Forget the fact that some of our kids have to walk three hours a day to go to school; this is not a great tragedy. Heck, it’s not even a tragedy. It is a big challenge for the kids alright but not a tragedy.

So what’s the greatest tragedy of our time? Well, it’s the fact that our kids who are attending public schools are using textbooks which are riddled with tons of mistakes. We should thank Antonio Calipjo Go for pointing out the errors (usually grammatical and/or factual) in our kids’ textbooks.

Read the following errors and weep:

In English textbooks:
* We grow our hogs in our own farms so you’re sure to get meat that is grown.
* He seemed to be waiting for someone, not a blood relation, much less a bad blood.
* The high flagpole could be seen easily. During windy days, the flag flies so high it doesn’t drop. The national anthem sounds so high that we cannot reach the pitch.
* Choke: stop breath by blocking the windpipe. The baby was choke from eating biscuits.
* Open door on back of camera, place film and close camera door.
* The hen walked coquetly.
* The potato pursued a disapproving lip.
* Look at the sky at night. You see the moon and the stars. Then you see lightning flashes and you hear thunder before the downpour of rain. Why is the sky? And why is the sky?
*Seeing a rainbow in the sky is like a dream that disappears that’s why a child wants it painted permanently in the sky.
* Science is what we find out by studying the world around us.
* As the campers trek through the trail at the rainboat they’ll stop now and then. They had huffs and puffs.
* The mountain climber was flown off his feet.
* Not all mountains are made by wrinkles in the ground.
* God’s footsteps bulged the mountains up.
* Kiosk: a somewhat similar structure open at one or more sides used as a bandstand.
* Fort Santiago was the fortress used by Rajah Soliman as his protection against the Spaniards.
* Galileo invented a magnifying telescope to study the moon.

In Filipino texbooks:
* Walang ulap kung umaga. Nasinghot na ng lumalaking populasyon.
* Si Pres. Garcia ay kumita ng unang liwanag sa Talibon, Bohol.
* Ang sipon ay umaapekto sa buong katawan.
* Ang kahirapan ay hindi sagabal patungong kaitaasan.
* Chick boaster at broiler ang kinakain ng mga sisiw na pugo.
* Ang kanin ay galing sa halaman.

And if you remember Sisa, Basilio, and Crispin in Noli Me Tangere, you will recognize the following scene despite the hilariously bad writing (it might have been written by someone as crazy as Sisa):
* On Basilio’s skull, fire nicked. The tiny fire had a blow, huge and quick. He touched the fire on his skull. Past all that is beyond, he runs. Guavas hang ripe from the trees; they leap from branch to branch, like the fleet of butterflies. Sisa runs out of the town in the woods, runs into the gate. She cries with joy and in that joy dies.

Pinoy Press has the complete list of errors, you might want to read it here if you want to continue getting mad (or having a good laugh). You might also want to read Anitokid’s criticism of the Department of Education for minimizing these mistakes. Our favorite columnist, Conrad de Quiros’, also wrote a column about the matter which he has aptly titled Reign of Error.

Finally, you might want to read this gem of a story written by Gandang Igorota about a teacher who is as weird (and as harmful) as these textbooks.

UPDATE: More absurdities at the Department of Education.

SOMEWHAT RELATED POST: When Your Kids Won’t Go To School.