Education; a joint responsibility of various agencies

Title

Creator

Ramos, Jose M.

Language

English

Year

1958

Subject

Education.

Rights

Fulltext

Education; A Joint Responsibility of Various Agencies By Jose M. Ramos THE school is easil~r the exclusive agency charged with the giving of education to the masses, on first non-meticulous impulse or on drastic hypothesis. This idea can not be overemphasized as , the s:'hool truly reflects the unbounded task of transforming the youth from unwarranted ignorance and social incompetence ihto educated and socially able citizens . . acceptable to the current social order. Anachronism as it may ~eem, the one time general comment: ''Iyan ba ang turo ng guro mo?" (Is that "·hat your teacher teaches you'?), bears impact on the whole system. A tn1ical example of this incident follows: After class hours, one morning while the pupils were leisurely pacing homeward, two of the naughty boys quarreled in front of a big house. The squabble resulted to a fist fight. Thereupon the owner of·the house, precisely the head of the family, peered through the window and shouted at the top of his voice: "Hoy; mga loko, iyan · ba ang turo sa inyo ng inyong guro sa paaralan ?" (Hey, fools, is that what your teacher teaches you in school?" Needless for me· to finish this unsavory story. The point is clear that with all the undoings of school children the brunt of responsibility lies ah~;ays on the school without considering other elements working on th~ growth ancl development of the tots. I will not. dare to defend the school. For this might appear that i: am taking side with a biased mind. I will only try to present some irrefutable facts and let my readers draw their wise conclusion. A child stays at school at not more than seven and a half hours each school day for barely ten months every ~·ear. For sixteen and a half hours out of the twent~·-four every day, where does the child stay'? The answer is definite: At home. Considering the length of time a child stays at home with his parents, is it not strange to pass the buck to the school \Yith whatever mischiefa·the chilcl conducts himself'? Now, the cleans as it waxes! lo+,-•WOOD •LEATHER e METAL ELIZALDE PAINT &. OIL FACTORY, INC. 378 Tanduay, Manila • Tel 3-86-71 I I /. I question arises. Can the influence of the school outweight the influence of the home practices considering the span of period the child is within the protective custody of the parents? Certainly, under ordi~ nary conditions and under normal run of life, the home must b~ more in a position to educate or uneducate the child. The home therefore, is an agency which must help the school in the promotion of education for the common good. If this is true and the truth is not irreconcilable, then the home is another agency where lies the responsibility of transforming the useless child into a useful one. This argument belies the remark: "Iyan ba ang turo sa inyo ng inyong mga guro sa paaralan ?1' A hvist of trnth in a hazy mind may justify the" bomerang: "Tyan brr ang turo sa inyo ng inyong mga magulang?" (Is that what your parents teach you?). But let us not consider it in this haughty perspective. Let it be channeled to one of cooperation and proper understanding thC1t the home and the school are inseparable factors on whose fold rests the development of the child in terms of characters, habits, cultural ancl :::ivic efficiencies, and ennobling spirits aside from the fundamental know ledge and competencies. Our search for light does not encl there. For, life is a constant and continuing business as long as it exists. For the child the home and the school are not the be-all and the encl-all of everything. There are many more elements that are bound to influence the total make-up and behavior of this child. Take for example the church. The faith of the child is one factor that militates his actions. He does things in ac::ordance with what he thinks wise and right. His thinking is largely guided by his faith; faith in the human law~, faith in the Divine Proviclence, faith in his church and its teachings. Thus a child brought up in the realm of piety shall never falter in his attempt to do \Vhat is good and proper. While a child brought up and reared devoid of spi~·itual counsel shall, by his beastly instinct, go out of humanly approved conduct and become a social nuisance and a menace to peace and order. The church therefore, plays a very important role in the upbringing of the child toward manhood of ::haracter and vii hies. Now, let us consider the child's environment. Child's action and behavior are largely patterned from the conduct of his associates. The old and wise adage: "Tell me who your companions are and I will tell you who you are." holds water in this particular case. Parents should therefore aspire to place their childreri in an environment, '"here the prospective companions of their chilclren wo.ukl be those with noble virtues. If this is not possible, the choice of associates for the children may be seriously considered. PAGE 20 Exposing a child to all kinds of temptation will enable that child to fall to it without knowing it. And could the child be blamed'! Unfortunately not. One could imagine the unfortunate predicament of a barrio where there were all kinds of vices, to say the least: mahjongg, monte, cuajo, cockfighting, cara y cruz, etc. The young people in that barrio studied in school alright but did anyone of them finish any course? Nor did anyone of them ptosper in life? 'To be sure, a great many of them turned out to be gamblers and very few of them professed even a humble calling. The barrio populace thereafter lived in abject poverty and want. The concomitant evils followed; illiteracy, dishonesty, immorality, indolence, etc. Having profitted from their sad experience the people in this barrio woke up to their misery. And having learned lessons from their despicable past redirected their course of action. They tried to do away with their viciouc; practices and brought up their children in an atmosphere conducive to approvecl ways of life. Results: The barrio is now progessing. It can boast of eclu:::ated youths; men and women, who constitute the cream of the citizenry. At present, there are no more gambling dens; no cockpit, no nothing. Instead. there are all sort~f appropriate devices for spending profitable leisures. Thus, environm~nt affects favorably the norms of conduct and approved decorum of the youth. With the advent of the modern tre:p.ds of education many more agencies are added to the list of factors affecting the general welfa~e of the public. Thel'e are for instance ; The Social Welfare Administration, Agricultural Extension, Rural Health Unit, et::., etc. These agencies, needles·s to tell, help one vvay or another in the implementation of education in its true sense. The functions being performed by these agencies in the promotion of the common welfare are only too glaring to merit enumeration. The point is: Is tP.e school solely and exclusively responsible for the promotion of educatioµ,? As proved by the discussion under consideration the duty of educating the masses is not a monopoly of the school. It is a joint responsibility of various agencies charged with the task of extricating the people from the morass where they were clamped once upon a time. So long as the school, the home, the church, the environment, and other minor agen::ies cooperate wholeheartedly in the total war for the betterment of our youth, so long will they succeed in their attempts to build a strong, healthy nation with good and upright citizens.· THE PHILIPPINE EDUCATOR

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