TREADING THE RIGHT PATH OF CHANGE THROUGH EDUCATION, CULTURE AND SPORTS

by: Engr. Fernando P. Arce

Oration – High School Department
1st University Week Celebration – 106th Foundation Anniversary
Filamer Christian University, Roxas City
August 23-28, 2010

Caught in the crossroads, laid down with options, you are to decide which way to go,
what will you choose? Are you going to move forward and seize what lies beyond or stop and
become a mere spectator of life as it unfolds? Will you be an agent of latency or a catalyst of
change and take the risk? If life is seen as a journey and is apt to reach a destination, a move is
needed, an action is demanded, an effort for change is expected. Indolence is not an option.
Much that cowardice is not an alternative.

The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not

to be found but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the
destination. Change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires
change. There is nothing wrong with change, if it is towards the right direction.

Education is essential to change, for education entails the ideals of opening, broadening
and elevating the mind. It is focused on developing wisdom as well as knowledge, not leaving
behind the building of character, instilling moral and spiritual values which could characterize
the very fabric of the person, the people and the society. Education prepares us to thrive, to
contribute and to lead in our flattening world with the globally interlinked marketplace of ideas
and forces.

Culture, as a mirror of society, is essential to change as it defines the civilization, shapes,

impacts on and guides our society in a spectrum of many different areas. Through more art,
dance, speech and drama, we can learn to see the world through different lenses, witness
scenarios in captivating stages, hear voices in varying acoustics of sounds, craft creativity in
many other ways, and package personalities in different expressions. There are infinite synergies
that culture can generate.

Sports is essential to change, for sports is an integral part of our everyday life and evokes
a wide range of emotions in all of us. With better sports program, we can expect more avenues to
develop the full range of inherent talents. Through a more systematic and effective delivery
system, everyone can achieve physical wellness and access a wide range of sports and games to
develop sportsmanship, camaraderie, teamwork and resilience. Sports allows people to challenge
and surpass themselves even in the toughest of circumstances. For that very reason we should
make it a vehicle of social progress.

Education, culture and sports working as one creates boundless idealism from which
brilliance springs out most colorful and high.

Visions in life, when rightly pursued, demands an effort to aspire for excellence.
Excellence, which can often be narrowly seen as meeting the criteria of success and social
prestige, is authentic only if it is centered on promoting the excellence of the human person. We
must possess a deep respect for intelligence, achievement, and learning, and the skills needed to
use them. In these very tiring times where building a culture of excellence, hope seems so distant
and impossible, we should hold our high hopes to the ideals of education, culture and sports that
teach us how to dream, to dream not only for one’s self but to dream with others. This is the
essence of education, culture and sports – sharing the dream, igniting that spark of hope, together
and by association.

An awe-inspiring characteristic needed towards the right direction and reaching the end
of the journey is unfettered optimism, its sense that life will turn out better. But that optimism
does not merely come from blind belief that things will turn out well by themselves. It comes
with the belief that people can work together to make things better. It does not owe to
resignation, or to reliance on providence, natural or divine, or to cosmic benignity. It owes to
glimpsing the possibilities of human potential, to recognizing that there is nothing we cannot do
if we put our minds and hearts to it. Nothing is impossible if we put our souls and body to it.
That is the very spirit that education, culture and sports can transfuse in all of us.

The right path of change is full of challenges. They have to be tackled head on and the
most potent weapon at our disposal is education, culture and sports. It is a challenge for all of us
and like every challenge it is an opportunity not to be missed. So, what are you waiting for?
Move, walk, and tread with me in the right path of change. With education, culture and sports as
our tool and guide, let us all be powerful engines of social change.