I REMEMBER that some years ago, Pope
Emeritus Benedict XVI
sounded off the alarm that the way education was being done in the
West, it would seem that the essence of education was getting lost.
In our case, when we talk about some problems in
education, we refer more to lack of classrooms and the need to attune
and synch our educational programs such that they solve our headaches
in poverty and literacy.
Thanks to God, our difficulty is mainly in that level
which, I admit, is already big, urgent and really crying for immediate
solutions and relief. Still, if compared to those of the West, our
worries are mere chicken feed.
Our predicament is more in the material dimension of life.
That of the West is already undermining the more important spiritual
dimension of life. Many times I have seen people, materially poor but
full of faith in God, who cope better in life than those materially
rich but with weak faith.
We are, of course, a unity of body and spiritual soul.
They cannot be separated in life. Only in death, and in a temporary
way, since Christian faith teaches us that both body and soul reunite
at the end of time.
Our education, for sure, has to take care of the needs of
both our constitutive elements of body and soul, but always giving
special attention to those of the soul. We may have to make the proper
priorities in tackling these needs of our education, but it’s not
right to put them in conflict with each other.
Just the same, we should not be complacent with our
apparent luck. We need to give serious attention to the root causes of
the educational crisis that the Pope Emeritus talked about, because
even in our country we can see traces and symptoms of these Western
anomalies emerging and developing.
The Pope Emeritus pointed a finger at two culprits
responsible for the emergency situation in the educational system in
the West. These are, first, the false notion of human autonomy that
confines us to ourselves, and, second, the spreading mentalities of
relativism and skepticism.
These things may sound abstruse to many, but I’m afraid
they now need to be understood by as many people as possible, since
these factors affect all of us. We may have to explain a little about
these disturbing phenomena so we can get a handle on the situation
The first cause mentioned by the Pope Emeritus, which is about a false
idea on human autonomy, refers to the exaggerated understanding of our
freedom and autonomy such that we think education is simply our
development purely by and for ourselves.
We make ourselves the be-all and end-all of everything. We think we
are not meant for something greater than ourselves now. We make
ourselves our own God. Everything else is just used for our
self-development.
This attitude is basically wrong since we by nature and as
persons need to be in relation with others and ultimately with God. In
short, we become more human and better persons the more we relate
ourselves to God and the others.
Sad to say, the educational thrust in many places in the
world today, including ours, appears to go in this direction of being
selfish and of tending to self-absorption, detached from the immediate
and ultimate sources of our life and our wisdom.
This first cause of the education crisis, as the Pope
Emeritus warned us, leads to the second which are the dangerous
attitudes of relativism and skepticism. With faith ignored, divine
revelation blocked and the understanding of human nature twisted, we
now create our own world devoid of absolute truths.
Everything is now held relative to whatever criteria we
may want to consider as our truths and values. This will lead to
skepticism and a host of kindred anomalies. In the end, what would
rule will just be the law of pragmatism and eventually the law of the
jungle, of brute force, etc.
These considerations of the Pope Emeritus, I believe,
should not be taken lightly, thinking that they are not quite relevant
to our present condition. They are always relevant. And the sooner we
include these warnings into our educational system, making the
necessary adjustments, the better for us.
We should not regard these caveats as something abstract.
They have direct impact on our lives and on our society. We have to
overcome that tendency to get stuck with the material and temporal
purpose of education and give priority attention to its spiritual and
supernatural objective.
sounded off the alarm that the way education was being done in the
West, it would seem that the essence of education was getting lost.
In our case, when we talk about some problems in
education, we refer more to lack of classrooms and the need to attune
and synch our educational programs such that they solve our headaches
in poverty and literacy.
Thanks to God, our difficulty is mainly in that level
which, I admit, is already big, urgent and really crying for immediate
solutions and relief. Still, if compared to those of the West, our
worries are mere chicken feed.
Our predicament is more in the material dimension of life.
That of the West is already undermining the more important spiritual
dimension of life. Many times I have seen people, materially poor but
full of faith in God, who cope better in life than those materially
rich but with weak faith.
We are, of course, a unity of body and spiritual soul.
They cannot be separated in life. Only in death, and in a temporary
way, since Christian faith teaches us that both body and soul reunite
at the end of time.
Our education, for sure, has to take care of the needs of
both our constitutive elements of body and soul, but always giving
special attention to those of the soul. We may have to make the proper
priorities in tackling these needs of our education, but it’s not
right to put them in conflict with each other.
Just the same, we should not be complacent with our
apparent luck. We need to give serious attention to the root causes of
the educational crisis that the Pope Emeritus talked about, because
even in our country we can see traces and symptoms of these Western
anomalies emerging and developing.
The Pope Emeritus pointed a finger at two culprits
responsible for the emergency situation in the educational system in
the West. These are, first, the false notion of human autonomy that
confines us to ourselves, and, second, the spreading mentalities of
relativism and skepticism.
These things may sound abstruse to many, but I’m afraid
they now need to be understood by as many people as possible, since
these factors affect all of us. We may have to explain a little about
these disturbing phenomena so we can get a handle on the situation
The first cause mentioned by the Pope Emeritus, which is about a false
idea on human autonomy, refers to the exaggerated understanding of our
freedom and autonomy such that we think education is simply our
development purely by and for ourselves.
We make ourselves the be-all and end-all of everything. We think we
are not meant for something greater than ourselves now. We make
ourselves our own God. Everything else is just used for our
self-development.
This attitude is basically wrong since we by nature and as
persons need to be in relation with others and ultimately with God. In
short, we become more human and better persons the more we relate
ourselves to God and the others.
Sad to say, the educational thrust in many places in the
world today, including ours, appears to go in this direction of being
selfish and of tending to self-absorption, detached from the immediate
and ultimate sources of our life and our wisdom.
This first cause of the education crisis, as the Pope
Emeritus warned us, leads to the second which are the dangerous
attitudes of relativism and skepticism. With faith ignored, divine
revelation blocked and the understanding of human nature twisted, we
now create our own world devoid of absolute truths.
Everything is now held relative to whatever criteria we
may want to consider as our truths and values. This will lead to
skepticism and a host of kindred anomalies. In the end, what would
rule will just be the law of pragmatism and eventually the law of the
jungle, of brute force, etc.
These considerations of the Pope Emeritus, I believe,
should not be taken lightly, thinking that they are not quite relevant
to our present condition. They are always relevant. And the sooner we
include these warnings into our educational system, making the
necessary adjustments, the better for us.
We should not regard these caveats as something abstract.
They have direct impact on our lives and on our society. We have to
overcome that tendency to get stuck with the material and temporal
purpose of education and give priority attention to its spiritual and
supernatural objective.
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