When students troop back to school on Tuesday, it is time for the biggest lessons in life.
It won't be about the lessons taught in the different subjects they have to enroll in, although they will be able to acquire knowledge that will come in handy later in life. As some people realize belatedly, all the things you learn in school will only be treasured when you got to use them in real life. It won't be about the knowledge you acquire inside the classroom, the libraries and all the gadgets they use to somehow justify the exorbitant charges levied on students and their parents.
Of course, you get to take in a lot of pointers that will be useful during quizzes and exams that actually do little to measure the knowledge a student has acquired but only to determine if a student gets to enroll to the next level. Certainly, it has little to do with extra-curricular activity that oftentimes serve only to distract if not obstruct the students' studies if not actually stand in the way of authentic education.
Going by what unfolds before our eyes, it would seem that good manners and respect are the first casualties of what today's youth consider as expression. That certainly is not the kind of education expected of perhaps the most advanced generation in terms of skill and training. The real lessons are those that one acquires in terms of the sad experiences over the role that economic status play in everyday life. No matter what school one finds himself, whether in some desolate Third World country or in a prestigious Ivy League institution, the Golden Rule holds sway. No, not the one about doing to others what one wants others to do to you. Rather, this new rule preaches the obvious: he who has the gold makes the rules.
Of course, that is the lesson that students learn early in life. They recall that the really smart ones in classes don't always end up class valedictorian because the teachers preferred the ones who lavished gifts on them. They grow up corrupted in the ways of the world, embracing the idea that rules apply only to the poor and that those who are willing to pay almost always get their way around. And yet, one of the most important lessons in life is that somehow the rich ones do not always finish first. After all, not all the glitters is gold and there are those that are priceless enough to remain elusive to even the highest bidder. In the university of life, the really good lessons are for those who really study.
