001-The
preventive system is better than making
more bananas
– Carlo
Maria Savio Villegas, SDB
In
fairness to both systems, both the repressive system and the
preventive system were meant to foster growth.
In closer scrutiny, the purpose (intent) may seem the same but
actually are not. While the means and methods are clearly divergent
if not incompatible. Yet in both systems, they also share in the same
fundamental principle of education of establishing a 'controlled'
environment to foster the intended result.
One
of the main difference between these two systems is in terms of
expected outcomes. To explain this, I would like to compare the way
agricultural processes are made. There are the so called genetically
engineered banana or chicken and those that are left to follow their
natural process of growth. One can easily taste that a genetically
engineered banana or chicken is not only larger but quicker in growth
than a non genetically engineered banana or chicken. It is true it
may take double time and triple effort to wait for a naturally grown
banana or chicken than an engineered one. But as they say, the proof
of the pudding is in the eating. No one needs to be rocket scientists
to see the big difference. It can easily be proven and attested by
any one that the naturally grown bananas or chickens retain their
normal size ie. Smaller than their engineered relatives but are more
tastier than their larger and even paler (in color) genetically
engineered counter parts. While keeping the discussion still
pedagogical and not only agricultural, the difference lies in the
following: the number of outcomes (quantity), the duration it takes
to produce the outcome (time) and the amount of labor required to
produce the said outcome (work-force). Mind you that the kind of
products (quality) comes now as the last to be considered if not
taken as secondary to the first three factors taken as a unit.
Due
to an external pressure and external demands to meet quotas1,
to meet deadlines and to increase production in the shortest span of
time has propelled man to device ways and means to 'get the job done'
immediately and desires that its 'burden of responsibility' be
delivered out of his hands at the soonest. It is easily understood
that man is forced to create a system that would serve his good
objective but in ways and means that would be fast and expedient
(easier) for himself.
As
part of this reflection, I have seen that the repressive system may
actually have the good of the recipients in mind but as mere
secondary to the self interest of the educator himself. The main
intent was not so much the integral good of the recipients but rather
have been all the while to preserve the titular honor as educators
and as safeguard to the prestige as an educational institution. It
would be of great interest to be disproven that most cases of people
who adhere to the repressive system had always a personal agenda of
assuring oneself of being able to keep their job-performance rating
in good light for whatever purpose it may serve – egoistic or
economic ends.
Among
the 4 factors mentioned earlier I would like to focus on two which I
consider more contrasting elements between the two systems. The first
is the factor of time and the second is the factor of work-force.
The
great factor of time. The banana, going back to the agricultural
metaphors, when taken off the tree to enhance the speed of its
ripening by way of reduction of humidity in the air would certainly
reach the external condition of maturation sooner than that of the
banana still hanging on the tree. The banana that remained hanging on
the tree when it reaches its natural cycle of maturation, is surely
much sweeter. We are talking about two naturally grown bananas, we
are not talking of genetically engineered items. The only difference
is that one is rushed (forced) in maturing by removing it from the
tree immediately and subjecting it to a dehydrating environment and
the other left to mature on the tree gradually ie. Normally.
The
fact remains, the banana that grew on the tree, naturally and
gradually ie. Respecting its time and cycle of growth created better
chemical formation in the fruit than the one that rushed the cycle of
growth that in a way had forced the chemical formation of inside the
fruit to remain stale. The fruit that freely grew according to
its time and cycle of growth was much more sweeter as what a banana
should be. This is also true of education. When a student is forced
to grow faster than his or her cycle of maturation, then the
psychological character and biological internal chemical fluids to
say the least, being formed inside has not yet come to proper levels
of maturation and bonding.
The
big mistake of the repressive system is that the recipients are taken
by bulk. That means they are always considered and treated as a whole
and not as individuals with individual differences. This basic flaw
of lack of consideration of basic principle of education with regard
individual difference takes its toll on the forced duration, to mean
rushed time of maturation of the recipients is not at all convincing
to produce an integral and wholesome person. And the contrary is
exactly the strength of the preventive system because it considers
'building trust' in the individual(s) as the basic foundation for any
work of integral education.
Related
to the last point on building trust we can already begin to
explain the second factor in question that is, the work-force...
multiplying various forms of presence. It is true that when
using the term automation, the work-force reduction is drastic and
even at times brutal. The nuances of the term 'brutal' can already
give a hint that the repressive system's recourse to the rigid
referral to rules and its sanctions (consequential punishments) are
similar to the brutal (painful) effects of reduction of humanity and
the increase of automation.
The
work force factor can be understood as reduction or increase of
workers in the workplace. By work place I am already limiting its
meaning to strictly refer to the work of education to save time. The
work place is not a facility or a portion of land where education
activities are carried out. By work place I immediately would like to
refer it to the very individual, the very person who is in need of
being educated. Thus the work place is a person. The work is
education. And the workers or work force should be taken into account
now.
Since
the work of education should be carried out in the very person being
educated, the person himself is the work place also. But at the same
time, this person being educated is also part of the team and work
force in the work of education. The work of education is not and
should not be limited to the teacher. The work of education is a team
effort and has better rate of success when the co-worker is the
person being educated freely cooperates in his or her
formation to growth. Thus when speaking of work-force reduction, the
repressive system does not see the need to increase of personnel. The
repressive system does not understand the concept of involving more
people in the education of an individual is essential. And the first
candidate to be considered as the primary work-force in the work of
education is the individual himself. This is the acuteness of
the preventive system. It understood the very nature of education –
the very psychology of education is understanding the very context of
the work of education – the person. This lack of appreciation and
involvement of the individual person in his education is the very
lacunae of the repressive system and the practice of this dialogue
and frankness with the individual is the gem of the preventive
system.
In
short, the repressive system requiring short duration of
implementation as well as the reduction of the work-force, limited to
the teacher only definitely would seem more economical and faster in
method. It is no wonder that the repressive system is by far easy to
use (easier to do) than the preventive system – which respects the
time of the person as well as the involvement of the person whose
cooperation does not come automatically but must be won over. For
more profound maturation as well as involvement of the person
himself, the preventive system definitely produces more fruit because
it creates new educators in the person of the individual who is
living proof of the skill and of the effectiveness of the preventive
system. A style of living that is naturally transmitted in life and
through life. Only in the preventive system will there be more fruits
but also better tasting ones.
1
Personal or institutional quotas
