The education of Juana Taspukan

This phrase "the education of" has been used and abused by many, including me obviously, but as far as I am concerned the original of this came from Henry Adams’s The Education of Henry Adams.

This book is rated as the number one non-fiction work of the 20th century. It is autobiographical. Henry Adams is the grandson of the 3rd president of the USA John Quincy Adams. Being a progeny of the elite, he was given a classical education. Classical education in the 19th century means Latin, history, the arts and literature. As he became mature he realized he was not equipped to deal with the technological and scientific advancement that had happened in his lifetime.

The book may have been written a century ago, but its main theme resonates in the present Philippine education system. What we learned at school is not viable in real life. At school, we are trained to be pen pushers when the work in the real world that awaits us need us to wield a wrench, climb ladders and work under the heat of the sun, crawl under things, and be dirty. Industrial revolution happened more than two centuries ago but we still have not caught up.

Or perhaps, we have actually caught up with the technological advancement of the world, only that we are in self-denial. We wanted to believe we all have potential to achieve greater things. We are ashamed to be seen enrolling in a non-BS degree because it might be misconstrued as sign of low intellect. Our parents worked themselves to death and amassed toxic debts just to send us to acquire a degree because they too do not want to be seen as a failure. Then too, if we are lucky enough to enroll in college, sometimes we do not take the courses that are suitable for our talents and capacities. We study the subject our parents, uncles and aunts wanted us to study. So instead of acing the course, we just get by with passing grades; thereby making us the least choice come seeking for employment time. And in the end, we end up underemployed or worse yet unemployed.

I should know this because I have been there. I wanted to enroll in carpentry or dressmaking or cooking, I wanted to create things, but my parents wouldn't hear of it. Celebrity cooks was unheard of then. There was not even a culinary school in Cebu in the 1990’s. And the likes of millionaire dressmakers such as Louis Vuitton and Chanel have not reached the ears of my provincial parents. And forget about women carpenters, it was and still mostly is the field of men. I could have enrolled in Fine Arts or Architecture where I could learn dressmaking and carpentry, but classes especially service courses, not college per se, was as boring to me as rubber slippers.

There will be thousands of new graduates this March and April. Where, I wonder will they go to find employment. Some of them will be our former students who transferred to other colleges because they’d rather take Banking and Finance and Nursing and Political Science and other such glamorous sounding courses than finish a degree in agriculture and its allied courses.

Everybody wants to work in an air conditioned office. Nobody wants to break their bones in the field anymore.