MEDIUM RARE
Jullie Y. Daza
Who’s afraid of the Kindergarten-to Grade 12 program? There’s plenty to unlike if your teachers put you in constant agony instead of leading you to discover the joy of learning, or if your parents want you out of there quick and holding down a job.
Yes, 46 percent of respondents told a polling firm they were “dissatisfied” with the program. Without knowing who they are or what dreams they entertain in their waking moments, they should be advised that without K-12, it would be hard, nay impossible, for them to study abroad and, before that, find a slot in a local university that isn’t a diploma mill.
The beauty of K-12 is that it prepares the teenager, intellectually and rationally, to decide what course he or she wants to pursue in college and beyond. In their youthful exuberance, they may not realize it yet, but that 12th year is the stepping stone to the future. With several “strands” to choose from, seniors pick what they think their brains are suited for, what skills they want to develop, what subject or subjects excite them. Sample strands are GA for general academics; STEM (science, technology, engineering, math); ABM (accounting, business, management); HumSS (pronounced hyums, for humanities and social sciences); IB (international baccalaureate); and subjects in creativity, activity, service, and vocational.
Where would the scion of a political dynasty being groomed for a career in politics want to be enrolled? Not in STEM but HumSS? Rumor has it that campus athletes eyeing a scholarship generally, with emphasis on the adverb, choose GA, which sounds like liberal arts, don’t ask why.
Over the years, experience teaches that the most popular choices of waves of high-school students have been tourism and hospitality, under whatever strand that might be.
K-12 a killjoy? Let’s worry that a group of teachers are rooting for the demise of English as the medium of instruction. Never mind that our proficiency in the language has been slipping since the ‘70s when Tagalog became the medium, but Ma’am, Sir, think of our expats and the edge they currently enjoy in professions as wide-ranging as nursing, nannying, banking, travel, diplomacy, theater, etc. It’s one world, and it speaks English.