I have the tendency to use my MBA as a license to avoid criticism. It's a real problem that some people use their credentials and/or academic achievements to try and win an argument. One incident I wrote about was Rep. Raoul Abellar Manuel flexing his "smarts" by using his cum laude degree to win the argument. It was all about how I would often say, "You're the moron because I have the MBA and you don't." There are times I felt like taking an MBA would make up for my "moral shortcomings" during high school when I was barely passing (and the passing rate was 80%, which is rather high), that I wasn't having honors, and that there was this saying, "Thou grades shalt determine thy future!" That, of course, has led to the reality where cheating is prevalent.
I wanted to make a review. I took my MBA in 2011 and graduated in 2014. I always felt that the MBA program was what I needed to become "invincible". It was also at that time that I got scammed by a family friend of all people. I always felt, "Is foolishness a condition of the mind or the heart?" I have stored a lt of head knowledge to compensate for my perceived lack of intelligence, under an education system that valued grades over learning. After all, we were told, "If you suck at math, you will be poor." Never mind that classroom mathematics is overly theoretical; it doesn't teach you basic investing, such as using GInvest or bank UITFs to invest in the stock market!
Why are degrees and validations becoming useless with a lousy education system
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| epanchatantra.com |
The situation is pretty much, "You have a lot of master's and doctorates, but still be a complete fool." More often than not, the world fool is confused with stupid. Foolishness means a lack of common sense and not a lack of intelligence. Some people often fire the story of the Scholars and the Lion as a fictional picture of how one can have a lot of degrees, summa laude, etc., and still be a complete fool. The three scholars resurrected the lion, which common sense dictates would eat them if the creature came back alive. One of the scholars did the smart thing by climbing up the tree. The other scholars were eaten alive by the lion. It showed that people, even with a master's degree or a doctorate degree, can commit extreme blunders. The fable in itself, like an Aesop's Fable, shows the problem behind the educational system.
Whether we want to admit it or not, the classroom system is a one-size-fits-all approach. You enter the class. You have different people with different needs. Some people are more mathematically inclined, while others aren't. The problem lies with how everyone is measured by their ability to parrot rather than their ability to understand. Sure, we need to do some degree of memorization, like you couldn't do mathematics without learning arithmetic. However, as mathematics progresses, it can be seen that people are just learning differentials, integrals, angles, identities, finding X, etc., without knowing the real-world values. For example, trigonometry and geometry are vital tools in engineering. Discrete mathematics is used in computer science to optimize the program.
I actually hated people for simply being good at mathematics. If I wasn't emulating Adolf Hitler, I was emulating Karl Marx. I felt like I may have written a high school essay called "The Mathematician" describing how people good at mathematics oppress those who aren't. There are times I feel like Adolf Hitler's hatred for the Jews was "justified" because Hitler was a poor student in secondary school. However, Warren Buffett would shoot down the idea with, "Don't hate people better than you. Instead, learn from them." Sadly, the classroom environment may be raising more Marxes and Hitlers than it would be raising Dietrich Bonhoeffers and Ninoy Aquinos.
The problem may not be the degrees, but how to get the degrees
When grades become more important than learning, this is what happens. Not all students are created equal. This environment shows different types of learners. Can all of them reach the top of the tree? The answer is a big no. However, the education system can be so one-size-fits-all that it figuratively asks the fish to climb a tree or the pig to fly. The figures of speech get even funnier when you imagine it literally. A pig will never grow wings to fly, nor will a fish climb up a tree. We need to face it that there are different ways to learn mathematics and writing. The fact that a former trivial enemy of mine, who was good in mathematics but not the English language subject, was able to write a simplistic essay about history as a teacher, proves there's room for improvement. The fact that I was able to endure the basic mathematics of business administration or self-learn some trigonometry during the COVID-19 pandemic, defeats the school's fixed mindset.
After all, one can think of the typical classroom environment to look like this. You get a high grade based mostly on compliance with a fixed set of instructions. It made me think of why I had a "justification" to hold a prolonged grudge over a trivial issue with that former trivial enemy of mine. I would hate him for simply being good at mathematics, never mind that his closest friend was also not good at mathematics. My former trivial enemy vs. me was a matter of "who was better" rather than "How can we both help each other?" I even felt that because of mathematics, I can never get the badge of invincibility at Ateneo De Manila University or the University of the Philippines. I felt like getting an MBA could at least get me some degree of invulnerability.
However, the more I think about it, not getting a PhD in business administration will teach me these practical skills:
- How to invest in the stock market through UITFs if stock picking isn't for you
- How to analyze the international market
- How to speak a new language (such as Mandarin, which is becoming more globally spoken by the second)
All I learned in MBA was just more case studies, more review classes, and the thesis seemed to be nothing more than the finish line. True, I didn't go to Recto to "buy a thesis". Of course, I passed my thesis with flying colors. However, what made my thesis without cheating never taught me were skills like stock market investment, picking the right investment for beginners (ex., bonds), and how to navigate the landmine-filled marketplace!
Because of this, we even get the problem of people who are economists while supporting the economically absurd Filipino First Policy. It doesn't take a doctorate in economics to understand that:
Because of this, we even get the problem of people who are economists while supporting the economically absurd Filipino First Policy. It doesn't take a doctorate in economics to understand that:
- Granting FDI 100% of their ownership is different from selling the Philippines.
- FDI can help fill in the revenue gap because they will be required to pay taxes.
- FDI means that investors are required to register in the Philippines.
- The law of supply and demand isn't legislation, it's economic law.
Sadly, almost every argument can be easily shot down with a degree, than with the facts. It should be a sad fact that a moron who speaks the truth, is often shot down, based on his or her intelligence. On the other hand, the person with the credentials is treated life as if he could change the laws of business and economics, by just saying something.