Knowledge And Wisdom

A Salesian priest writes in View from the Ark, in the Catholic Times,  about the difficulties  parents have in educating  their children. The money they need for the public education is a burden, private academy attendance is many times more expensive.

A TV program in Europe showed the life of a 3rd year high school student who was preparing for college entrance examination: 'We have this going on in our world' was the title of the program.  How can a person put up with this kind of life? -- Was the response of many viewers. 

The difficulties of the young in our school system is well known and the ones who suffer the most are the young. There are many young people not able to adapt to the system, and have even more trouble out- side the system; it needs to be changed. He blames the older generation for the acquisitiveness and selfishness, and those in the teaching profession himself included, for laziness and lack of responsibility in not doing enough to bring about change.                                                                                             

Because of the inhuman type of education, the pressure they are experiencing will affect their emotional  and psychological well being, which does not speak well for the future. They are receiving a  distorted value system. A  time when they are to blossom with their youthfulness, they are given a very heavy cross to carry which only makes them shrivel.

He remembers a young lad who frequented the PC rooms ( a place where one goes to play games and  pays so much an hour). He was a timid and withdrawn person but  with his frequenting of the  PC rooms the priest noticed  a change in his demeanor, his face lit up and his eyes were alive and bright. The priest realized that in the virtual world of the game room the young man was king.  He was able to control everything that he dealt with. In the real world he confronted knots and conflicts, in the virtual world he was in charge. In a short time all disappeared, and he returned to his depressed state.   

This is the portrait of our young people. Once they leave the virtual world they come back to their old selves.  They are faced with the gloom of reality,  anger and the burdens of daily life. This is the reason they don't want to leave the virtual world in which they feel on top of everything. We need to do all in our power to change the system, the young people face in their studies.

He concludes the article with an example of a teacher who knows the problems students face, and is doing something about it. He arrives at school in the morning an hour before class and is greeting all the students as they come to the class room.  He wants to show the students we are not just isolated islands,  and feels good about the efforts he is making to give vitality to the students.