Brighter future, good employment, tenure of office, high salary, life/s comfort and convenience, prestige, honor, and social glamour, virtuous life and peaceful living. . . all these lures ONE to acquire proper and adequate EDUCATION.
Experts offer various definition of Education. According to Spencer, “Education is a preparation for life”. But this was refuted by Dewey that education is life itself and is a continuous reconstruction of experiences for social efficacy. . Comenius views education as the formation of man as man.
Education is a continuous process. One may acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes through formal, informal and non-formal education. In the classroom, it is a formal means of training individuals to be an educated person.
Who is then an educated person? For me, an educated person is one who has a thirst in acquiring knowledge, skills and attitudes relevant one’s existence. Though we now live in this world where there is an explosion of knowledge, one must strive and challenge himself to accumulate and assimilate ideas and concepts which will make him a better person. Accessibility to education is no longer an issue to one who wants to be educated. It is now a question whether an individual would want to hurdle the challenges confronting one in the school. One must decide if he wants to make things easier and better for his own comfort and convenience. Sometimes, it’s very difficult to find the drive of pursuing the noble task of learning. Oftentimes, the motivation level goes down especially when socio-cultural factors intervene which dampen one’s spirit to hurdle the vigorous training in the University. At time, people caused this diminishing momentum because of negative feedbacks or comments we oftentimes received from them. Along this line, an educated person is one who is determined and shows perseverance and enthusiasm until he realizes his goals in life. Just like the Chinese Proverb that we usually read and hear and I quote, “The longest journey begins from a single step”. No matter how brilliant and noble our plans are but if we fail to step forward, then that dream will never become a reality. Therefore, an educated person seizes every opportunity to develop his potentials to the fullest which lies on the saying, “Strike the iron while the fire is on”. Then, when one is geared with the essential weapons to combat illiteracy, ignorance and passivity, he will surely succeed when he imparts the knowledge he has acquired.
An educated person exemplifies an upright and virtuous living. Considering teaching as the noblest profession, by which set of standards were also given as stipulated in the Code of Conduct for Professional Teachers, teachers must “walk the talk” he has always been professing.. As teachers, we are expected by the society to show character exemplar. There are circumstances when an educated person behaves the way of an educated one. This condition makes other people think that person who is supposed to be an exemplar of good values and integrity, has never been educated with the noble aspirations attached to the profession.
Being an educated person, various privileges await one as reward for that purpose-driven endeavor.
By: Romer M.Valencia | Teacher III | Bonifacio Camacho National High School Abucay, Bataan
