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It is sad that our school (here in Baguio) never really took philosophy and education seriously hence their diminishing quality.   Students and teachers are stuck in the Philippine condition:  make do with what you have and live with it.  What we have is mediocrity and people do not push for excellence anymore.  What you see is Rizal's observation:  the Indolence of the Filipinos---the social cancer.  Sure, this country does have its perks for a lot of foreigners and to the elite of the Philippines, and that's a given because they come from rich countries or have resources to dominate the local scene.  Only when the so-called new rich (ilustrados) came into the picture did Filipinos have dreams that they are actually willing to work for.  I am painting a very bleak picture of the situation but we must confront it this way, otherwise, we won't be able to go anywhere. 
 
What is more, we actually have graduates who never really take their courses seriously, not to mention, their education seriously.  I know a lot of pretty smart people but they have veered away from what they were initially pursuing, but who am I to judge them?  Perhaps they have different priorities.  Perhaps.  And then you have the cycle of mediocrity returning again, recurring, to no progress.  It's a pity, but we can do something. 
 
Saving the educational system needs both the students’ and educators’ attention.  I enrolled in the education department and I see a sad picture:  I see, mostly, people who do not even know how to speak grammatically-correct English.  This is also true for a university where I used to work.  We have a motto that says “be globally competitive, speak English”, and I hear co-teachers who teach English but have weird ways of constructing English sentences.  If the teachers and students cannot understand each other due to badly constructed English, what results are we expecting, really?  I see Education Graduates from many institutions here in Baguio and I worry about the future of my children, and my country. 
 
The solution?  A chair, perhaps, and the occasional pill?  Or provide avenues for excellence and pray hope that there still are people who take life seriously?  Take a pick.  

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This reminds me of Socrates in his Apology when he says, "[a]nd if you have heard that I undertake to educate men, and make money in so doing, that is not true either, though I think that it would be a fine thing to educate men."  The subtlety in that statement points directly to another problem in Philippine education.  I think that Socrates was pointing out that education, above all, is about service---service to men.  And this is not just any education that merely hands out diplomas and charges much on students; rather, it is an education that seeks to challenge an unexamined life.  The life of the Greeks should be understood in terms of the polis, where men could be at their best: to participate means to live well and to live honorably within the social, more so, in the political realm.  However, political should not be understood as we understand it today.  Socrates says of politics, "I have had it since childhood.  It is a kind of voice which, whenever I hear it, always turns me back from something which I was going to do, but never urges me to act.  It is which forbids me to take part in politics.  And I think it does well to forbid me."  Politics, as understood by Socrates in his indignation to be associated with it, is precisely the kind of politics that we have, a politics that is only interested in pursuing the oppressive measures of the administration.  If this kind of politics pursues for everybody to be products of an already imperialized country, then it is better to steer clear from it.  By imperialized, we mean that one that is run by profit and is unconcerned of the real youth, hence of the real future.  The government pretends to be defenders of freedom.  But the truth is, they are the ones who are afraid of freedom.  In this respect, the people in the office who palliatively manage the country are only interested in protecting the status quo. Is not status quo against the very notion of freedom, which hearkens for the liberation for everyone, regardless of wealth, status and race?  And so, because we are defenders of truth, and because it is true that we are free, then we must question the methods, and even the rules of the current political system.  We can only do so in the context of education:  an education freed from the oppressive aspects that are features of a faux government.  Education can only do so when it is allowed to be the avenue for "gadflies" to be nurtured.  It does sound too radical but when thought over, it is actually staying in the light of truth: that we are free.  Do we then mean that we should educate people to be radicals?  No:  in fact, we should produce individuals who would understand the various nuances of current systems and speak out if there is something wrong.  It isn't supposed to be just sound and fury, but rather, a clearly thought out way in which the standard is nothing but justice.  As a community, we are responsible for a future wherein everyone in the society should live in peace; not a future of peace for some and hell for others.   

We, as educators, should hope for is for these potential philosophical-leaders to lead groups capable of changing the world.  We should, as educators, try to impart the necessary abilities/perspectives/paradigms (although in no sense are these translatable with each other) to prepare the youth for the unfair world.  We have to be on guard when it comes to teaching the same subject matter with the same methods (of course in different ways in language), expecting different results. 

 
Complacency should never be one of the aspects that an educator should be proud of.