As a child, I was brought up to value education. Every time I massaged her back with my pre-adolescent fingers, Nanay told me to give my best effort and maximize the opportunities of education. When I was in high school, I used to pluck her white hairs and she urged me to become a CPA. She believed it to be financially rewarding; respectable and honorable; and, she always had wanted to become one. In all those occasions, she never failed to end her discussion with, “Waray ko iba nga maitatagubilin ha im kun diri an edukasyon. Bisan san-o di it mawawara haim upod han tanan nga napabutnga han im duha nga talinga.” I once found a crumpled faded part of a letter from one of my uncles addressed to my father which said, “Nestor, ang taong nakapag-aral ng tama kailanman ay di mapapalupig at di manlulupig.” My maternal grandparents had the greatest praises for three relatives who were all siblings because they were a lawyer, an engineer, and a teacher-nun. All of them pointed me to a direction where education was not only an end to itself but a means to achieve affluence, respectability, honor, and admiration.
Since I started to consciously think of education though, I have unceasingly discovered and rediscovered that it is much greater than the achievement of all the glories attached to it. It is a metamorphosis that leads me home to the best place in the world… myself. First, I learned that formal education is not the absolute form of education and that I could learn a lot of things without undergoing it; and that I could learn by reading, doing, listening and getting some informal mentoring. Second, it has brought complete changes in the way I viewed a lot of things. I used to think that the world is unjust but I was disproven by history that there will always be people who will fight and die for justice. I always have thought that death is unbearable but then as I studied biology, chemistry, psychology, and mythology I realized that it is a fact and something that can be postponed but never evaded. I always felt that I had to pay a certain price just to enjoy beauty but when I took up literature I saw that poetry is free. Third, it has equipped me with skills that I need for my sources of livelihood and above all, for living. I have acquired the technical competencies I need as a CPA and a teacher. I have become prepared to take on the challenges of life anytime because I have learned to enjoy, analyze and deconstruct both abstractions and facts with an objectivity that only education could afford.
It seems though that today’s youth are more interested in just getting a diploma than acquiring the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that they would need for their future livelihood and prepare themselves for the greater responsibilities of life. Most of them do not feel the need to pursue endeavors such as self-improving tasks that are not required by formal education. Within or without the classroom, they prefer to stick to what is required to earn the grade to complete their degrees. They have not realized that the purpose of education is metamorphosis; that with it they can transform to someone better for whatever purposes it may be- grand or not. When I asked some youngsters though about the purpose of their education, most of them answered that they want to finish their programs so that they could go abroad and earn greater amounts of money that could never be realized in the Philippines. In fact, the 2003 World Bank Country Report on the Philippines by Josefina Santamaria and A.G. Watts states that for the past two decades, students have flocked to courses such as information technology, nursing, teaching, and care giving because of their big demand abroad. Furthermore, the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines found out in one of its recent surveys that most college graduates are not prepared to take on entry level jobs in accounting, sales, and administrative positions because they have poor communication skills; low self-confidence; and, lack of technical skills. There are students who have managed to reach their final year in college but have failed to develop the simple skill of creating a cohesive and well-thought of paragraph. There are many graduates who know the procedures and know-how of tasks but do not have the appreciation and understanding of the principles involved. This could be fatal because it makes them functional illiterates who would easily crumble under the toils of pressure, responsibilities, and decision making.
The youth must learn to value education. They need to be educated on what they need in order to prepare them for their professions and lives. They need to be taught the importance of what they need to learn too so that they would not grow up acting like automatons incapable of thought, discovery, self-criticism, and sound judgment. They need to be educated for their sake; they must not just be trained just to become sources of labor both locally and abroad because wage is not the sole purpose of education. They must be educated to bring the best out of them so that they may bask in a life that is well-lived and well-thought of. They need to have their metamorphosis or else they are doomed to suffer.
