The Manila
Standard Today
INTEGRATIONS
maya baltazar herrera
Voyage
The value of the UP Experience
There are no children here
This week, I went to a meeting at the UP School of Economics and
I came away with renewed belief in the value of the UP experience.
If you speak to anyone from UP – student, professor, alumnus -
you will get no Latin slogans or apologies about how the school
teaches values in spite of its outward materialism. This is not a
student population that thinks about basketball games or
memorizes school songs. This is not a school that chooses
one statement to drill into the minds of its students.
This is not, of course, to say that UP does not care about values.
It is that UP, in its own inimitable way, believes that values cannot
be force-fed. The statue of the naked man that guards the entrance
to the campus in Diliman best represents UP's approach to all
education and the respect for students that is the center of its
educational philosophy. All who come to this university,
regardless of origin, bring themselves naked, carrying nothing
but their thirst; like the proverbial empty teacup, making an offering
of self, waiting to be filled.
Adults
For many students from private schools, the first lesson that is
learned here is that this is a school for adult education. There are
no children here, and that is why no parents are allowed either at
freshman orientation or during enlistment.
The spirit of the oblation lies not in a mother or a father offering up
his child to the world, it is that of the newly adult, freely offering of
his self.
I remember quite vividly that moment that drove home how different
the UP education continues to be. It was my daughter's first semester
in university and she had invited a group of her high school friends to
our house. One of them asked a classmate whether she had gotten
her parents permission form approved for that weekend's outreach
activity. From the UP population around the table came the mock
horrified responses of: "Permission? " and "Outreach?"
I thought about it and realized that all of these students were, in fact,
legally adults. I thought it interesting that only the UP students
appeared to appreciate this fact.
Even more interesting was the "outreach" comment. I think back to
my own university years and the last three years that my daughter
has been in UP and am certain there is no lack of civic activity.
There are medical missions, house building projects, tree planting,
community work and barrio work and so on. I realize now that the
reaction was not to the activity as much as it was to the use of
the word.
One of the most important differences of the UP campus from all
the other campuses my children considered going to is that this
campus has no walls. Many parents fear this. They are afraid their
precious children will not be protected from the ills of society in a
campus that is so open to the rest of the world.
But UP is open to the world in more ways than just not having the
physical walls.
I came away with renewed belief in the value of the UP experience.
If you speak to anyone from UP – student, professor, alumnus -
you will get no Latin slogans or apologies about how the school
teaches values in spite of its outward materialism. This is not a
student population that thinks about basketball games or
memorizes school songs. This is not a school that chooses
one statement to drill into the minds of its students.
This is not, of course, to say that UP does not care about values.
It is that UP, in its own inimitable way, believes that values cannot
be force-fed. The statue of the naked man that guards the entrance
to the campus in Diliman best represents UP's approach to all
education and the respect for students that is the center of its
educational philosophy. All who come to this university,
regardless of origin, bring themselves naked, carrying nothing
but their thirst; like the proverbial empty teacup, making an offering
of self, waiting to be filled.
Adults
For many students from private schools, the first lesson that is
learned here is that this is a school for adult education. There are
no children here, and that is why no parents are allowed either at
freshman orientation or during enlistment.
The spirit of the oblation lies not in a mother or a father offering up
his child to the world, it is that of the newly adult, freely offering of
his self.
I remember quite vividly that moment that drove home how different
the UP education continues to be. It was my daughter's first semester
in university and she had invited a group of her high school friends to
our house. One of them asked a classmate whether she had gotten
her parents permission form approved for that weekend's outreach
activity. From the UP population around the table came the mock
horrified responses of: "Permission? " and "Outreach?"
I thought about it and realized that all of these students were, in fact,
legally adults. I thought it interesting that only the UP students
appeared to appreciate this fact.
Even more interesting was the "outreach" comment. I think back to
my own university years and the last three years that my daughter
has been in UP and am certain there is no lack of civic activity.
There are medical missions, house building projects, tree planting,
community work and barrio work and so on. I realize now that the
reaction was not to the activity as much as it was to the use of
the word.
One of the most important differences of the UP campus from all
the other campuses my children considered going to is that this
campus has no walls. Many parents fear this. They are afraid their
precious children will not be protected from the ills of society in a
campus that is so open to the rest of the world.
But UP is open to the world in more ways than just not having the
physical walls.
Community
Being in UP means much more than being a student.
This campus is enmeshed in a community. This community is made
up not only of the transient population of students who go home
each night. It includes the many, many students who lay their heads
on dorm pillows each night, enduring time away from families in the
firm belief that this campus will bring them closer to their dreams.
This community includes the families of faculty and employees
who live on campus. It also includes the many people who work not
for the University, but nevertheless work on campus. This community
includes the lady who remembers the brand of cigarette you smoke
and automatically hands it to you in the morning. It includes the
gentleman who remembers you like pepper on your egg sandwich
or the one who knows you will dip your fish balls into two of his sauces,
who patiently waits for you to eat your three sticks before being paid.
It includes the woman who saw all her children through college by
selling peanuts every day on campus.
To a UP student, the daily heartbeat of the school is never far away
from the realities of the country. The word outreach suggests that
civic activity is something outside of the normal, something you do
once in a while. It must be immensely difficult to think of community
as a thing apart when your campus experience brings you face to face
with all of the world's realities every day.
Character
All of this probably explains that unmistakable sense of self that
you will find from students who come from this campus.
Here is a campus where all have the same opportunities to learn.
But also, here is a campus that will give all the same opportunities
to fail. There are no guidance counselors who will chase after you
because you have been skipping classes. The attitude this
university takes is that you must take the initiative –
for learning, for seeking help, for realizing you need help.
That is not to say that no help exists.
But it is help that is not forced upon you.
This is a university rich in both introspection and conversation.
On this campus, the student is constantly exposed to people –
faculty, administrators, community members, other students –
who care deeply and passionately about the world.
The conversations are almost never purely cerebral.
A single graph can provoke comments about government policy
and its effects on people.
As a result, UP is home to a student population that looks at the
world and cares. It is easy to see pictures of protesting students
and dismiss it as radicalism. But there are few campuses in this
country where students go beyond a passing curiosity about what
is happening in the world beyond their own lives. There are even
fewer universities where students not only care but also actually
believe they have a responsibility to make a difference –
not in some hazy future – today.
And that, I believe, is what truly forges character. Character is not
molded by speeches or long classes in ethics or theology. Character
grows from within. It begins by being handed the keys to your own self
and being told you are in charge; you now have power over yourself
and your own actions – and with that power,
you take on responsibilities.
Each student in this university goes through his own unique voyage
of discovery. On his voyage, as he decides what he cares about,
what he will fight for and what he will sacrifice, he crafts his
own personal values. That is what education is truly about.
