The Courage to Begin Again: Reclaiming the Soul of Education

What: A Symposium
Where: Wednesday, 29 July 2026 • 2:00 P.M.
When: St. Thomas Hall, Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Intramuros, Manila

Philippine education faces a quiet crisis—not only of resources, infrastructure, or policy, but of imagination. Too often, schooling is shaped by compliance with standards, accreditation, and metrics that signal quality without guaranteeing genuine learning. We have become skilled at performing education while remaining uncertain whether it is truly transforming how learners think, choose, and act.

Unlearn to Lead: Essays on Transformative Education is Angelo C. Maduli, Ph.D.’s thoughtful response to this crisis. Across seven interconnected essays, he argues that meaningful reform begins not with new programs or revised curricula, but with unlearning—the courage to question inherited practices and ask whether they still serve the learner.

The symposium brings these arguments into public conversation in a setting of deep personal and professional significance for the author. As an alumnus of the institution, a former high school teacher, and a former member of its administration, Dr. Maduli returns not merely as an author presenting a book, but as an educator whose formation, service, and leadership have been shaped by the same community now being invited into reflection.

This circumstance gives the gathering a particular depth. The conversation is anchored not only in theory or critique, but also in memory, gratitude, and responsibility. The place itself becomes part of the meaning of the symposium: a home of learning revisited by one of its own, now asking how institutions can remain faithful to their educational mission while courageously confronting the habits that may keep genuine transformation from taking root.

The symposium is designed for teachers, academic leaders, curriculum designers, education students, and institutional decision‑makers—those entrusted with shaping the direction, culture, and quality of learning. Dr. Maduli will explore the book’s central themes: the difference between schooling and education, the limits of coverage‑driven curricula, the reduction of learning to scores, the restoration of the teacher as a reflective professional, and the responsibility of academic leaders to model the courage they ask of others. These themes resonate strongly in a community where he once learned, taught, and helped lead.

Designed as a conversation rather than a lecture, the symposium will feature Dr. Maduli’s sharing, reactions from a distinguished panel of reactors, and an open forum where participants may offer their own questions, critiques, and experiences. It seeks the honest exchange essential to educational renewal, especially among those who carry the responsibility of guiding learners through complexity.

This gathering also marks the official launch of Unlearn to Lead—a moment where the book’s intellectual invitation becomes a shared institutional challenge. Unlearn to Lead does not ask readers to discard what they know, but to hold it lightly enough for better ideas to take root. In this symposium, that invitation becomes both intellectual and personal: a call to revisit familiar spaces, examine familiar practices, and begin again with renewed courage for the future of education.

Where to Purchase the Book

• Shopee: https://shopee.ph/product/264837039/49463248731/
• Lazada: https://www.lazada.com.ph/products/i15542902420.html
• 8Letters Bookstore Website: https://www.8lettersbooks.com/shop/unlearn-to-lead-angelo-c-maduli