FORMAL VERSUS INFORMAL SCHOOLING

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco 


SO MUCH BRUHAHA ABOUT FORMAL SCHOOLING NOW.

June is always a very grand time for all of us. Parents are sending their children to school Businesspeople are busy offering cheap school supplies. Transport vehicles are presenting cheap services to school children. Schools are busy refurbishing their surroundings, after getting the permit to raise tuition fees.

But it is so demoralizing for those who cannot go to school, or who cannot find a job after graduating, or who just cannot hack formal schooling.

Why can't we also put so much importance on many other things in our life? I am not anti-formal education. In fact, I did finish it well, and am able to write and accomplish many tasks because I was able to hone my skills well, and absorb the essential things on how to think, abstract and apply theories in reality.

What I am against is when there is a reduced emphasis on artistic achievements and an overblown propaganda about local tv and movie stars who cannot even release any inspirational statement at all.

Actually, our people view TV and the movies without knowing that these are informal media for learning. Yet, these media hardly have any uplifting values. I watched an afternoon drama and waited and waited to hear some wise statements. Pero nada, nada. Dialogues went on and on about a girl's losing her boyfriend, a father's dark past impinging on his daughter's contravida stance towards another girl, ad nauseam.

By the way, in that recent issue about the degrading comment of Vice Ganda on the size of Jessica Soho, I think that it is high time to put standards on who could host on tv. The MTRCB must gather all tv bigwigs and make them promise or pledge to make their tv hosts undergo a seminar on ethical broadcasting. You see Folks, anyone with a good face, and proper connections could land a job on TV. But recent events, including that highly corrupt way of Willie Revillame in making a child do the macho dancing in his show urge us to have hosts with moral standards. And this can only be done if government cultural authorities use this as a leverage in giving permits to operate.

Culture is a very important part of any society. If we let it go down the drain, we shall have plenty of gangsters and opportunists making cash on women's things, on children's vulnerabilities, and people's ignorance, among others.

Sure let us emphasize formal education but let us also see how other media are working on the minds and emotions of our people.

The best thing really is for us to work towards a golden age of TV and the movies, not materially but spiritually and morally.