This column helps bring about the importance of values among Filipino youth who will in their time, guide the destiny of our land. To them belongs the future which to a large extent, will be determined by what we the older generation will do or not today. Much more it is also important to the elders of today, who want to ensure the youth of the land will be able to chart the nation’s destiny tomorrow by being seeing to it that the youth get trained in the desirable values that are now slowly being eroded.
We are witness to a sick Filipino society characterized by selfishness and materialism. We are witness to graft and corruption. We are witness to lack of discipline, physical violence and brutality, hostility, murder and kidnappings. Everyday we read in the newspapers of hold ups, robberies, killings, rapes, adultery, incest and other crimes. Certain members of the police force and other peace keeping agencies, high government officials have been implicated in some crimes and misconducts.
Today the youth are confused where the elders are expected to be models of behaviour and performance, it is sad to observe that in many instances they are not, many high officials have lost their dignity and honor by hanging into their jobs although the public has lost confidence in them. Many congressmen and senators, once elected do not present the people who elected them to office. They look after their own personal interest and the interest of their families. Some officials of the peace keeping authority have been found in to be in connivance with criminal elements and act against the interest of the very people they have sworn to protect. The same maybe said of other officials.
The family is the fundamental unit of society. It plays a key role in developing the kind of society we have. Strengthening family will develop individual’s desirable traits and virtues. Thoughtfulness and consideration for others, filial obedience, respect for elders, caring for the weak, feeling of security and belongingness, cooperation, loyalty, understanding, integrity, self-esteem, self-identity, dignity as a person, self-reliance, cleanliness and orderliness are among the positive values that can be nurtured within a wholesome family environment. Lack of respect for elders will eventually be reflected in the absence of respect for authority mistrust to policemen and other police servants. We see this in the anarchy of the streets, in traffic jams, in the improper disposal of waste, in smoke belching vehicles, in drug addiction, in lawlessness, the prevalence of corruption etc.
Today, the Filipino family is bulwark of strength, unlike in the past, for the following reasons. In the case of well-to-do families most fathers and most mothers believe that as long as they meet financial needs, they have performed the jobs as parents. They leave the rearing and nurturing of the children to the schools and to yaya’s, Which is not right. There is little communication between the parents and the children. In many families.the children go on separate ways from the parents. There are more temptation now, more women of low morals that cause husbands to go astray, leading to marital break-ups.
Shall we allow this neglect of family, which is the backbone of the nation, to go on?What should this deterioration of the family and society lead to? Can we afford to remain passive and be silent on lookers and observers while our society goes down the drain? Shall we be unconcerned simply because we are not directly affected? But remember we are part of this society and will go down in with it eventually. We cannot afford to be indifferent.
So let us do what we can do to improve the society we live in. Let us start post-haste with the training of our youth, by developing desirable values in our boys and girls. First by restoring the strength and unity of the family, venerated values of yesterdays, respect of children for elders, prayers and secondly, by conducting programs in the school that will reinforce the good training that should start in the family.
By: Marites V. Mercado | Principal II | Samal North Elementary School | Samal, Bataan
