----
To the members of the department, who have opened our eyes to the fundamental importance of learning; and to my fellow graduates whose brains had a hard time here in UPLB, a pleasant morning to all of you.
Four years ago, I entered the university with pride, for I was lucky enough to pass the UPCAT. Today, I am leaving the university with pride, not for being an UPCAT passer, but for being a UP graduate, for having a UP education and for having been inculcated with the continued pursuit of excellence. It is not our being UPCAT passers that could make us great men and women. It is our continued pursuit of excellence that could make us so.
About a couple of weeks ago, I received an e-mail containing the transcription of the speech delivered by the Senior Vice-President of the Retail Business Group of PLDT to the graduates of Silliman university. The speech was focused on attempting to answer the question - and teaching the graduates on how to approach the question, "How do I reach the top?" The speaker, Mr. Butch Jimenez, gave two marketing strategies on how we could reach the top. First is to be the first in the mind of the consumer. If you are the first in the mind of the consumer, then, you will rise to the top and be the number one. As an example, he gave the toothpaste, Colgate. When we speak of toothpaste, the first thing that comes to the mind is Colgate. Or let's say cola. When we speak of cola, the first thing that comes to the mind is Coke. And with beer, the first thing that comes to the mind is San Miguel. These are what Jimenez calls as the firsts and the number one.
Let us try to apply this to Philippine universities. The first thing that comes to mind, when speaking of universities, is UP. That is why almost 70,000 students, per year, are taking up UPCAT. This is a large number compared to the number of students taking up entrance examinations in other universities.
The second strategy Jimenez spoke of is to burn a positive attribute in the mind of the consumer. As examples, he gave Volvo and ipod. Volvo burned the attribute of safety; ipod burned in our minds the attribute of being cool. What about UP? Well, UP is burning in the minds of the people that its products are among the most intelligent Filipinos, are the future leaders of the country, the future scientists, lawyers… the future characters in history books.
In this case, it seems easier for us, UP graduates, than graduates of other universities, to reach the "top." Our university is the first in the minds of the people, which could then make us first in the minds of the employers. The university's ability to burn a positive attribute in the minds of the people could make us, its graduates, create a positive impression in the minds of the employers. This could put us to the top of the companies, to the highest office in the government and probably give us the highest salary one could ever imagine. But this, my friends, could never make us great men and women. Jimenez asked the wrong question. Instead of asking, "how do I reach the top?" we should rather ask, "what should I strive for?" Because the "top" that most people want to arrive at is not the nirvana that human persons must reach. The route to the top is not the same as the route to excellence.
This may be perplexing to many of us here. One might ask, what could be more excellent than being the leader in your field, than being the number one, than being at the "top?" Surely, there is something that is more excellent that just being at the top of your field. You may be the CEO of a multi-national company, but you continue on oppressing your employees. You may be the president of the Philippines, but you are the most corrupt official in the government. You may be earning a million a month, but you are not paying your taxes. There is more to being excellent than just being at the top. There is surely something that is more excellent than being at the top. And that is excellence itself.
To make this more digestible to us, let me speak of things that most of us here could relate to. We know that Science and Technology courses are more "sellable" than Liberal arts courses. This is because, let's face it, they make more money.
Most people tend to take courses that they think could give them high paying jobs after college, not because of their love of learning. These people tend to give paramount importance to the utility of a course than its intrinsic value. Not to say that those who are taking Science and Technology courses do not give importance to the intrinsic value of their courses. There are also those who are taking Liberal arts courses because they want to pursue a degree in law, and want a degree in law, not because of want to study law itself, but of want to be a lawyer, and earn money as a lawyer, and be known as a lawyer, and hence, gain respect as a lawyer... What I want to point out is that these courses are not created to give us high-paying jobs, or to put us to the "top."
To consider the courses merely as means to achieve ends other than themselves, ends such as money, fame and power, is to give injustice to these courses. These courses are created to satisfy our desire for learning. They are created so that we will look at the world, not with absolute skepticism, but with an open mind. They are created not for the money, not for the positions in the government that we could fill in, but to wake us up from our dogmatic slumbers. Even if we're able to maintain high grades in courses that we have taken, these grades will only be manifestations of being grade conscious and not of being committed to the pursuit of knowledge if we are only to consider the courses as means to something else. Having the highest grades or having the chance to speak here in front of you could not make one excellent.
UP must not aim at being the first in the mind of the consumer. It must not sell itself. It must not aim at burning in the minds of the people the positive attributes that could make itself or its courses sellable. It must not make itself appealing to those who could afford the tuition fee increase. It must rather aim at burning in the minds of its students the commitment to the pursuit of excellence.
Excellence is not merely being the best of whatever you are. It is not merely being the best "tambay," if what you are is merely a "tambay sa kanto," when you can be a president of a company, or be your town's mayor. Excellence is not merely being at the top or the number one, and merely being the best as the number one. It is not merely being the highest official in the government or merely being the best corrupt highest official that you could ever be. Excellence is being the best of whatever you can and must be. Whatever you can be is relative to your capabilities. Whatever you must be is always connected to justice. It is relative to the ends or "telos" that you must pursue. If the best that you can ever be is to be a president of a company, then perform your job with a commitment to justice. There can be no excellence where there is no justice.
Now that I think I made my point, I want to share with you my utopian dream. I dream that every human being will be in the pursuit of, not being at the top, but of excellence. I dream that the graduates of UP will not, in any way, use the things they'd learned from UP in pursuing their selfish interests. I dream that this country will give high importance to education for education's sake and give support to the educators that are teaching for education's sake. I dream that everyone will recognize the superficiality of what others think as basic needs - money, fame and power.
Before we leave this university, and go to work or apply for work, or go to law school or graduate school, or maybe nursing school, I ask you of one favor. Be committed to excellence… so that maybe, just maybe, we could prove to others, or to ourselves, that my utopian dream is not utopian at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment