Putting things into perspective

http://baratillo.net/2012/02/seeing-the-teacher-of-upis-before-it-disappears/

As far as the state of Philippine education, and Philippine schools, is concerned, I know only the bare minimum. (Or at least, I knew) I was aware of all the numbers, I'd seen overcrowded public schools on the news and passed by some of them from time-to-time, but I had never been inside a public school, other than my own, on a school day.

The most ironic part of my story is that I myself went to a public school from kinder all the way up to high school. There were two problems to my stay at that public school though -- one, that was the only school I ever went to, and two, that school was UPIS. If there was one thing my teachers never failed to remind me of, aside from the fact that taxpayers, some of the poorest of the poor, were sending me to school, it was that UPIS was different, it was special. But it was hard for me to fully grasp that concept because I had no idea how exactly it was different from other public schools. Of course I had a vague idea, and numbers do really say a lot, but my ignorance, for lack of a better term, made me overlook a lot of things about the state of public education.

Which is why the experience of seeing, and interacting with children from the public school we visited, put everything I had assumed, everything I thought I knew, into perspective. The purpose of that visit was to really experience a public school, with all its problems. While we were at the school, I was so absorbed with my own reflections that it took the discussion back in the classroom for me to really internalize what I saw. It was that discussion that showed me exactly what I overlooked -- the things I treated as necessity, but were luxuries to others.

That experience gave me not only realizations about the state of public schools, but also a clear picture of why exactly my own school was so special -- I left, even more thankful for the education I received, and with a resolve to really do my best to give other people the same blessings I got.