The Unintended Consequence of Public Education

Juan Apolinario C. Reyes

This short article has only to do with cultural diversity.

If someone belongs to an ethnic minority, say Badjao or Mangyan, and that someone is sent to school to study all the way to college, that person will see his identity as Badjao or Mangyan disappear from himself. He will remain Badjao or Mangyan only in superficial appearances that are paraded in streets during commemorative occasions, or he will recall his being a cultural minority only when requested to recount his life as a kid. Formal education erases the distinct character of a person as cultural minority and replaces it with something that is more universal.

The education of a cultural minority brings many ironies. One of them is this: if we want to preserve the genuine spirit and character of a culture that breathes in a group that is a cultural minority, we must keep their members ignorant of the larger realities of life. Most educators are unknowing of the fact that what they do contributes to the disappearance of some cultures. Education reduces cultural diversity.

By way of analogy, if biodiversity is a priced state of things in an ecosystem, education impacts that biodiversity and as a result reduces that biological health of that ecosystem. The analogy implies that education leads to the extinction of cultures of minority groups.

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