On Education

On Education (April 10, 2012)

The roots of education is bitter, the fruit however, is sweet.  This remark was attributed to Aristotle and being the carrier of torch after Socrates and Plato – the thought couldn’t be truer and plainer for every Filipino.

The classic scenario of sacrificing everything just to be able to send one’s children to school, to finish and acquire a decent education is nothing but a reflection of a desire to better oneself and familial standing in breaking the cycle of tradition.  Because like it or not, at least 93% to 96% of the current Filipino family came from peasantry.  Historically, Filipinos were tillers of the land (farmers/fishers to be exact) and because of the changes brought about by globalization, Filipinos collectively, tried to better their lot by acquiring education. 

Never mind the additional burden of toil, just to be able to send their children to school.  In my family alone, my grandparents worked hard night and day just to be able to send majority of their children to school.  My father even had to alternate with his sister every other year just to finish tertiary education and all of my brothers right now are college graduates.  In my family there are lawyers, engineers, nurses, and teachers but I have the distinction of being the first to earn a doctorate degree and looking back, that is one of the major evolution of my family in terms of education.

Personally, I have been responsible to the graduation of more than a thousand students who bettered themselves and their family in terms of economics and distinction.  I take my hats off to my students, they may not be my biological students but they are my academic children.  Some will be successes and some will failures but in the greater scheme of things, all of them are better individuals because of their education.

They say that education came from the Italian word “educare” which literally means bringing someone closer to god.  And though I just recently learned of such a word and while in almost a decade of teaching, god was the farthest thing in my mind when I was teaching, I am glad that in this noblest profession, god is at the end of the crossroad.

There is no wealth to be found in teaching, I have yet to meet an educator who could boast that he became wealthy because of teaching - the wealth is measured by the success of one’s students and following the equation of Socrates who produced Plato, who in turned produced Aristotle who in turn produced Alexander the Great – I find myself in a better company of teachers who produced shapers of history down the line.

Because looking back, and with the benefit of hindsight, the world is a better place because there are teachers and educators who paved the way for their students to succeed and make this world a better place for everyone who follows after them.  In our recent PICC graduation, I recently graduated three (3) cum laude’s, (which from what I hear is a once in a decade accomplishment for any department), and I say to myself, isn’t that a great accomplishment/contribution from a peasant stock two generations ago?