The Filipino Dream – Earn Your Degree, Find Work & Live Happily Ever After!

Happily, ANN writes, "Eldest Sibling Didn't Graduate But Was Able To Help Two Siblings Earn Their Degrees" (Author Not Named, not dated, RachFeed, rachfeed.net). It's the story of Ghel Martinez who abandoned her own dream of earning a college degree for herself and worked hard instead to help her sisters graduate – and they did, one with a BS Architecture, and the other with a BS Accountancy, cum laude! Says ANN, "It touched a lot of hearts and she earned praise from netizens who admired her stand in life." 

That is a fact of Filipino life, studying to be hired for a job – is that ideal? (image above from Schudio, schudio.com)

I have just seen a Facebook link by Louie Reynoso to an essay by Andy Uybuco where he challenges that ideal: "What Are Schools For? (Part 1)" (10 May 2019, Free Thinking Me, freethinking.me), and this is his opening paragraph:

There is a myth prevalent in (Filipino) society, and that is in order for children to be successful later on in life, they have to go through elementary, high school, and then college, so they can go get a good job and be financially independent and be productive members of society.

Note: "Be financially independent" and not "Be financially highly successful." Filipinos have such modest dreams, that you hardly hear of a Pinoy dreaming of his first million pesos.

Go to school, get a diploma, and go get a job. Mr Uybuco says:

Many parents today still see it as their ultimate duty to let their kids finish college. They see it as the penultimate achievement of parenthood. They do so because they believe in that myth that college is the key to success in life, that in shepherding their children through college, they have given them the best preparation for adulthood.

That is the myth that has to be shattered – that school is a preparation for life.

I'm not going to wait for Mr Uybuco's Part 2 because I agree with what he has written so far, but I'm pretty sure we differ in our subsequent views on education. We agree on the premises, but I'm sure we do not see eye to eye on the conclusions.

Thus, I say, school is necessary – but it must be a radically different kind of school, one where the student is allowed, nay assisted and encouraged, to discover oneself.

I'm thinking of a different school, one dedicated to cultivating Multiple Intelligences, MI, of which I had been continually writing since 12 years ago (see my essay, "#13: UP!" 12 September 2007, I Love UP? UP Beloved, wordpress.com). There are 9 MI that each of us is heir to, according to Harvard Professor Howard Gardner:

bodily kinesthetic –  athlete, pilot
existential –  philosopher, teacher
interpersonal –  manager, salesman
linguistic –  writer, editor
logical-mathematical –  statistician, debater
musical –  composer, singer
naturalistic –  farmer, forester
personal –  fictionist and
visual –  painter, sculptor.

Only then will each & every student get excited to attend school and grow a love for learning. One must discover one's own smart!517