Discipline of Hope

Borrowing from the book I am currently reading by the author Herbert Kohl, just to make sure that education best address the plight of our students in this century is enough for us to instill among us, teachers the essential priorities and that is to instill the discipline of hope among ourselves. As a follower of Kohl in educational philosophy as well as a PhD Candidate in Educational Management from the esteemed La Salle University, discipline of hope is what we need in the Philippine educational system and to make good of our promise to alleviate rural poverty through the redeeming powers of education. The growing concerns and issues of education these days were targeted at performance in school, assessments and the question of its ethical dimensions. I argue that we teachers, in order for us to become effective conduit of change in our society, should aspire for an educational program that is transformative, an education that is replete in methodologies that involved critical thinking among our students, provocative thoughts, caring ideas and essentially, something that will foster among our students, the kind of affection towards nationalism and patriotism.

The foundations of the discipline of hope in schools are that teachers, among the prime movers of transformative education in this years, should develop in their students that optimism that will ensure that they will be active participants of societal transformation, that they will be able to inculcate among themselves the positive attitude towards the future, that no matter what, their solutions to the world’s problems is as good as the teacher’s solutions. In many Filipino classrooms today, you barely see teachers engaging their students to a critical debate on finding solutions to the ills of society and most of the time, the teachers are ones deciding and the students, just mere listeners. In this uncertain era, it is appropriate that students and pupils should be openly engaged in dealing and discussing about critical issues and encourages finding solutions; after all, they are more concerned about their future than anybody else in this society. Students and pupils normally do not confide to teachers about their fears of the future but whenever they are among their peers, they seriously looked into this.

Just as where do we put the classroom teacher in the discipline of hope? In this context, teachers are at the facilitator’s desk. We ought to facilitate discussions covering from the mundane to the outrageous; after all, this is the essence of education. Education, while educating is also an avenue where trials and errors are best to be practice. In classes, there is no right or wrong answers to a specific question and every response depends on the perspective of the one providing it. In this case, teachers should openly respect the ideas of pupils and students. As classroom teachers, let us steer the oars of education but allow the students to read the compass and set directions. One of the fulfilling task of classroom teachers is on the aspect of accepting and constantly revisiting their role in transforming societies. Education is so powerful when we appropriately make use of it. It provides for the opportunity for growth that is sanctioned in the hopes of little pupils and students that their ideas were valued as those of adults in society.

It is unfortunate that in our society today, the old guards failed to respect the ideas of the young while the young, as a result, is indifferent to the pleadings of the old. As an educator and a opinion writer, I have come to realized that our teachers are fast becoming irrelevant because there exists a sort of tug-o-war between the pupils/students and teachers, when it comes of ideas inside the classroom and sadly, most often than not, are claiming victory because of their honed experiences and long years of teaching service but the important question will always be, in such a situation, have we effectively transformed our society through our students? Have we been successful in integrating the skills, philosophies and perspectives on our students to better prepare them for the future? Have we served our teaching profession well by acting the intellectual juggernauts inside the classroom? Our ego and our pride sometimes will get ahead of us in the critical engagements of our students and pupils. It is acceptable for students and pupils to question what we teach inside the classroom however, to my estimation, it is unacceptable, unethical and inappropriate to question the ideas and thinking of students inside the classroom because this is the very purpose of education. Education can only be powerful and transformative if our students understood fully well their role and their ideas are valued.

The discipline of hope engenders positive change which helps transforms society. As agents of change, teachers should strive to give the best, do the best and lead the best they could to effectively address the vital issues hounding the basic education sector in this country. It is essentially important that our engagements in the classrooms will reap us the benefit that our students are well-prepared to face the challenges of this world because we equip them rather than failed to see the realities of the world because we have failed them in the classroom. Remember, our failure today reap consequences 15-20 years hence. Looking back, our society now is the result of the good decisions and the indecisions of our teachers, parents, leaders and many more some two decades ago. This is a caveat most teachers who until now, has not come to realized.