BECAUSE of the changes brought about by the mandated K+12 program, our
Grade 7 students now find themselves part of high school without
graduating from grade school. And so, we have to have a graduation in
November.
The parents would not allow their children to be high schoolers
without formally shedding off their grade schooler status. And they
find March of next year, the usual graduation month, too far. So I
find myself presiding over a Baccalaureate Mass in somber November.
Graduation, of course, is a happy occasion. It marks a transition, the
end of one phase and the beginning of another. It means some
achievement, some attainment, and a looking forward to new challenges
as the process of education and formation goes on.
I like to think that the students are slowly but steadily building up
their foundation for the future. They are into a process at once
tedious and exciting, as they learn new things and new lessons, while
revisiting and re-appreciating old past lessons as they receive the
tradition of the previous generations.
Students have to study. Teachers have to prepare their classes well
and also act as parent surrogates as they provide whatever help and
support students who are also children need in school. Parents, of
course, do everything, even trying to grab heaven here on earth, to
assure the proper development of their children.
I just hope that this triad of parents, teachers and students, and
that of the home, the school and the individual manage to work in
synergy, guided and propelled by God’s grace to which everyone has to
correspond as best as he could.
Education and formation actually never ends for us. Even in our old
age, we need it, and in fact, more so. That’s because we tend to
resist new knowledge the more knowledge we accumulate. And we are
actually poised, due to our spiritual faculties and supernatural
destination, to know an infinity of things.
Education and formation goes in stages and in cycles, reflecting the
rhythm of life itself. It can not help but set itself fully in the
task of pursuing the ultimate purpose of our life. It cannot and it
should not be arrested in some levels, saying enough to what may
already be gained so far.
So it cannot be detained at the academic or scholastic level alone
where the sciences, the arts, some skills and technologies are
learned. It has to engage us in all our needs as persons and children
of God. And that means everything, all our needs that simply grow and
grow. It’s a dynamic set of needs, not static.
It has to carry out what St. Peter once said: “And you, employing all
care, minister in your faith, virtue; and in virtue, knowledge; and in
knowledge, abstinence; and in abstinence, patience; and in patience,
godliness; and in godliness, love of brotherhood; and in love of
brotherhood, charity.” (2 Pt 1,5-7)
We simply have to go on. And we have to realize that education and
formation goes far beyond the school or academic setting. It involves
the home, the church, the social and cultural environment, and even
the economy and our legal and political systems.
In fact, every field of human endeavor should have a clear educational
and formative animating spirit. Let’s hope that all of us realize this
truth more deeply and act in accordance to it.
Insofar as the academic setting is concerned, it has to be pointed out
that all the subjects taught there have to be properly grounded and
oriented toward the original source and the ultimate goal of
knowledge, who is God.
It would be a disaster if we just get entangled in the merely
intellectual and technical aspects of the subjects. We would open
ourselves to the possibility of misusing and even exploiting them.
That’s because we would be pursuing and using them according to our
purposes, and not the will of God who created them.
We need to realize that all these subjects—the sciences and arts, the
skills and technologies—ultimately come from God and belong to God.
Ours is simply to discover them and make use of them, including making
some inventions, but always in accordance to God’s plan and
providence.
The very nature of these subjects can only reflect the wisdom, the
goodness and the love of God for us. If their nature is properly
respected and used, these subjects can only lead us to God, and can
involve us in the dynamics of love, the essence of God of whom we are
the image and likeness.
Grade 7 students now find themselves part of high school without
graduating from grade school. And so, we have to have a graduation in
November.
The parents would not allow their children to be high schoolers
without formally shedding off their grade schooler status. And they
find March of next year, the usual graduation month, too far. So I
find myself presiding over a Baccalaureate Mass in somber November.
Graduation, of course, is a happy occasion. It marks a transition, the
end of one phase and the beginning of another. It means some
achievement, some attainment, and a looking forward to new challenges
as the process of education and formation goes on.
I like to think that the students are slowly but steadily building up
their foundation for the future. They are into a process at once
tedious and exciting, as they learn new things and new lessons, while
revisiting and re-appreciating old past lessons as they receive the
tradition of the previous generations.
Students have to study. Teachers have to prepare their classes well
and also act as parent surrogates as they provide whatever help and
support students who are also children need in school. Parents, of
course, do everything, even trying to grab heaven here on earth, to
assure the proper development of their children.
I just hope that this triad of parents, teachers and students, and
that of the home, the school and the individual manage to work in
synergy, guided and propelled by God’s grace to which everyone has to
correspond as best as he could.
Education and formation actually never ends for us. Even in our old
age, we need it, and in fact, more so. That’s because we tend to
resist new knowledge the more knowledge we accumulate. And we are
actually poised, due to our spiritual faculties and supernatural
destination, to know an infinity of things.
Education and formation goes in stages and in cycles, reflecting the
rhythm of life itself. It can not help but set itself fully in the
task of pursuing the ultimate purpose of our life. It cannot and it
should not be arrested in some levels, saying enough to what may
already be gained so far.
So it cannot be detained at the academic or scholastic level alone
where the sciences, the arts, some skills and technologies are
learned. It has to engage us in all our needs as persons and children
of God. And that means everything, all our needs that simply grow and
grow. It’s a dynamic set of needs, not static.
It has to carry out what St. Peter once said: “And you, employing all
care, minister in your faith, virtue; and in virtue, knowledge; and in
knowledge, abstinence; and in abstinence, patience; and in patience,
godliness; and in godliness, love of brotherhood; and in love of
brotherhood, charity.” (2 Pt 1,5-7)
We simply have to go on. And we have to realize that education and
formation goes far beyond the school or academic setting. It involves
the home, the church, the social and cultural environment, and even
the economy and our legal and political systems.
In fact, every field of human endeavor should have a clear educational
and formative animating spirit. Let’s hope that all of us realize this
truth more deeply and act in accordance to it.
Insofar as the academic setting is concerned, it has to be pointed out
that all the subjects taught there have to be properly grounded and
oriented toward the original source and the ultimate goal of
knowledge, who is God.
It would be a disaster if we just get entangled in the merely
intellectual and technical aspects of the subjects. We would open
ourselves to the possibility of misusing and even exploiting them.
That’s because we would be pursuing and using them according to our
purposes, and not the will of God who created them.
We need to realize that all these subjects—the sciences and arts, the
skills and technologies—ultimately come from God and belong to God.
Ours is simply to discover them and make use of them, including making
some inventions, but always in accordance to God’s plan and
providence.
The very nature of these subjects can only reflect the wisdom, the
goodness and the love of God for us. If their nature is properly
respected and used, these subjects can only lead us to God, and can
involve us in the dynamics of love, the essence of God of whom we are
the image and likeness.
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