THE paramount task of Edukasyon sa Pagpapaatao (EsP) teachers is to teach students concepts on values and virtues for the students to improve their decision-making. EsP curriculum focuses on teaching love of self, family, community, country, and God. Once these concepts are learned, it is expected that students internalize the significance of these concepts to their lives and in doing so, they improve their decision-making.
All actions, including spoken words, are products of our decision making. We consider these acts as human acts, acts which we have done freely, willed and done at the time we are responsible.
For instance, on the issue about teenage pregnancy, EsP teachers do not instantly tell students not to engage in pre-marital sex. Rather, they discuss the concepts of sexuality, chastity, respect, and love of self.
It is expected that at the end of the lesson, students will realize that pre-marital sex is wrong, bad, undesirable, and even sinful because this act reflects disrespect of the body, it is against the teaching on chastity, or it is an erroneous understanding of sexuality.
The problem with many of students today know that pre-marital sex and such other acts are wrong but they do not fully understand why it is wrong. They know that they are immoral only because they were told they are wrong. If you ask them why it is wrong, only a few could elaborate why. I am not sure if the problem lies in expressing themselves or they really do not have a deeper understanding of the wrongness of such acts.
Without understanding the concepts of love, justice, and other virtues being taught is EsP, the students will easily get confused once they are alone. Students drink alcohol, post undesirable photos in social media, or post scandalous remarks on their social accounts.
The question is why do they do this? Do they not know the implication of their acts? Do they not understand the possible consequences of their deeds? Most often than not, yes, they do not fully understand the nature of the act. They will only have partial realization of the wrongness of such act once they are punished or reprimanded.
The problem again if they do not understand the wrongness of their acts, is that they retaliate to the authority. They do not comprehend why they are being punished. People who know their mistakes keep silent when corrected while the ignorant react because they do not know why they are being reprimanded or punished.
Aside from ignorance, the greatest threat to good decision making is the lack of emotional control or balance. People, including adults, who cannot manage their emotions, even if they are knowledgeable of ethical and moral concepts, can go wrong. At the height of anger, a good person can hurt others. He/she can even commit heinous crimes. Uncontrolled lust can make priests molest. In loneliness, a married person can adulterate.
Young people today feel mixture of emotions because of the fast-changing world. They have access to all sorts of news and get to know the lives of different individuals because of the social media and technology. They are affected by this things. For instance, a student at home can be bullied online causing him/her to feel low and rejected. They can also be affected by what they watch on television. The world has widen that much since the introduction of technology especially the social media and it is causing confusion tot the students which also affect their decision-making.
It is important for young people today to learn the core concepts of moral behavior, and by learning, it means that they can explain them, either spoken or written. Familiarization or knowledge is not enough to ensure good decision-making by the students but it will serve as a strong foundation. The proper management of emotion also starts in understanding how emotion affects the person. Emotion gives color to life but it is very dangerous if not fully understood. Students must know that emotion has a dark side that is why we have to keep it checked from time to time.
We cannot expect our students or young people to make good decision-making by telling them to do this or that. They must understand why they do this or that so that they will understand the magnitude of the act.
Without understanding, we will continue to see students committing all sorts of mistakes.