4142575 or 8652830.

Read the speeches in the Inquirer's section Learning of today and post your comments here.


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