by Seneca Moraleda-Puguan
“How about joining contests? Getting awards? How can she be an honor student?”
These are just some of the many questions my mother-in-law threw at us when we decided to homeschool our eldest daughter, Callie.
She is just one of the many parents in the Philippines who find joy and pride in their children’s awards and recognition.
I even read in one mommy group on Facebook, that the mother was ranting because her son didn’t get the award for “best in a certain subject” despite bagging all the other awards and being the top student.
She complained that another student got it even if his son’s grade was higher.
I understand where they are coming from. Been there, done that. I don’t want to go back to that kind of culture. This kind of attitude towards education breaks my heart.
I was a consistent honor student from elementary to high school. I also graduated cum laude from UP Diliman. I was very competitive. I made sure I was part of the top students in class.
My parents never pressured me but receiving recognition brought happiness to my heart and pride to my mama and papa. Being an honor student became my motivation to be diligent in learning.
I joined every contest I could join- from singing to writing contests, slogan and poster-making contests, debates, and science quiz bees.
I pressured myself to perform because I thought that being an honor student would mean a better future.
But too much competition can be unhealthy.
When I was in elementary, I was supposed to be the salutatorian. But the mother of my classmate complained because she believed that her daughter deserved the rank.
Academically, she was better than me. But because I was active extra-curricular wise, I had higher points than her.
But this was unacceptable for her mother to the point that she threatened our teachers and the principal. I didn’t want any drama so I gave up the award and just settled for third honor.
Giving the opening speech during the graduation, a privilege given to salutatorians, was enough for me.
The same thing happened to my husband, who was also a consistent honor student.
In their high school, he was being awarded as the valedictorian but the father of his classmate opposed. It was a big scandal in their school that almost ruined their graduation rites. In the end, my husband still got the award.
When we remember these stories, we would just laugh even if it caused us and our parents great stress when we were young. But it’s because of this that our perspective about education changed.
We believe that it should never be about grades, ranks or awards. It’s about love for learning.
Love for learning? This we saw and continue to see in our children.
When we homeschooled them, and didn’t focus on academics but instead character, nature and play, we witnessed wonder and awe in their eyes about the many things they are learning.
They would wake up every day excited about the new ideas they will learn, new places they will explore, new people they will meet, new things they will discover.
Now that we moved to Switzerland and they have entered a traditional school, we continue to see joy and excitement in going to school. They come home bringing many stories of the things that they have learned.
We are grateful because early education in Switzerland allows them to play a lot and be creative.
For my eldest who is in grade 2 (they call it 4H), though she has more academic subjects and they are evaluated, it brings me peace that they are given room to excel without competing with each other. They don’t have rankings nor awards.
My son, too, didn’t get any grades, just smileys from his teacher. In fact, during their last day of school, there’s no moving up or awarding ceremony, just games and picnic together.
For me, this is a breath of fresh air. I am very grateful that this is the kind of education they are getting.
In the Philippines, we are so consumed with rankings, grades and awards but it’s frustrating that we are among the lowest in the world when it comes to creative thinking.
We landed in the bottom four of a global test for creative thinking, according to the results of the Program for International Student Assessment.
Our students were deemed to have one of the weakest creative thinking skills globally. We are also among the lowest in math, science and reading in global assessment conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
I hope that the Department of Education in the Philippines considers developing new methods of education for our young learners.
We have some of the best minds in the world, we just need to give them venues to grow and develop well.
I pray that our children, who will become the next-generation leaders, will not be pressured to perform but will have deep love for learning.
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