Schooling and education
IN OUR country, a great premium is placed on getting good schooling. Family members take it upon themselves the responsibility to help out when some parents are unable to provide full financial support for their children.
Many of them work to help themselves and/or their siblings and relatives. Thousands have worked, or are working at McDonald’s, Sunshine, and Veniz!
I only have a high regard for them and salute each one of them.
Thus, it is no wonder that when some of them continue schooling or pursue they are usually at par, if not better off, than the average foreigner in their own country.
Often times, the words “schooling” and “education” are interchanged and used synonymously. However, while the two words have similarities, they have significant differences.
Schooling has a set of curricula, of established subjects, and majors. It usually ends after college, or for others, after a master’s, or doctoral degree.
Education has no such limitations, and should be a continuous and lifelong process. It is limited only by our curiosity and willingness to learn. Having a mindset of educating ourselves keeps us inquisitive and eager to grow.
With the internet at our fingertips, access to an unlimited world of information and knowledge is now readily available.
For me, a good form of education is one wherein you immediately get to apply what you have learned. Two of my favorite acronyms are LNA (Learn N Apply) and LNG (Learn N Grow). For what good is knowledge unless applied.
After college, I went to vocational school and applied what I learned for the next 20 years and more. I also “enrolled” in the “University of Hard Knocks”,
and did marketing the hard way. I sold housewares, appliances, home care products, cosmetics, undergarments, nutritional products, etc., in addition to my responsibilities in our family business.
Along the way, I had to learn, often thru painful and costly errors, human relationship skills, developing a positive attitude, viewing situations from various perspectives, exhausting all means, considering all options, persisting and persevering, and the need for prayers.
These, I added to the Confucian values my parents taught me, not by words, but by their example. Thus, unlike most parents nowadays, who can easily discuss and speak about core values, they used to be abstract for me. I only started putting names to the various behaviors and principles I saw being practiced by my parents, at a much later stage in life. I looked back and became more conscious of them when I was exposed and “educated” further at McDonald’s.
Yes, the abstract became real, useful and necessary, as I saw how important they were in affecting our thoughts, feelings, behavior and habits. I am now more conscious of the fact that how we live can influence others; hopefully, in a positive way.
Education continues even when schooling has stopped.
One of the best sources of education comes from mistakes, errors or omissions; and wise are we if we learn from the sad experiences of others. Pity those of us who do not even learn from our own mistakes, and continue to repeat them.
My dearest children and grandchildren,
You are blessed to have a world of knowledge at your fingertips. So much can be learned. There is an abundance of knowledge that boggles the mind, and can overwhelm you. Choose and filter wisely what you need to learn, want to learn, and should know more about.
It is good to know a little of many things, but learn to focus. You live in an age of specialization. However, live by the saying, “do not put all your eggs in one basket”, as it will always hold true.
Avoid being caught and pulled into the whirlpool of games, and being trapped and addicted to on line gambling, or falling for any of the thousands of online scams.
Beware! If it is too good to be true, it isn’t. Be wise! Most of all, set your priorities that are in synch with your life purposes.
Keep to heart our companies’ motto, “For God in all we do. Be the best you can be.”
And as a leader, be mindful of this acronym: LFGS... Lead for God’s Sake.
How? PPPDL .... Pursue Passionately a Purpose Driven Life”
Challenging? Yes. But having that mindset will be helpful in pursuing a lifelong education on the right path! Pursue education tirelessly!
They take upon themselves the responsibility that some parents are unable to provide for their children.