The headlines today show us how all our presidential and vice presidential candidates are handling their campaigns, allowing us to see through them. Telling us how worthy the candidates are of our votes. But it’s too early in the game to tell who we should vote for. Hopefully, by some luck of chance someone in a white horse, our knight in shining armor will suddenly show up and save this beloved country of ours from hell.
We can be preoccupied with many political, economic, social issues of the day but what is most important is the state of our nation. We need to address the plight of our youth who will one day become our leaders and hopefully make that change.
Last week the President summoned the Department of Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro to look into the recent remarks made by students as to why Apolinario Mabini was sitting down at the entire duration of the historical film “Heneral Luna.”
P-Noy said, “Ang komento pa raw ng ilang netizens, baka pagod lang daw noong mga panahong iyon si Mabini. Talagang napailing po tayo noong ikinuwento sa amin ito. Sabihin mang iilang estudyante lang ang nagpahayag nito, masasabing isa rin itong repleksyon sa pagkukulang sa kaalaman sa kasaysayan ng ilang kabataan sa kasalukuyan.”
How pathetic can we be! It takes a movie like Heneral Luna for us to realize that indeed our youth do not have ample knowledge of Philippine history, much more the lives of our heroes who died for the country.
History professors are quite puzzled how these college students could have missed the known fact that Apolinario Mabini is a paralytic. This is very alarming. Imagine many Filipinos (young and old) have remained oblivious of our history! Sanamagan!
Here we are trying our best to be at par with the rest of our Southeast Asian neighbors by implementing the K-12 program, yet, we are not hitting the nail. We need to start strengthening the spirit of every child, making him realize his true identity as a Filipino. Our students may know who Mabini is but do they know why he is a hero? Do they understand his role and significance in Philippine history?
Doesn’t the president realize that the problem is deeply rooted in our soul? We are all confused as Filipinos. We don’t know who we are and what we want. We need to cultivate deeper into our being to discover our true identity. We are misled if not totally ignorant of our history. The youth in our neighboring countries like China, Thailand, Japan, and Vietnam undergo intensive history and cultural programs for nation building.
Our case, is the very opposite. We continue to abuse and exploit our country and people. Worst of all, we are establishing our loyalty and commitment with other countries. Susmariosep! Indeed, we have a troubled spirit.
This is the right time to strengthen the foundation of this nation. We need to build and nurture a sense of social commitment, nationalism and love for country.
The paramount importance of education can never be overlooked by anyone who holds close to his heart the welfare of our people and the future of this country. Schools are much more than a process of imparting to boys and girls information or knowledge that will give them personal material advantages over others and that will merely prepare the individual to make a livelihood.
Education, Mr. President has to do with the whole man, with all his faculties, his mind, body and soul. It affects him decisively as an individual, as well as in his relations to others, to the nation and to God.
We are living in an age characterized by violent conflicts among opposing political, economic and moral forces. We experience war in different corners of the world including a guerilla warfare, the ISIS, between militias-guerrillas, separatist groups and anarchic groups, the Muslim-Christian conflict, the NPA, and the Abu Sayaff, in our own country. When we analyze these and trace them to their causes, we are confronted by the startling discovery that these tremendous conflicts, this earth-shaking struggle, were in their origins essentially of an educational nature; and we are amazed to find that the eventual fate of nations is determined not in the battlefields but in the classrooms. This is where seeds of social disorder are sewn.
Whether we like it or not we must fully accept that education is bound up with the life of the nation. It is not about meeting the needs of private entities it is about building the nation. Therefore, we need to help the government and the nation carry on that vital work of giving the right kind of training to our growing generations, as education that will serve as the foundation of our national life, the first step of our national defense, and the guarantee of enduring prosperity and the future greatness of our country.
Education plays an important role in the country’s progress. It helps people to become better and productive citizens. Education helps to decide whom to vote in order to make a difference in the country. Education helps solve the unemployment problem which poses a hindrance to the growth of the nation. Education can help raise our moral and social standards to help our government in the maintenance of social discipline and of law and order.
This country is sorely in need of a body of men and women who will consider and find a solution for our school problems in the light of the highest and soundest educational principles; who understand the nature and purpose of true education; who are neither faddist nor servile imitators of imported systems and yet know how to profit from the best experience of other countries; who will uphold the Constitution and maintain the democracy of education, and who will resists through lawful means educational despotism and dictatorship; who will be progressive and scientific in their views; whose object will be to develop the whole man, physically, intellectually and spiritually, making him a good man and consequently, a good citizen.
Many of us dream of becoming an archipelago united in spirit for the love of country. It is our duty to be loyal and be devoted to our country. Like every individual who has duties to his family, he has duties equally to his country. A nation is so constituted that it affords the individual the means to develop his innate capabilities, to enable him to provide for his legitimate needs as a human being and to be protected in his rights and the rights of his family. In turn, he acquires obligations towards the community and the nation of which he is a member and is in duty bound to serve the state to which he owes legitimate allegiance.
The fate of our future generation is indeed in the hands of our leaders. If we continue to ignore the importance of education then ours will be a country full of wars, horrors, destruction, suffering and woe. We need to defend our democracy and our sovereignty by educating our spirit.