I am discussing this today because I am one of those privileged to enroll and attend to a school. I must say that being in school has given me a lot of opportunities to broaden my knowledge and understanding on things surrounding me. It has made me more aware, more equipped and more advanced about issues and situations of life compared to youth of my age who haven’t reached my present status.
However, attending a formal school does not necessarily mean I am a complete person now. Staying in school for years does not guaranty me to be a perfect individual. What makes an individual is how he battles life’s challenges and being able to surpass them.
They say experience is the best teacher. And experiences happen more often outside the school premises. A schooled individual cannot guaranty that he will be able to succeed a certain problem as a person who was not able to step on the portals of a school can. Though he was not able to have formal schooling, his experiences has taught him how to rumble and succeed against the trials of life.
My father wasn’t able to experience entering a university or any tertiary institution. He did not even finish secondary education. But look at him. He has been a good father to me, to my brothers and sisters. He has been a good husband to my mother, a good neighbor and a good citizen in our community. The reputation he has earned through all these years was never taught to him in school. The respect that people bestow upon him was never gained in a formal school.
My mother achieved a lower level of education compared to my father. She was not able to finish her fifth grade in elementary. Being a mother of nine extraordinary kids - nine kids of diverse character - is quite a difficult task for her. Day in and day out she has to make sure that all of us are safe, that all of us are sound, that all of us are healthy. She has to make sure that our needs are attended by her. Plus her duty as a wife to my father adds to her responsibilities.
But look at me now. I am already a full-fledged secondary school teacher. I have a younger sister who finished a midwifery course. I have a younger brother who holds an office in our barangay. I also have other younger siblings who are in the elementary and in high school.
Imagine how an elementary undergraduate mother and a high school undergraduate father rear the nine of us! Imagine how they were able to raise us up to be responsible citizens. Imagine how they were able to provide us with our basic necessities considering that they have not gone to formal school. Isn’t it a manifestation that the education they have acquired through their experiences is a great testimony that not all things are taught and learned in school?
Their schools did not teach them how to become responsible parents. They were not taught how to deal with different problems in life particularly in the family. They were not even taught on how to respond on the different characters of people, or simply their children. They were not taught to become responsible spouses. But they were able to learn all of these. They were able to do all these because their experiences have taught them to. They were molded; they were honed to be such a wonderful couple and great parents because of their eagerness to learn. They may not enroll in a prestigious school. But the school that teaches them better is none other than the university of life.
Learning is a continuous process as they say. I might be retiring from my job soon. I might be building my own family, eventually, raising my own children. I might be belonging to the seasoned and aged. But my thirst for education will not be satisfied. I will continue to long for knowledge not only from any institutions but also from my experiences for I truly believe that education does not only come from schools. It comes everywhere.
