The class was tasked to watch the movie about the life of St. John Baptist De La Salle. To be honest, I have limited knowledge on who truly De La Salle is prior watching the movie. I just knew DLSU as a premiere university but I certainly lack knowledge of its founding person. I’m not sure when was the film shot but it was a really old one that anyone could easily find boring. However, I tried to immerse myself into it to further understand the history of our school’s founder.
Watching the film about his life and how he pioneered education was inspiring to say the very least. Coming from a wealthy family in France where his family does not support his advocacy, he still continued to pursue opening schools for the poor using his own personal resources. Although faced with many struggles and challenges, he did not falter and showed selflessness for his vision of education. He believed that education is a key in getting out of poverty and accessibility to it is very important.
St. John Baptist De La Salle has many qualities that is relevant in becoming a great business leader. First, he was a risk taker since even though he has the means of living a comfortable life, he still chose to start educating the poor and not lavish on his wealth like his family. He was faced with so many hurdles including the lack of support from his family, not having enough resources to fund his teachers, and meeting people who maligned him, and yet he still continued. Second, De La Salle was a servant leader. He always looks after the well-being of his teachers and students the best way he can. He prioritizes their need more than his for the sake of the sustenance of his vision. Third, He was an innovator because he used unconventional ways of teaching such as disallowing physical punishments and even pioneered the classroom setup to facilitate simultaneous learning and maximizing resources. Lastly, De La Salle was a mentor, he calls his teachers priests as brothers as to not confuse their roles from the church. They looked up to him and had faith in what he does. They saw and understood his vision and mission and they would not accept any other leader.
Delving deeper into the history of the founder of the university and education itself is motivating. It made me more proud to be a Lasallian and inspired me to live with the qualities he possess. In my workplace, I can start by doing small ripple of changes such as mentoring and coaching to push for a more collaborative and open work environment. For the society in general, I will take part in pursuing causes related to education. We should safeguard the basic right to quality and accessible education for all especially that the government is threatening to lower down its budget. I’ve always dream of a Philippines that is at par with first world countries and I believe education for Filipinos is key in achieving this.
Part of my career plan is to offer my skills not only to private companies but to public institutions as well where I could help equip students with relevant learnings for their development. I myself was a product of public school and I saw firsthand how talents and skills were wasted because of lack of grit and confidence of young individuals. Similar to St. La Salle, I believe that education can pull out families from poverty for an improved life.
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