Individuals that Create the Filipino Culture | #2
Among the first few adjectives
that young children learn are the words good
and bad. Naturally, these words
are what adults use to describe particular actions and situations around
children.
“If you obey me, you’re good!”
“If you don’t follow this, you’re
bad!”
As children grow up, however, the
concept of what’s good or bad becomes increasingly complex. Take the word behave as an example. Adults usually
shout this word to children as if they would automatically know what to do. But,
really, what does behave exactly
mean?
If you try to unravel this word, it
can mean a lot of things: stay put, keep quiet, be good, sit still, obey, etc.
The list can go on forever. The same thing applies to the words good and bad. But what does that really mean?
Lawrence Kohlberg, a proponent of
Moral Development, once made a story called the “Heinz Dilemma” which perfectly
portrays how baffling and fuzzy the line between what is good or what is bad really
is.
The story goes as follows:
Heinz’s wife was dying from a particular type of cancer. Doctors said a new drug might save her. The drug had been discovered by a local chemist and the Heinz tried desperately to buy some, but the chemist was charging ten times the money it cost to make the drug and this was much more than the Heinz could afford.Heinz could only raise half the money, even after help from family and friends. He explained to the chemist that his wife was dying and asked if he could have the drug cheaper or pay the rest of the money later.The chemist refused, saying that he had discovered the drug and was going to make money from it. The husband was desperate to save his wife, so later that night he broke into the chemist’s and stole the drug.
As emphasized by this dilemma,
morality is not as simple as it sounds. The concept of morality is not as easy
as abiding the law. Therefore, the concept of moral values should not be
limited to the words good/right and bad/wrong alone. Hence, teachers should not
emphasize the concreteness of morality because that is misleading. When these children
grow up, there would inevitably a confusion as they realize that this concept
is not really well-defined. It is vague, formless, and contingent upon a person’s
conscience. Simply put, what is right or wrong cannot be explained by a mere
scenario, just like what’s shown in this worksheet.
Looking at the current situation
of the Philippines now, I wondered to myself, “What if the consciousness of the
next generation in the distant future will be filled with the wickedness they
see in the news? What if this wickedness-filled consciousness becomes a part of
our culture? What will then happen to our identity?”
As a future teacher, these
thoughts bothered me to the extent that I willed myself to be a catalyst of the
greater good. As a humanist, I believe that to be fully human is to live a life
with a purpose as opposed to merely existing. I believe that a person has the
capability to be the best version that he or she can be. Therefore, in the near
future, I will do my best to shape my students' view on morality as they realize their full potential. Because once they realize their worth in life, they will also begin to recognize the worth of other people, which results to Global Empathy - the highest form of morality one can truly achieve.
And maybe, just maybe, these individuals can create the the Filipino identity that is as pure as the first national symbol taught in class, the Philippine flag.
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