Every graduation day, almost everyone talks about the job prospects of graduates, but only a few say something what students went through in their college life. The pressure that students have felt ever since day one has been tremendous. Some parents dictate the program that their child should enroll in, without even asking, for instance, if it will make their child happy. Parents have many dreams, aspirations, and desires for their children. There is nothing wrong with human ambition. But the harsh reality is that you realize that you are an adult when they either call you useless or productive.
In fact, education is often narrowly measured on the basis of achievement. We forget that education has value because intrinsically, human freedom flourishes the moment a child learns what it means to be human. Yet, the child is sometimes forced to think that success is everything. For this reason, the school becomes his means towards self-realization and as an individual, the student becomes the product that society is trying to manufacture. The problem is that the same individual, after graduation, will become another tool that society will exploit or take advantage. In turn, the once innocent child will now be a part of an oppressive system.
From a moral vantage point, our students carry a huge burden. They are young, careless, immature and afraid, and yet, the future of the country depends on them. However, there are many young and eager minds who deserve to be in school but are not admitted because their parents could not afford its costs. It is difficult to explain what life means to young people. After college life, the hard part will always be having to deal with the unfair cycle of poverty that makes one doubt the moral purpose of learning.
Inside schools, politics is at work. The patronage system is present in the academe. This involves the process of appointing people, choosing administrators, or even selecting who will represent the school in important events, or whose research project will be funded. Schools are seldom democratic. Democracy, as originally conceived by the Greeks, is about responsible citizenship. You must speak and act. But fear hovers above the horizon in these small ponds where the few and mighty lord it over. Politics in school is about who has the ears of powerful men and women of status.
There cannot be any meaningful engagement in the state and society without freedom and equality. The same holds true inside the classroom. The school mimics the real world. Teaching, in this way, has a double task. First, school is that place where knowledge is transmitted and put to practical use. Second, schools help in the moral formation of students. It is this – while culture or society can choose to believe its own truth, no one can take away from a person his own self-worth and that sense of purpose.
Every graduation has a solemn meaning. Graduation is about the unfolding of a potential. It is called a “commencement exercise” precisely because the young adult is sent forth into the real world to explore new frontiers. This individual should be strong and ready, in the ideal sense, to face whatever life throws at him. But college graduation, at the same time, cannot be limited to the prospects of personal triumph. It is also about the actualization of the vision of a better future. Life is difficult but this person, having been equipped with the necessary implements for mature judgment, should find joy in helping those who have less in life achieve greater freedom by serving them well.
The deeper meaning of graduation is not economic. It is never a question whether college education can make a person rich. The education of our children cannot be viewed as some form of an investment. Parents never lose when they send their children to school. Indeed, if the life of a student is changed, then a school must have done its function. But the bigger role of any school is this: If the student becomes that instrument or even the inspiration that changes the life of a poor man, then education must have served its purpose.
