Mine is Not the Life of the Academic

High school was a pain. My ears would be filled with countless reprimands from my mother urging for my focus on my academics. At one point, I guaranteed an impossible 92 (note that in USTHS, 95 was the highest possible card grade) to quiet her. Her reprimands continued when I was unable to reach it and the volume of my tears increased. Her worries emerged from thinking that I won't be capable of entering a good school. She told me that I was better off taking Hotel and Restaurant Management or Travel Management somewhere. Eventually, my extra curricular activities were blamed for my ineptitude in academics. The ultimate form of quiet finally arrived when I passed AdMU. My college years were much more pleasant because of the quiet. (But oh God, I do not take my mother ill. I am merely stating an expired actuality.)

I was not born to be an academic. I was not made to travel the world to research and present my findings to a group of doctors (PhD holders) and renowned scholars. I was not made with the stuff of valedictorian and summa cum laude title holders.

I may dismiss myself as a lazy bum who wishes to think on an armchair but that is not the case. I feel the constant demand for people with the more impressive numbers and letters in their report cards. At one point, I felt a certain oppression. In my reflections on my reactions to the academic system, I have arrived at a few thoughts.

Two Thoughts On the Academic:

1. The Future Productive Citizen: The academic system is honorable but it is too shaped in a capitalist structure. Most schools are still morphed in the philosophy of producing students capable of being productive worker bees (good engineers, lawyers, doctors, etc.). Hence, the numerical determiner of people's capabilities exist. It may be "dehumanizing" (because of how it defines individuals into mere GPAs and QPIs, etc) but it is the fastest way to find the quality bees. This is a limiting side effect of the structure. I am not saying that capitalism is evil and that it creates a backward-thinking society. In fact, people would agree that it merits healthy competition. To be more attuned with my stand, these numerical determiners of capabilities (grades) prevent any other 'growth'. Instead of being better human beings, we become better workers. That is the path of the current academic system.

The values of education and academics are always confused with one another. Education is supposed to encompass many aspects of being human so that it may hone skills that would allow people to become better individuals--not only in the productive, capitalist sense but also the eidos and arete. What happened to valuing the poets who spoke of the human condition? Surely some still exist and the past masters are continually tackled in literature but the value to those who pierce the very core of our beings diminished. What happened to valuing those who inquired about the beyond? We see the likes of Stephen Hawking but any such information about the creation of the universe is dismissed as unnecessary. We see a lessening in the desire to know ourselves as who we are and a growing demand for the productive and 'practical'.

2. The Researcher: Unlike my previous thought on the academic, this will focus on my preferences.

 In my opinion, the immersion into the academic system and the systematic approach to truth is the life of the academic. Such is beautiful in its own way but it is not the life for me. I prefer to scour the world for ideas and develop my own in the process. I prefer to speak to different minds (academic and non-academic) in order to learn more about what it means to be human.

Perhaps it is naive for me to say that people should be given the choice to not pursue the academic life to educate herself or himself because such a protocol is deeply embedded in this system. But I want noted that people should have the choice to pick whatever path they wish in their lives. If they wish for the academic path to be able to create infrastructures, let it be. If they wish for the life of a hermit to arrive at nothing, let it be. Nothing should be called illegitimate if the goal is achieved in its complete totality. But of course, the approach to the academic system is not that black-and-white.


Whether I felt oppressed because of the demands of my parental units to have more impressive numerical marks is no longer the issue here. It is now about the clashing of values and the systematization of wants.


Now, my ode for the positive: