These problems still exist, but the loss of morals and the changing student respect for teachers have been the biggest struggle right now. The etiology of these problems are multi-factorial and are already deeply rooted in the grey matter of the general population.
Parental Strain. One major faux pas you could do in your life is allowing your parents to choose the direction of your life. It is common for Filipino families to be matriarchal or patriarchal in nature. It would be anomalous for a Filipino to leave the nest at age 18. I always say at every speaking engagement or on a PTA orientation, that at the end of it all you are going to live your life and not your parents. When your parents die, you'd be left alone to suffer the choices your parents made or celebrate the choices you have made yourself. Few parents realize that we should not teach our children how to earn money, but rather, we should teach our children how to be happy. Most parents make their child an extension of what they have not attained. Moreover, these parents overestimate the capacity of their children. In cases where students fail, the immediate culprit we see are the teachers. They don't realize that the first teachers are the parents, and the first schools are the homes. Some parents who are dentists or alumni would immediately assume certainty. Instead, as alumni, we have the corollary duty to maintain or to better the performance of our school. The college is not indebted to the success of every alum. The reverse is true. Khalil Gibran wrote: "Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself."
Feeble Base. A good foundation in elementary and high school is inevitable in the quest for a college degree and eventually a profession. In application, you can't conquer arithmetic unless you have mastered numbers. My disgust for the use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction warrants writing another article. For now it's safe to assume that the change is arbitrary in Cebu. I've graduated from a local school and yet the fluency and diction were the first compliment I received when I went to America. Furthermore, Cebu was hailed as best in business English. So why fix something that is not broken? Likewise, you can't expect to learn efficiently if you don't know the basics of summary, outlining, speed reading, note-taking, and a good study habit. Most of the class discussions in a Philippine college or university are in English. If your vocabulary is limited, coping could be a problem and it would delay you from advancing. This is the reason why most of the high school graduates struggle in college. There is a mismatch of knowledge and skills.
Wrong Notion. Majority of the students in our college have the incorrect information about the track they are following. Most of the failure stem from the students' assumption that dentistry is just any another college program. We used to regard dentistry as second only to medicine in prestige and difficulty. We had pride. We were willing to work for it to attain the title. We also know that title is nothing without substance, for we know that cheating our way on a test could only get us so far. The board exam is the big test. An even bigger test is becoming a dentist without inflicting injury to our patients in the process. Nowadays, the students feel entitled. The students feel that they can have it easy. The students feel they are paying the school to hand them a diploma. For a program that will make you a doctor and add post nominal letters to your name, it is priceless. It can't be bought. The teachers are not mere teachers. I've always told my students that the teachers in our college are incomparable to that of their minor courses. Here, we are doctors. Some of us are even post graduate degree holders, specialists, and/or educated abroad. Most of us don't need to teach to earn a living. We do this for our passion and the chance to return back the gratitude for our former teachers and our alma mater. Regardless, there are still some of us who are willing to be the unsung hero or the villain (however people would view it). I'd always utter an adlib to my students: "I don't want to be your friend. I want to be the reason you passed the board exams." or "You did not pay the university to see a stand-up comic. You came here to learn from a teacher."
Unsound Priorities. It can't be denied that there are a lot of temptations and vices that could derail the students from their terminal course. If you value lust more than studies, you get screwed (no pun intended). If you value drugs more than studies, you become an addict. If you value pleasing your parents more than studies, you develop into a cheater. If you value booze more than studies, you become an alcoholic. If you value pleasing your peers more than studies, you become mischievous to the extent of stealing money to finance your upscale front. Most of the students that we have, come from remote areas or from another island. Most would succumb to peer pressure, the feeling of belonging to a pack, or the assumption that you are "cool" if you deviate. To these students, it's more imminent to please the clique than to study for a quiz the night before. Forthwith, everybody wants to be the clown. Everybody wants to be funny. Everybody wants to be the one to take down the alpha male, and in the process take the reigns of the pack. They elect leaders who would further their wayward ways, and this in turn destroys the very fabric of learning. Leaders who cower at the every whim of the majority, while true-blue leaders have lost their mantle to animosity and obscurity.
I don't take pride from being the only one among core of friends from preparatory dentistry school that graduated, or finished in the same university we started. If I had the courage to change the practices of my faction, they'd be licensed dentists as well. I've seen it happen to friends, I hate to see it happen to every student, every batch, every generation that I teach. I don't want to leave any casualties behind anymore.
Bad practices lead to bad habits, bad habits to bad performances, bad performances to a bad reputation. And that ladies and gentlemen is how we destroy the legacy of our college. The same college which should have produced the first Visayas conference via its alumni association. The recent incident of being left out or unmentioned shouldn't be taken provocatively. It should serve as a wake-up call. We are the first dental school in Cebu, and there are countless alum who are ahead of their time that could have rivaled that affair.
With the management change, people are optimistic that the very meaning of "strict retention" will be upheld and the once spotless record of the college will be restored. Every change could equal a potential elevation from ambiguity to certainty. Not all people are built to be a dentist. Many are called, few are chosen, and even fewer survive. The stronghold has been well fought for, now let's see the rising of a palace.
But before we could rehabilitate the lackluster and dormant state of the college we need to --- weed out.