By this time, classes have already started in some of the universities that have opted to shift their calendar. The first week goes by so fast and the next thing you know, you are hooked on the routine of going to school every day.
However, there are some parents who discourage students from going to school - most especially to universities that practice academic freedom, like the University of the Philippines and other state universities. Students who go these kinds of schools are tagged as rebels, even members of the New People's Army.
While recruitment inside these institutions may be true to some extent, we cannot at all times generalize the student for the school he or she goes to. I am sick and tired of being teased at work and in other places because of my being a member of a progressive group back in college. Although I wasn't very vocal at that time, my principles stood firm. Was I part of the NPA? At this very moment, I am juggling the struggles of adulthood and writing this piece to all the readers.
The insurgency problem in the country is very deep. Its history goes beyond the issues that we see today. The leader of this group fled the country leaving, his members behind to fight for their cause. But I have always believed that everything can be talked over, instead of raising our firearms and shooting aimlessly at individuals who are innocent. No principle is worth a life. I have always believed in that.
School has taught me to be open-minded, even to the people who sympathize with the struggles of those in the hinterlands. I have learned to feel more for those who have less, thus their urge to fight it out in whatever way.
Back then, I also rallied behind issues which I felt needed to be heard by the administration and society. It did not make me less of a person and it made me who I am today. My point is that students should be given freedom to choose their path in school with the proper guidance of the parents.
I have enjoyed so much from the academic freedom my school has given me, I was not boxed in and confined to the templates of the world.
There is no need to discourage the young ones when it comes to their tertiary education. Also, it is not proper to scare them off like that because of how we are apprehensive of what they might become.
Yes, the problem of gaining new recruits from legal fronts has become alarming but there is no need to suppress. Don't blame the school. Blame yourself if they have gone the wrong way. There are too many opportunities when they come out of these tagged schools. Let them have the full experience of being a student. I tell you, those will be the best years of their lives.