Look to the Future
It has long been my conviction that the education of our children is essential if our country is to develop, but there is one essential pre-requisite to acquiring an education, and this is a sincere desire to learn.
In order for our bodies to remain healthy we need to eat. But what if we are not hungry? What use is a glass of water if we are not thirsty? And what use is an education if we do not have a sincere desire to learn and the ability to absorb what we are taught?
It is every child’s desire to attend school and it is only through lack of funding that some children miss out on this opportunity. But for those fortunate enough to attend, what do they learn there? How much of what they are taught do they remember? How much of this learning do they actually retain?
My father in law, who was a very astute man, once told me 5that most children in the Philippines attend school not to get an education, but in order to acquire a certificate at the end of their course of study as proof that they have had an education. His point was that it is the learning itself which is of critical importance, together with the ability to understand what has been learned, and most important of all the ability to apply it. A certificate is just a piece of paper after all.
The most important thing that any child can learn at school is the ability to think but this is one subject that you will not find in any curriculum. All too often our children are taught simply to memorize, to learn the nine times table and repeat it ’parrot fashion’ or to memorize a mathematical formula without any real understanding of the mechanics involved
All too often our children are taught not to think for themselves and to question at every opportunity, but to shut up and listen, to be the same as everyone else, and to wait until somebody else tells them what to do. I consider this to be one of the major causes of what I can only describe as the current ‘malaise’ of our society. The origins go back further however, for it is our own influence as parents, or rather the lack of it, that is the root cause.
Children need to be stimulated at an early age if they are to make the best of their education, and people in the west have understood this. This is why they provide their children with books, with toys which will help them to learn, and with materials for writing and drawing with which enable their children to express themselves. By the time these children are old enough to attend school they not only have a thirst for learning, but they are also able to absorb and retain what they are taught.
What stimulation do we give our children here in the Philippines? Do we explain to them why the earth goes round the sun, or why there are two tides a day? Do we tell them about the people of different cultures or explain why people are the way they are? Do we actually engage with our children, or do we simply tell them, “Go fetch the water?” or “Go fetch the wood”?
When our children return home from school, how many of us ask them, “What did you learn today? What did the teacher tell you? Did you understand what the teacher said? How many of us actually take an interest in our child’s education?
How many of us support our local school and involve ourselves in its activities? Whether we are parents or not, it is the children who represent the future of our country, and as such it is in our own interest to participate an to offer support in whatever way we can.
We assume that because our children are attending school they are receiving an education, but if they are unable to remember, or to retain what they are taught, then they are deriving no benefit at all. They are simply wasting their time.
In the west there is a small percentage of children, probably less than one percent, who are considered to have learning difficulties since they are unable to remember what they have been taught. For such pupils special schools have been set up in order to help them. If the same standards were to be applied to the Philippines I suspect that the number of children considered to have ‘learning difficulties’ would be considerably higher.
Do not misunderstand me, for I am not claiming that our children are stupid. Indeed many of them are very gifted and show real potential. But if, for whatever reason, they are unable to realize this potential then of what possible use can it be?
I am reminded of something that Prem Rawat once said, and that is that “The ability to think is God’s gift to us. What we do with it is our gift to ourselves.”
The brain is after all a muscle like the muscle in our legs, though much more complex and sophisticated. If we never used our legs then the muscles in our legs would never develop, and it is precisely the same with our brain. If we are not encouraged to use our brain then it will not develop and our true potential will go unrealized.
Imagine that every day you have to walk to Kalibo, and that every evening you have to walk home again. You would be very tired. Then one day somebody gives you a bicycle and tells you, “This bicycle will make your life easier.” So the next day you push the bicycle all the way to Kalibo and then push it all the way home again, and you come home just as tired if not more so. Of what use would that bicycle be if you did not use it ub the way intended? The same is no less true to our intelligence, for what use can it possibly be if we fail to use it?
I fear that as parents the blame must rest squarely upon our shoulders. A poor diet is a contributing factor, since all too often our children are deprived of the fresh fruit and vegetables so essential to developing an active and inquisitive mind, and instead are fed mainly on rice and fish. But this malaise which has impregnated our society stems in the main from our own failure to stimulate our children at an early age.
As parents we are all role models for our children and it is for us to set an example. How many parents read books? How many of us read or subscribe to a newspaper? Very few of us I fear. In the west most people buy newspapers on a daily basis and on average spend the equivalent of P80.00 per copy and P200.00 for a Sunday edition. The Explorer is published once a week and costs only P10.00 and yet many readers still expect to receive their copy free.
How many of our children read books when they come home from school? How many are inspired to research further into a chosen subject in order to better themselves and to learn more? How many of them have a thirst to acquire more learning and to develop their ability to think? How many borrow books from their local library? How many even know where their local library is?
Do our children attend school because they want to learn, or do they attend because that is where their friends go and they want to spend time with their friends?
I fear the ‘malaise’ to which I refer begins with us, and that the stimulation which is lacking in our children results from a lack of stimulation within us. How can we ever hope to stimulate our children if we ourselves have become victims of our own complacency? How can we ever hope to break this endless cycle?
Our children represent our future and as such are our only hope of emerging from the poverty in which most of us currently live, and of freeing our country from the burden of foreign debt. But they need our encouragement, they need our support, they need to feel the motivation which only we as parents can provide. Most of all we need to set an example for them, and to examine our own lifestyle and attitudes to learning.
It takes a burning candle to light another unlit candle, and in order to motivate our children we first need to motivate ourselves. We need to wake up. We need to look to the future, for unless we do so I fear that we will forever remain a subservient nation, unable to feed itself and totally dependent on foreign aid.
There is no time to lose. The time to act is now!/TE
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