I came from a conservative Christian high school owned by a pastor located in the suburbs. Looking back, I can say that my views, as I enter UP, were as conservative and as you can expect it to be. I was very much into the idea that there is only one definition of what is good, what should be followed, and what should not be among all others. In short, it would be safe to say that most (if not everything) of what I was have been based on the traditional ideals which was then repeatedly inculcated to us all through Values Education, school Handbook we call N1, authority figures such as the Director, principal, guidance counselors, and, as we step into our last year in high school, the CAT commandant.
For four years, I and my fellow students lived by the standards and have been steered by concept uniformity which we take as something normal.
So just imagine how culture shocked I was upon entering UP. Things are way too different that it came to a point when I couldn’t help but feel anomic (of course this was not the exact term that I have chosen to describe myself back then). Therefore, I have spent my first year orienting/familiarizing myself with the ideas and practices like “bahala ka na, buhay mo yan”, wearing anything that you feel like wearing, treating and talking to some professors like equals, and making your own rules, schedule, lifestyle, and “plan of attack”. Since I follow the RGEP, I was somewhat prematurely left to myself on virtually everything, like choosing subjects, timeslots, and professors for one. I was also not readily acquainted with my supposed block mates who I theoretically should be with when I can’t find my way (literally). Almost instantly I am free from any restrictions and I must say that given my background, I didn’t know what to do with the freedom at first.
Upon reaching my second year, I became open to the fact that not everything should be accepted as is and that “who said it” matters – lessons I have learned from, surprisingly, English 11 and Art Studies 2. My professors in these classes have inculcated in me over and over again that praising and wanting the works of, for example, Van Gogh and Shakespeare are not compulsory in nature and that we could freely create our literary and art canon that we ourselves could easily subscribe to. Also, they stressed the point that the “geniuses” of the art and literary world are recognized as such because someone powerful or some influential groups said so. In short, they have developed in me the idea that going out of the status quo is not entirely illegal – that I am entitled to my own views which could possibly be not in accord with the majority’s sometimes.
On my third year, I became very much acquainted with paradigms such as Constructivism and/or Symbolic Interactionism. Learning these has taught me that context is important in understanding something and that even though I am entitled to my own views I still have to respect what others has got to say, especially when they are coming from a different perspective. As a result, I became more receptive to ideas that are not exactly the same as what I’ve got and in turn, learn new things and see differently. The number of people from different upbringing that I have encountered by this time has also contributed much to my individualization in such that I get to reshape my own identity by adapting/rejecting certain behaviors and/or ideologies from them.
Looking back at all my experiences, I can say that as far as UP education is concerned, Rorty’s remarks on college education are agreeable. The more I think about it, the more I have realized that indeed, “Primary and secondary education will always be a matter of familiarizing the young with what their elders take to be true. Non-vocational higher education is a matter, on the other hand, of inciting doubt and stimulating imagination, thereby challenging the prevailing consensus.” We, members of the UP community, are not tagged as “iskolar ng bayan” for nothing. As self-confessed critical thinkers, we are almost always expected to react on pressing issues faced by our society because it is one of the trainings we have within the confines of our classrooms.
I also agree in that statement by Rorty that says, “Socialization has to come before individualization, and education for freedom cannot begin before some constraints have been imposed.” True enough, college education would not be necessary if, in as early as the primary level, we are being encouraged to doubt or to challenge what is there. In relation, primary education that already aims for its students’ individualization would not be too effective because no grounds have been laid into which we could later affirm or disagree on. Personally, I wouldn’t be able to appreciate employing alternative views on matters if I had not first experienced or learned what is treated to be “given” or “official”.
The way I see it, individualization process brought about by college education actually starts as early as we democratically (and sensibly) write down the courses we chose in our application forms. For me, this is the first step towards realizing who we want to become in the future. And then for those who had to leave the comforts of their own houses just to study in the university, they obviously had to adjust and learn to do things on their own. I, for one, had to forever rely on my self on how my day would turn out to be given that I have no parents or relatives who’ll look after me while I’m here. After 6 semesters of doing this, I came to form my own rules on how I would go about my life – the way I planned it to be with or without external considerations.
Also the university’s permissiveness in the existence of organizations and other affiliations, each with their own thrust, are also tools that can help its students individualize themselves. On the part of the students, choosing which among those plethora of groups to join in is reflective of not just who they want to be with but also wanting to be with the people or group who they chose to influence and be influenced with in one way or another (assuming that the process of choosing is very much thought about…)
Therefore, I have to admit that it feels good to know that I am one of the privileged few who were able to get into UP and not only to be equipped for the challenges out there but most importantly to be given the right environment where I could recreate myself and to be cultivated as critical thinkers as well. Without a doubt, being educated in this university does not only result in having intellectual prowess but also in achieving a ‘self’ that we ourselves chose to ‘create’.
**This is my 3rd and last think piece in my Socio101 class last sem. i posted this as a tribute to the class and prof that i miss…
