Reformulate elementary and high school curricula, focus on basic education
Let me suggest edgewise a thing or two despite my being a nonacademician but sufficiently experienced to empathize with the school kids. Our basic educational thrust in the elementary and high school levels should be reformulated. The curricula in the two levels, especially in private schools, should be reevaluated.
Removal of nonfunctional subjects should be considered to reduce the mental load on the schoolchildren. When I say nonfunctional subjects, these are not relevant to career development, nor for everyday living. For instance, in private schools the students early on are taught physics, chemistry, advanced math, expensive lab experiments. In truth, half of what is taught is gone from memory or useful in the higher levels. High school homework crams onto the students, added with studies on religion, social sciences, etc. Most lose pertinent value in chosen specialized fields and careers, they’re taught by teachers and passed on to students, in rote.
By the time one finishes college and takes a licensure board or Bar exam, the rote learning is of no use. And after hurdling the licensure and one sets out to the “university of hard knocks” to look for a job, one cannot find any. One must have the patience and skillfulness to use connection and influence to survive in the jungle and, luckily, finally land one.
Life values cannot be learned better than at home: respect and honor for God and what’s godly; chastity and sex education, especially for girls; personal integrity and the like. Take note that some of the bigger cases of corruption in government involve prominent personalities from so-called elite schools and universities. At home, this simple value is learned, taught by responsible parents, that can put a stop to the widespread corruption in government: DON’T TAKE WHAT IS NOT YOURS, whether in funds, material, or time paid by our taxes. Whether you’re an official or a clerk, no one is less guilty.
Our best teachers were high school products of the American Thomasites who taught just “reading, (w)riting, and (a)rithmetic” and “good manners and right conduct” subjects. We have turned out to become useful citizens just tooled by them.
I hope we put an end to these rote subjects in pre-tertiary level that are an unnecessary mental load and quite unusable for practical living. Coping with living in difficult times requires personal discipline. Experience is an excellent teacher, and experience of economic hardship, failures, and disappointments are the best mentors ever for living.
MARVEL K. TAN,[email protected]
