Sunday, September 17, 2006
INSIDE MY WINDOW.OUTSIDE MY CLASSROOM
The book of a real student is the society, his teacher is the people, and his test is his contribution in the struggle of the masses.
-Lean Alejandro-
During my first year in high school, I was shocked when the school administration suspends classes to send students in Rizal Park to rally for Erap’s resignation. At that time, I just can’t comprehend why we need to participate in such activities and why not just learn lesson inside the classroom. My preferred manong mango vendor outside Assumption College even asked me once how come I am not like the other students who are radical in thinking. That time again, I believe I am having culture shock.
One day, I just woke up to the culture of not being afraid of the authorities, instead, I was pressured to act independently from them and be very keen on seeing unscrupulous actions and dealings to government officials. I was honed in a school they brand as the little UP where true education is not learned inside the four corners of the room but outside. I was immersed to a society where tolerance is power, and submission is cowardice. Screaming slogans and waiving banners are my only weapon to conquer in the battlefield.
When I reached college in and still carrying with me the principles and idealisms that are taught to me, I taught I would be with the same environment I used to with the real and sensible student I met in high school, but I was totally wrong. Atenean culture, not assuming all, is purely apathy and nothing but elitism.
What frightens me most is that there are few students who thought of fighting for something else. But of course, I knew for myself, that they actually don’t know the whole story, yet willing to shed tears and contest their opinions.
It was a sad realization, indeed.
But what saddened me more was that, I saw I wasn’t alone with my predicament. Many had died fighting for their beliefs. Yet among them were in doubt.
Then why they bother for something they do not fully comprehend? Why waste time and effort to something they thought as futile? Why do they stand for something doomed for ruin?
This has been in my mind for quite some time now. I was thinking, Are they that susceptible to follow what is common rather than chose their own path? Do they tend to equate majority with what is right? Are they just who follows, and not leads?
Spending years in Ateneo corrupts any personality into begetting unjust economic structures, a disposition that finds fertile ground to a passive studentry.
College should not be strictly academics; a real scholastic honor knows liberal education. Awards do have their merits. But if achievement of these results to a insensitivity and indifference to the plight of the masses, education has failed.
Posted by alfred ::
4:33 PM ::
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