A Dream dreaming Us

A young boy sat in front of me, his head bowed but pride unbroken.He was the thorn in the side of every teacher in the school. In his four years of secondary education, he was involved in a variety of cases — lying, disrespecting teachers, cutting classes, cheating, gambling and stealing. I have to admit that something inside me longed for the day that this boy would drop out.

That day did arrive. I had just talked to his mother and aunt who told me they were giving up on their son and that they were planning to pull him out of school. As a matter of procedure, I had to speak with him and make sure that he was really certain about stopping school. He explained that he could not see himself passing all his subjects. I reminded him that the problem was not his academic performance but rather his discipline.

“It doesn’t matter,” said the boy in a matter-of-fact tone.

“What are you planning to do?”

“I will work. I will find a job that will support me and my family. I’m sure there’s a lot of work out there.”

It was at that point that, for the first time, I felt pity for the boy that I had always reprimanded in my class. Despite all the mischief he spread in the school, it was clear from our conversation that he was still an innocent kid who mistakenly believed that he could handle life without the help of his teachers and parents. With a heavy heart, I gave him the form for withdrawal and sadly watched him fill out the form. All the while, this young man was thinking to himself that a high school dropout could really find a decent job out there.

This is the image of poverty that was presented to me after one year of working in a technical school for the poor. There are other images that I need not detail but which are equally heart-breaking. There is a student who “committed” herself too soon to her classmate and is now expecting. There are those who have begun experimenting with drugs. A significant number go to school without eating breakfast and sometimes even dinner the previous night. This makes them stare absentmindedly at the board, unable to give the correct response even if the answers are already there in front of them. There are those who are very smart and responsible but can never be honor students because they cannot afford to go to school on a daily basis.

What is sad is that these problems do not just happen to the students who do poorly in school. Out of the 150 students I taught last year, there was one girl who really had the talent and skill to go to a prestigious school and, from there, get a chance at a bright future for herself and her family. With my school having a strong Jesuit connection, I told her that we would do our best to help her get a scholarship at Ateneo. She was happy about it and she had started to prepare early for the college exams. Unfortunately, her mother disapproved of her plans and thought the idea was too lofty for someone of their status. This crushed her spirit for she knew she could never go to her dream school without her parents’ permission.

There is little point in arguing with her mother or with all the mothers of the students I mentioned. I know that this way of thinking was brought about by years of living in conditions that deprive them of their dreams, insights and opportunities. In the end, I cannot blame them for the helplessness that is so prevalent in their lives. It is not purely their fault that society has deprived them of a good education or even just a decent way of life that will make them feel that life is worth dreaming for.

My liberation theology teacher once cited in class an enlightening quote that describes poverty and injustice. If I remember right, it was an African native’s reaction to all the industrialization that was depriving them of their homeland: “There is a dream dreaming us.” As I hear and gather all these painful stories of poverty, I can’t help but agree. Despite all the hard work of these students of mine, sometimes there really is another, less-desirable dream that our society has collectively left for the poor, in place of the innocent hopes and wishes that they might have for themselves and their families.

If only there were more people with noble dreams, then even the simplest aspirations of many of our countrymen would not be too difficult to achieve. The poor cannot escape from the nightmares of poverty and injustice by themselves. It will only happen once people start to include others in their dreams.