Although some may disagree, schooling is not necessarily equal to education. In this case, it is necessary to specify schooling to be our "organized" academic system of public institutions teeming with teachers and students-not studying, as you may note.
Is schooling really necessary?
Most people argue that without the public school system, kids won't receive an education. However, we beg to differ; the hundreds of thousands of happy home-schooled children can testify to this. Just because they didn't receive what we would think to be a "typical" form of learning doesn't mean that they're any less intelligent; there are cases where they even surpass children who study in public schools because they receive a more individualized education which is tailor-made for them.
In history, we can also note that people who didn't receive a formal education became famous and successful. Now, while we're not advocating playing hooky, we have to point out that people like Abraham Lincoln didn't stay in school, and yet he went on to become a great man. Bill Gates made his fortune after missing out on college by using his own smarts; heck, Jose Rizal may have praised Ateneo, but the fact is that he raged against his first few years of college. So… are they learning anything, then?
Again, we reiterate the definition of schooling. The good news is that yes, students are learning things in school. The bad news is that we're not sure whether what they're learning is what they're supposed to learn.
It's undeniable that many kids discover and pick up bad traits in school. Firstly, you can't really expect to put a thousand or so (and that's actually the minimum! Class sizes today are outrageous and hamper our efficiency) students in one area and think that the herd instinct won't take over. What affects one all too often affects everyone else; sadly, this holds true mostly for the negative rather than the positive attitudes that we want to see in the youth.
It isn't just what we learn in school that is the problem. We also point out that there is a great deal of things that we don't know-and yet we need them. School, as we can point out, doesn't teach a lot of the attitudes that are necessary for our entry to the adult world. What we do find out is what theorem to use for such-and-such problem, and yet we aren't taught how we can apply this to our day-to-day life. Is it really such a surprise that students complain of not learning anything useful in school? We cannot expect an engineering aspirant to think that he'll be able to use Noli Me Tangere in his career choice.
And yet, with all the fuss about Mi Ultimo Adios and the vertical-line test, are students learning how to become resourceful (and no, scrambling around to search for materials for a project doesn't necessarily count). For their jobs, for their futures, what are they being taught? Graphing? Figures of speech?
Then, we also note that in school, they are subjected to a lesser degree of responsibility and maturity. Not too long ago, a thirteen-year-old was not considered a "child", as they often are termed nowadays, let alone the seventeen-year-olds who, at present, are still not treated as adults; while it's true that we shouldn't suppose that they could handle too-heavy duties at this age, we are also influencing them to think that way. In other words, since we anticipate that they won't carry a burden, that's usually how they respond. Hence the new "I"m just such-and-such age, you can't expect me to ____” philosophy so popular among teens today.
We are not proposing that we tear down schools and turning them into malls (although that would perhaps be interesting and profitable for the business sector). We think that the best course of action would be to reform certain aspects of our academic system to correct the plethora of faults that can easily be identified in our administration, as stated above. Otherwise, it seems that after receiving our "education" here at school, we'll have to be re-educated to "unlearn" what was taught.
