A LEARNED man once said that an educated man is one who acknowledges that he has a lot of things to know but an unlearned man is one who claims to know everything but knows nothing.
Today, we speak of learned men and women with high academic degrees. They think highly of themselves as the masters of knowledge and doctors of wisdom. But looking deeply at most of these “learned beings,” I can come to the conclusion that the more they boast of their “somethings” and “being learned,” the more they look stupid and the more they become “unlearned” and unwise.
Looking at the situation of education in the country, one could see how we train our young people to look for jobs that will land them inside air-conditioned offices and how we trained the young to become slaves of the international market. The top ten degree programs in the Philippines are those that would produce a labor force for the international market. We entered into an experiment lately, where we followed the educational systems of other countries. We were made to believe that in terms of education we are way too behind. We are at par, if not too behind even with countries from the African continent. This is so because we still adopt the 10-year basic education program.
Lately, we are confronted by problems on how schools or teachers discipline their students. I had been with the university’s discipline office for more than a decade. I discourage negative sanctions on students, especially in college. During my term, gone were the days of suspensions and dismissals. I used positive reinforcements to encourage students to understand and solve their problems. Students misbehave because we allow them to. But if they learn something from their misbehavior, then the experience is worth it. However, if the experience is negative, then it is the child that will say he will not do it again.
Today, children need to be told what is good and what is not. After these inputs, we let them decide but with our prying eyes upon them. They have to understand the goodness or the evilness of their actions. The decision will always be theirs whether to continue with the act or to stop. No one could dictate a person. We are all blessed with rationality. We are allowed to commit mistakes and it is in the commission of mistakes that we learn.
Positive reinforcement is not leaving the child alone. It is more of journeying with the child but leaves him with the decision on which road to take and on which foot to use for his first step. The parent or the teacher is the guide. The parents hold the hand of the child while the teacher lights the path for the child. As teachers, we should always keep the fire burning even if we would get burned. We light the path of our students towards a brighter end. The light of truth shall bring our students to the light of wisdom.
Our great problem today is that many teachers have not brought enough oil with them to keep the torch of knowledge burning. Teachers need to be advanced two lifetimes away from their students. This means that teachers should have to carry the bag of knowledge with them. One can never teach what he or she does not know.
In psychology, anger or misery in a teacher is caused by the things he or she cannot comprehend. A teacher or a learned one is one who acknowledges that he has to learn more.
St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.