A Plea for a more child-centered community school program

Title

Creator

de Rosas, Romeo M.

Language

English

Year

1958

Subject

Community-school relationships.

Community education.

Teachers.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

A Plea for a MoreChildCentered Community School Program By Romeo M. de R'osas GENERALLY, \Yhat cloes the community-school movement me;rn to us teachers? Practically, thir:; mean:;; more \York - an increased zeal in our crusade to make our cornmunit>· a better place to live in. To accomplish something in this phase of our school V\'ork, we have to approach all sorts of people - gamblers, idlers, farmers, fishermen, merchants and professionals. \Ye subclivicle them into the following general categories: C,\'nics, ~mobs, patrons, and S.\'mpathizers. PAGE 24 But \Ve teachers know we have a m1ss10n to accomplish. Hence, we try our best to deal with all types of people. We are not afraid to meet problems. Come hell or high water, we shall go on. As the ultimate aim of our community-sch0ol movement is to make our community a better place to live in, our educational leaders have been handing to us formulas which, in one way Ol" another, influence our_ school administrators to hold the following: purok festivals, conferences on community-school development, 'workshops on local home industries, sympo~iums 'on human relation, etc. Improvements in the community; namely, the establishment of purok centers, libraries, and the like, are thought to express the people's desire to live better. But much to our regr~t, what has happened? Those community improvements are now becoming superficial show windows of the real conditions obtaining in our respective c.snnmunities. Why? Community-school coordinators, teachers, and' principals usually inform the members of their respective purok that on a THE PHILIPPINE EDUCATOR certain date, experts on community-school education from the central office are coming to tour the different purok in the community. Who would not prepare for such occasion? This \Writer is not, in principle, against the comm.unity-school. program now made popular by our leading school administrators. In this connection, we want only to pose this question: In the implementation of that program, which should be given more emphasis: the moral growth of the townspeople or the physical improvement of the community? One may say our question is anomalous. The mo .. ral and intellectual growth of our townspeople goes together with the development of the pl1ysical conditions in the community. Generally, this statement is true. However, for the sake of argument, we are going to discuss the matter in this paper. The present tendency in the implementation of our sommumty-school program is to put more emphasis on the physical aspects of its objectives. The majority of school administrators, by force of habit, want to show their respective school progress on community-school development in terms of mathematical data. For them, a high increase on itemized community improvements, such as, number of newly-constructed toilets, reading cente1:s, etc., is something the higher authorities can more appraise and appreciate. They put on record the details of purok festivals and other community-school activities. They- flatter about the cooperative spirit shown by the people in their community. In this case, our commu:µity-school movement seems to become a materialistic display of community school prog~·ess. This writer had observed• in several occasions the dog eat dog competition between the different p111'0k in the community during purolc festival and pw ok visitation. One week before the visitation, the p/(rnk is like a flirt smartly dressing up for a big occasion. Fences are repaired and constructed; streets are paved; newly-made waste boxes arid \Vaste caiJ.S are placed in conspicuous places; the purnk center, ·thoroughly extricated of its filth and filled \Vith reading ma.terials, fire-fighting equipments, etc., becomes a realistic syn,i.bol of a work well done. On the other hand, exhibitionism is the fad in most communities where purok festival or community fair is held. Every purok's booth has its own distinct individuality: One is beautifully constructed; the second, artistically decorated; the third, full of expensive antiques; the fourth, appealingly native with its display of products of different focal industries; and so forth. Although against Bureau regulation, beauty contests are being held too. On one occasion, the community JANUARY, 1958 school that held the beauty contest was able to pm·chase a sound system, an electric beII, and other utensils for the school's cafeteria. Each teacher campaigned for her purok's candidate. You may th.ink the teachers enjoyed such activity. They hated it. As one remarked: "This community-school activity is g£tting all my time. Aside from my duties as a. classroom teacher, I still act as a purok adviser, beautycontest campaigner, spo11sor, messenger. . . To hell with that added burden!" The common procedures in impler;nenting our community-school activity ·are basically unfavorable to teachers. The scope of th2ir duties has expanded far and wide, brought about by a seemingly administrative obesession among school officials to see the material· progress in their community-school program. Professionally untrained and unfamiliar with the multifarious pha.ses of commnnity education, a teacher finds he1: cbmmunity-school work a great burden. And what has our community-school program accomplished so far'? Look at our reading centers ;,look around and see whether or not our townspeople have •changed their apathetic attitude to community development. Have we at least minimized the number of cabarets, gambling dens, and other places of vice and moral corruption in the community? I ,~. e must not take for granted the fact that one of the fundamental objectives of our communityschool activity is to find ways and means to further develop the moral character and personal discipline of our pupils. In order to delimit