Restoring discipline and moral values among Filipino learners
It’s been almost a year since I was invited on national TV to share my views on that live video of a teacher scolding her students. Some netizens commended her, while others criticized her for the hurtful remarks she hurled at the learners.
I think we are forgetting the real problem behind this: the deteriorating behavior of most Filipino learners.
The Department of Education’s (DepEd) Child Protection Policy, crafted in 2012, is the government’s response to public clamor to protect schoolchildren from any form of abuse. The objective is good. Teachers became more careful about what they said and how they corrected learners, though significant disadvantages later surfaced on the part of both learners and teachers.
More than 10 years later, I find that applying discipline in Philippine classrooms has become increasingly challenging for teachers, guidance counselors, and the school staff. Despite well-intentioned efforts to rectify what is wrong, questions have been raised about discipline’s adverse effects on children’s mental health. I remember getting death threats and having someone vandalize my last name on the wall, just because I submitted an incident report on their bad behavior in school.
But should we fail to discipline learners, we risk raising a soft and entitled generation who might not be able to cope with the demands and expectations of a tough world. In the real world, serious consequences and sanctions greet those who fail to follow a specific set of protocols. Shouldn’t we be concerned about developing in our learners some form of resilience against potential adversities?
As teachers, we hope to raise not only intellectually competent individuals, but Filipinos with high moral values and those who practice discipline that benefits them and those around them. However, if we, their teachers, cannot exercise authority because our hands are tied for fear of our licenses being revoked, then it will be next to impossible to do our duties to the learners and to the Filipino nation as a whole.
This is also why many teachers in public schools have become passive when learners break rules and regulations. Those students know that they are protected by a DepEd policy and can easily get away with whatever they’ve done.
While we do not want learners to be submissive to autocratic rule, we want to develop citizens who know and respect the law and other rules meant to maintain peace and security. Most importantly, we have to understand that apart from any law, this change starts within us. As Winston of the “John Wick” movie series says, “Rules, rules, without rules we live like animals.”
DepEd’s decision to include the subject Good Manners and Right Conduct in the Philippine Basic Education Curriculum would hopefully be the answer to the deteriorating behavior of many learners.
Nonetheless, teachers must be trained well on how to teach good values and proper conduct in a way that won’t appear as though they are being forced down the learners’ throats.
In this endeavor, the active cooperation of parents is urgently needed. The school and teachers alone cannot look after the children 24/7. Local government units can also conduct seminars to help parents discipline their children.
Taking the first small steps will surely make a difference for our children, helping them develop into morally upright and responsible citizens of our beloved country.
Reynald Alfred Auzana Recede,
teacher,
Marikina High School
