The real thing

I remember the first time I passed by Recto Avenue. I was amazed by the many document counterfeiters lined up at the sidewalks, openly operating right next to Manila City Jail and several schools. Even though they were clearly illegal, the accuracy and meticulousness these counterfeiters apply in their work – everything from diplomas to licenses and identification cards, displayed next to their sandwich boards – was fascinating. It seemed like a good day for business as well, as several customers had approached the stalls in the short time I was in the area.

At that moment, I thought, I can be anything I wanted to be. A forged diploma could claim I had gone to a different grade school, for example, and had a completely different childhood. A trophy could say I am a star golfer despite never having held a golf club in my life, while any number of medals can declare me a spelling bee champion, a marathon runner, a valedictorian, and everything in between. I could even change something as fundamental as my birthday or middle name with the right amount of money and a bit of crafty forgery courtesy of the man at the street corner.

I could be all of these in paper and cheap plastics or wooden plaques painted gold, but I realized that despite these things, my flesh remains the same and I am the same, if not a little less honest.

While it is true that I can be anything I want to be, as they say about life in general, the reality of Recto Avenue made me realize that aside from being anything I want to be, I can also seem to be anything I want to be, without exerting any more effort than it takes to tell a street forger how I wanted to present myself.

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago while I sat in class, idly thinking about the two years I have left in the University, picturing a road that leads to graduation, like a destination marked with a finish line, seemingly far now but had been even farther a few years ago. In two years I’ll have a diploma to wave at my prospective employers’ faces, proof of the fact that I had survived primary, secondary, and tertiary education, and have been molded by the rigorous academic training that comes with it.

But here is the thing – I can’t shake the feeling that the years I’ve spent in the educational system have been mostly dedicated to practicing the art of rote memorization and test-taking. I fear that all I’m good at is taking examinations that gauge whether or not I have achieved the amount of learning I’m supposed to have had in a term, rather than the art of learning itself. Diplomas might as well say BS in Accurately Guessing What the Professor Wants Me To Say, or AB Predicting Which Questions Make It to the Exam, with a minor in Thesaurus Usage.

I realized then that it doesn’t have to be as grand as a fake identity or championships in any sport or competition I could think of. In a way, focusing on getting a good grade over understanding a lesson seems like I’m cheating myself of what I’m supposed to be getting out of my University life.

The problem I have been noticing for me and a lot of my peers is that it’s become more important to answer a test well than to understand the concepts covered by the exams themselves, two things that aren’t always concurrent. Perhaps it is the pressure of time or the added load of extra-curricular activities, or perhaps the sheer amount of things we have to learn all in one term, but I’ve noticed that when it comes down to a choice between quickly remembering buzz words for a definition than actually understanding the concept, the former is more commonly picked. After all, you can pass an exam without mastering the lessons covered, the same way that you can memorize a definition on a textbook and recite it in class, even without a solid grasp of what it is you are talking about. The same goes with grades: the grade itself, supposedly the proof of your learning, growth, or hard work, seems more important than the process of learning, growing, or working hard.

This emphasis on a fixed set of signifiers of understanding – being able to rabble off a bunch of facts or being able to define a term – over the act of understanding itself has a separate manifestation in our extra-curricular activities as well. Experiences and community involvement can also be reduced to means to meeting requirements or beefing up resumes. Just like in the academics, there is an emphasis on appearing to do or be, rather than being or doing themselves.

I do not mean to say that all those who involve themselves in student organizations or charity work are doing it for the added credentials or a check on the requirements of a course or activity, or that those who can memorize definitions well do not understand them, as I am sure that these observations do not apply to all. What I do want to point out though is that while there is a growing importance of appearances and signifiers of being or doing, and a dwindling concern for actually being or doing, the idea of being a good student no longer centers on the hunger for knowledge or the ability to engage in critical discussion.

Despite all of this, I am reluctant to blame everything on students. More than the individual Lasallian, the entire system of testing and education contributes to making rote memorization so attractive an option, as compared to taking the time to understand a concept, engage in ideas and analyze them, and seeing their merits (or lack thereof) to make a sound conclusion. At the end of the day, your ability to pass an exam or accumulate a certain number of points in a class determines whether or not you will receive that all-important diploma. And for many, this dictates the kind of work they might be able to get into, or the future they can achieve for themselves.

The future does begin here, and despite what people might tell us, grades do matter – the same way that diplomas, certificates, trophies, and medals do in the real world. They are signifiers of accomplishments, of performance, or of excellence, but may not always be truly accompanied by the things they represent. It’s a reality many of us do not have control over. There remains a challenge for us now to keep in mind the distinction between education and schooling, awards and achievements, seeming and being, in case we mistake the counterfeit for the real thing.