the very broad scop.e' of our community-~chool program, communityschool acti'{ities which will not ultimately redound to the well-being of our pupils should be eliminated. In short, every community-school affair must be inherently pu pil-cen terecl. It is the belief of this Wl'iter that in the imple. mentation of our cori1.munit;;-school program, the psychological approach must be effectively utilized. Before we can make om· townspeople become a real asset to our community-school program, we have to correct first their wrong attitude; let them realize what is right ancl wrong, what is decent and indecent; and develop in them a keen ::;ense of res1Jonsibility and moral rectitude. We know our community environment is just the opposite of our school environment. In the classroom, we use. countless varieties of teaching methods, techniques, and devices to instill in the mind of everv pupil desiqi.ble habits, attitudes, ai~d skills needed for a more useful and happy life now· and for keeps. Our school grounds and buildings, spick and span as ever, reflect sterling qualities of character which PAGE 25 teachers also \\'ant to realize, by all means, in the community. But our communit~· environment has more audiovisual attractions. A large number of our pupils learn at an early age to smoke antj drink because they see grown-ups do so. A pupil may see his father drunk; the other ma~r see his mother playing panggingge. Fiestas provicfe our young students to learn more new forms of gambling, give them chance to see the bare facts about the most immoral acts in burlesque shows, and let them ac<Juire the habit of cutting classes. Added to these hundreds of unmentionable temptations is the apparent neglect of most parents t0 help the teacher develop personal discipline in their children. They leave everything to the teacher. To them, the education of their sons and dauf\'hters is the teacher's job. Teachers are being employed for that sole purpose, the.v ~.;ay. Along this line, we can sec no\V the big gap between the school and the community. Both teachers ancl townspeople must come to realize that one cannot work successfully without the wholehearted cooperation of the other. The problem is how to make this kind of school-community relation:,hip a reallty. In our community-school program, we must first give clue emphasis on the moral and intellectual reformation of our townspeople. If the mental set of the great majority of our townsmen is inimical to the fundamental principles of good citizenship, can we expect to make our community a better place to live in'! In school, we teach moral character, personal discipline, civic conscience, \'oca tional efficiency, and the duties of citizenship. Who um be an example in, the community'! Yes, every now and then, this writer has been embarrassed by his students pointing an accusing finger to many of our so-called responsible members of the communit~r. "Imagine the influence to our young peoplP of a municipal mayor who sleeps on a bench inside ''· gambling place. What would be our students' impression of a busines::.,man indulging in illegal business, or a l'.Ommon harmless lecher? The ·irony of this is: Many male teachers are influenced by tl~e community environment. Why? Because of the so-called "pu hlic rel a ti on," needed to bolster our commm1}ty-s2hool program, an increasing number of teacher<: ~uHl supervisors ha_ve given up their stand against alcoholism, immorality, and other PAGE 26 vices. For instance, during boy scouts' rally, some town officials woulo invite at night boy scoutmasters to a .drinking spree. Who vvoulcl not accept this invitation especially if those pcopie are accompanied by school officials ·and other teachers? Teachers are builders of character. At all times we exhort our pupils to be good, honest and sincere. \Ve implant in themselves that success is service. And we let them realize that real happiness consists in giving happiness to others. We teach them to emulate the lives vf good men. In a word, character is not an incidental phase of teaching but it is its core. Without character, our educational philosophy would have no meaning at all. Therefore, in order to make our cotnmunitysc hool program more child-centered, and more beneficial to the community in general. and to the townspeople and teachers in particular, the urgent need of our time is to orient and prepare our purok organization to launch a moral crtisade m the communi~y. Let our purok organization be militant enough to arouse the interest and acquire the cooperative assistance of other civic organizations, -like, the Women's Cluh, Catholic Action, Christian Youth Fellowship, local Y.M.C.A. ch<lpter, and others. Om: initial motto may run like this: "\Vhat shall it profit a community if it gain the whole world and lose its own boys?" The objective here is to revitalize our communitysl'.hool program by instilling first in the minds of our town officials, professionals, and laymen, a genuine desire to. wage a war against vice, immorality, graft and corruption. If more and more number of our townsmen would stand up for such a noble cause, the objectives of our community school program would also be more and more carried out effectively. In the long run too, more and more people in our community would realize the true significance in their lives of this law of moral growth: "Whatsoever thing-s are true; whatsoever things are honorable; whatsoever things are just; whatsoe'{er things are pure; whatsoever things are lovely; whatsoever .things are of good report; think on these things." Before any man could do something of great value to hi$ fellowmen, he must get first wisdom of thP heart. \Ve cannot reconcile cooperation for anything that is hasicall;v wrong and evil. If we know, that intoxicants are corrupting and degrading, that immorality is lewdness, that graft and corruption are eYil, well, we mu~'t, b.v aJl means, "put it away, out of our life and out of the life of our community!" THE PHILIPPINE EDUCATOR

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