The paradox of our postmodern condition: The issue on discipline

by Ricky R. Rosales

Iwas browsing the 9-page report from a survey conducted by CEU’s management information system (MIS) profiling our new enrollees for school year 2022-2023 provided by Dr. Erna Yabut, our VP for Research Innovation and Institutional Development (former Research and Evaluation). Of the 4,352 enrolled first year students, 2,944 participated in the survey which accounts for 68% of the total number. CEU Makati had the highest number of participants at 76%.

Several significant information was asked in the survey that meant to understand the kind of students who enter CEU and get their diploma from us. What got me interested was the responses of students under the category Reasons for Choosing CEU. The highest number of them said they chose CEU because of its good name and reputation (92.63%), followed by good teaching behavior (90.93%), and board exam performance (85.05%).

What surprised me though was the high number of students who chose CEU for its discipline at 80.5%, more than the score of other categories which include among others, having friendly employees (66.61%), and accessibility of CEU’s location in the university belt (69.29%).

The data make me wonder what kind of discipline our students long for in a postmodern condition where no one seems to get hold of permanent authority. When Marx and Engel’s wrote in their Communist Manifesto (1848), “all that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind,” they were not just describing an economic condition under a capitalist regime, but a condition where individuals in modern society were finally freed from the bondage of premodern authorities.

In our postmodern condition on the other hand, some argue that we already entered in a society without the center. A society where no one has the monopoly of control. Even strong governments who exert so much effort in gaining control over a long period of time will soon find themselves unable to maintain their legitimate authority over their subordinates. In our classrooms, our students change their minds very quickly without prior notice. Their parents grapple for answers to the many questions they ask about their children who were born in the age of social media. In the words of Zygmunt Bauman, “if ordering and creation were the battle-cries of modernity, deregulation and recycling became the catchwords of postmodernity.” Modernity and postmodernity’s common thread is the gradual disappearance of legitimate authorities that impose strict disciplines. But there is a paradox here in the process of experiencing the postmodern condition. Obviously, being freed from the grip of authorities doesn’t necessarily mean we will not cling to authorities for discipline.

It is a mistake to think that because our students want to get hold of their lives on their own, they are happy to be left alone. This, to me, is what the CEU-MIS data suggest.

I always handle first year students during the start of every school year. I make sure that my classes are not only full of meaningful theories and concepts as their foundation to become communicators and journalists, but an avenue to talk about themselves, their families, and respective communities. From their sharing is where I learned so much how most of them struggled with the kind of discipline that their parents impose at home. This struggle is particularly painful when students and parents deal with issues of gender and romantic relationships.

With this new data of CEU-MIS, I can only think that the students see the school as an avenue to explore a new kind of discipline that will guide them to become who they want to be. As a social institution that avoids being too personal yet too concerned about the student’s future, they find comfort among their classmates, teachers, and administrators.

The question now is, how do we enforce discipline among our students in the most effective way possible? To me, that is by crafting our policies, rules and regulations that are student friendly and inclusive to all gender, social class, and intellectual abilities.