Recalling a Toxic View About Menial Workers During My Elementary to High School Days

I remembered writing about the importance of low-level work (read here). This reminds me of my elementary to high school days. The time came when my grades started to get low because of addiction to video games and television. It was a non-stop battle with my parents because of my grades. It could also be a non-stop battle with the teachers. Again, you know how the Philippine education system has been so outdated (read here) that it's almost similar to what the late Lee Kuan Yew found in China. Lee's findings was that Deng Xiaoping inherited a China with an outdated education system. I could remember how the Filipino textbook (Tagalog actually) tried to talk about the importance of education. One of the lessons taught was about being a carpenter who has to climb up tall places or be an office worker in an air-conditioned office. Yet, being an office worker is no walk in the park either.

I think the way menial work is looked down on is disturbing. When Odette struck--I realized even more I had no idea or the skill to climb up those difficult places. What happens is that these menial workers who are looked down up end up doing the work the "elites" can't do. An engineer sure is a glamorous job or title. However, an engineer's blueprints are useless without construction workers. If nobody mixes cement, if nobody does the carpentry, if nobody does this and that--an engineer is but useless. Engineers may have been laying out the plans for the hotel. However, can a hotel truly survive without waiters, maids, and janitors? Again, the answer is really a big no. I can't imagine having a hotel and you don't have waiters, maids, and janitors. If they weren't there then who will prepare the hotel for guests? If there were no chefs and receptionists then who will cook and make reservations?

This made me think about how people want to study hard to avoid becoming janitors and carpenters. I always felt I was stupid because my grades in high school weren't good. I barely passed fourth year under the K+10 curriculum. I was told though that taking Hotel & Restaurant Management (HRM) isn't the end of the world, that if it was "so easy" then the course should be non-existent. Instead, it was really a problem so many teachers were misinformed that the HRM course required an English Grade Point Average (GPA) of at least 80%. I dreaded getting into HRM back in my fourth-year of high school then I ended up regretting not taking it later in life. Driving around and food-tripping made me wish I took HRM instead of business administration. Now, HRM is part of the School of Business and Economics in the University of San Carlos (USC).

This is a big reality. Would you be proud of your father was a janitor (or any "dirty" job) or a drug dealer to pay for your tuition? Sure, there's big money in drug dealing but like cryptocurrency--it's easy come and easy go. Instead, think of the father who works as a janitor to send his children to school. What never crossed my mind though (until later) was that Lucio Tan Sr. was a janitor while studying for college. Instead, Tan Sr. decided to do his work as a janitor until he graduated from B.S. Chemical Engineering at the Fareastern University. Some of the richest people started out as "low-level" menial workers. Besides, what's wrong with doing menial work? We need to all learn to do some form of menial work because one day--you might need to do it to earn a living!

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