MANILA, Philippines — A connection between a global internship program and media education may be remote. But trust young Filipinos in contriving an appropriate link.

That is what a small group of Adamson University students figured out when their AIESEC chapter linked with the National Council for Children’s Television in spreading the gospel of media literacy in five heavily populated public grade schools in Sampaloc recently. Just armed with grit and bravura, the group led by Gerard Teodosio, 19, whose AIESEC job it is to forge workable external relations, convinced the education bureau in staging the project.

The group not only signed up NCCT but also enlisted the assistance of two foreign exchange students, Joy Zhang, 19, of China and Rieska Febriana, a 20-year-old Indonesian. Together, they mingled with and cajoled kids in Grade 4 and 5 of General Licerio Geronimo, Benigno Aldana, Trinidad Tecson, Moises Salvador and Benito Legarda Elementary Schools, all in the university belt. It was no ordinary feat engaging hundreds of enthusiastic pupils out to make the most of their furlough on campus.

“We found that children use media indiscriminately. We were amazed at how kids easily mimic what they saw. It bothered us that so much in the media they consumed were not truly beneficial to their growth and development and that many of our children do not have the skill to look at media critically and smartly,” says Teodosio.

The partnership with NCCT was an eye-opener to Teodosio and his youthful colleagues at AIESEC. Finally they were working with a small government bureau that was not handsomely funded but was making a huge difference in children’s lives in ways even children appreciate.

How a rowdy crowd of 230, as was the case with the first four schools, and up to 800 in the colossal Legarda Elementary School, ended up competing in creative exercises, enjoying two days of activities and learning without anyone shaking his watch was a feat the AIESEC group observed. There were games galore, lectures on print and broadcast media, a quick discussion on the UN’s millennium development goals and role playing on the topics, storyboarding and video recording. Each activity was packaged as though it was a game; a far cry from the rigidity of classroom work.

Frank Rivera, the irrepressible NCCT executive director, admonishes anyone in the academe about the importance of bringing art and culture into the classroom and into the lives of children. “After all,” Frank says, “when one gets older, he does not recall the lessons in class but will readily remember the plays and pageants he participated in, the songs he memorized and the games he played. It is the heart and soul that does the reminiscing, not the mind.”

Hence, with or without AIESEC, the campus media forums are being staged by NCCT with the end in view of making the juveniles understand the workings of media and how they should shape media rather than the other way around.

(If interested in the advocacy for family-friendly television, visit anaktvweb.com or email the foundation at anaktv_seal@yahoo.com.)