There is no authority without responsibility

On June 19 of 1900, the US Republican Party met in Philadelphia and approved this slogan for their policy in the Philippines: "Our authority cannot be less than our responsibility." And their main responsibility was the education of our people. And so on July 23 of the following year, 540 American teachers left San Francisco aboard the US Army Transport Thomas. It arrived in Manila on August 21.

That date marks the start of the Bureau, now, Department of Education. It also marks the time when English was introduced as our official language of instruction and today, the Philippines is the second largest English-speaking nation in the world. Even before then, the Philippines was already the second most advanced economy in Asia, next to Japan. We lost this distinction during the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos. In a little more than two decades of Marcos rule, we became the poorest nation in Asia, next to Bangladesh. Sad to say, but fair to say, the Americans were staunch supporters of the Marcos Regime when the emphasis of the government shifted from education to the military.

Way back in 1670, Anne Bradstreet in her Meditations Divine and Moral already noted that "Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish." In any country, the authority to rule runs in inverse proportion to its intellectual development. Our highest duty is to respect legitimate authority. But our future depends on how those that we have vested with authority respond to the corresponding responsibility that comes with their authority.

Some people grow when they are given authority. Some just swell. Many people holding office are dodging their responsibility. It is us who will suffer the consequences of their dodging their responsibilities. Now, there is a tendency to blame the plight of the poor on the rich. This is as logical as blaming sickness and death on the healthy.

What we really have to do is to fight poverty. This is the true enemy and the best way to fight poverty is to fight ignorance. We must give people an opportunity to develop their talents. The focus should be not on what they are but what they could be.

Historically, we have a great educational heritage from our colonial past. At the end of the Spanish Regime, the Philippines had a higher literacy rate than its Mother Country, Spain. During the American Regime, we became the second largest English-speaking nation, next only to the United States itself. English is the language that has come closest to being a universal language. It is a great advantage to speak English in a world that is becoming a global village.

All this began with the American-Philippine policy of authority living up to responsibility. We should adopt that policy for ourselves.