Alma Mater

Give me time and give me space

Give me real, don't give me fake

                                              - Coldplay (Politik)

                                      (hefetcw.blogspot.com)

Senator Richard Gordon asked questions to the person tasked by his frat brothers to pick up Horacio's body from the hazing venue. The manner of questioning could be threatening and intimidating. The senator even asked the people who were called during the senate hearing about their educational backgrounds and the schools they come from. He underscored the credibility of the learning institutions and the prominent people who studied in them. There was even a time when this thought came to the mind: Will a school define a person?

For years of being an educational and instructional leader, a lot of times were spent by me in observing and giving technical assistance to the educators. The strengths of the teachers vary and their weaknesses as well. But these could be normal. There are individual differences and we could see the way these educators displace their competencies through their outputs: their learners.

Would it really count if one studies in an institution which produces prominent products? According to timeshighereducation.com: It has been very hard, so far, for universities to show that they actually touch so many people in their lives, by the things they can imagine, by the way that they teach, the way they help people to organize parts of the society.

Still, there is what we call as school culture that the learner could adapt. The times I spent my college days, I was so immersed to different communities and outreach programs due to the university's thrust to do extension services. I was also reading a lot since the subjects required us to do so. the library was so big I literally spent my vacant periods in there.

So, bits and pieces of knowledge, skills and attitudes from the alma mater are acculturated to the students in one way or the other. Even the way people dress is oftentimes a reflection of the discipline they acquire from their school. The manner they speak and the way they interact with others are also cascaded to the learner.

It has been said that it is good for parents to invest on the education of their children. But I could not just agree that by sending them to good schools allow them to become better persons. There are other factors to consider which hone the character of the individuals. Parenting and formative discipline at home still count as the key players in a child's well-being.

I'm a product of both public and private schools. When I was in high school, I learned to be resilient to the bullies and I became an independent learner since we did not have lots of books before. When I reached college, I became enriched with the arts and scientific and mathematical phenomena since I took up Engineering. I became a city dweller and a voracious reader.

Upon reflection, I still adhere to the belief that it is the person who will take upon his own journey. The travel is from the SELF to the SELF. All the things that he or she encounters are part of the honing process for the person to come a better one. Without intellectual will, all the needed competencies to become a functional and productive individual will not take place...

The school is the vast sea where the person's sails must be raised to venture, to discover... The rest will be his or her story.