An appreciation for the arts and culture, a strong belief in the value of education, and the significance of the K to 12 system will be what Leonor Briones will take with her when she takes over the Department of Education and Culture (DepEd) on July 1, 2016. In an exclusive interview with the Manila Bulletin recently, Briones said that under her watch, she will bat for the students’ appreciation of culture. “After all, education includes culture, sports, and theatre, because this is where you get the soul of the country,” the professor emeritus at the University of the Philippines-National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG) explained. “We can be a nation of technocrats and experts, and so on. But where will you get your political leaders? Where will you get your poets, those who mirror our soul? This is where the poets come in, the writers, the theatre [...]