A philosophy of education

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Part of The Philippine Educator

Title: A philosophy of education
Creator: Miraflores, Porfiro
Language: English
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Fulltext: A PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION 1 PORFIRIO G. MIRAFLORES President, Southern Negros College We are pledged to the following philosophies of education: 1. Education for Democracy. The Philippines is wedded to the cause of Democracy, both as a system of goverrunent and as a way of life. The Southern Negros College stands wedded to the same cause. We shall sustain and advance the basic concepts of Democracy. In our own way, however humble, we shall contribute to the totality of efforts towards realizing its vision of a good and just society, as expressed in the immortal documents of human freedom and liberty. That vision has shone with unfading luster through the years. It has held a consistency of form, a constancy of principles. Inherent in it is a seemingly inexhaustible power to stir devotion and to compel creative action. We shall not lose sight of that vision in the face of confusions and the vulgar distortions of the advocates of all kinds of political and economic doctrines. That vision is our Holy Grail. We shall champion and honor, beyond compromise, the great democratic postulate of human fellowship and worth. That postulate makes Democracy one with the Hebrew tradition and parallel to the ethical teachings of Christianity. Upon that postulate, philosophers and poets, pagan and secular, have produced an enduring literature. It shall be -our undisguised purpose to work for a deeper penetration of democracy into the conscience of the people. There is fear that the return of peace and the expected wave of post-war prosperity will dampen the fine impulses that have arisen out of the sufferings of great numbers of our people during the last war. With more reason should democracy be more intensely and intensively taught so that the impulses that have animated and energized free men to action may not abate and weaken under the impact of ensuing better times. The people should be taught to enjoy the benefactions and beneficences of those better times, if they come, under the propositions and resolves of the democratic way of life. Only by that way of life may those benefactions and beneficences be enjoyed to the fullest extent enabling to both individuals and society. We shall be tireless in our efforts to lift Democracy from the abstract and the visionary, and to set it forth in spe6fic principles. We shall restate and objectify the specific goals of the democratic ideal, namely: respect for the worth of personality; equality of opportunity; non-discrimination of racial and religious minorities; maintenance of civil liberties; the right of each person to participate in the formation of policies which affect his life or conduct; dependence upon only nonviolent, gradualist methods of social 1 DeliYered by President Porflrlo G. llllraflorea at the first commencement exercises of Southern Nevoa Colleil! on April 20, 1948. 22 THE PHH,IPPINE EDUO.ATOR change; use of the method of experimental intelligence - knowledge of facts, open discussion and verification of conclusions - in the solution of problems. Over these specific goals, we shall superimpose the objectives of community betterment. This shall be the major aim of all our educational endeavors. Corollary to the objective of community betterment is the inculcation of a sense of social responsibility which all must feel in a society concerned not only with the protection of rights but with the realization of duties. These specific objectives close the gap between ideal and realization. But the closing of this gap demands a conquest of barriers anchored deep in the nature of man. We realize that prejudice is as old as history itself; that age-old jealousies of social rank and privilege, and fears - fear of interference in property, fear of imposed restraint, fear of change - all these stand in the way, obstruct the goal, raise forbidding obstacles. Then, too, we realize the portents of indifference, cynicism and fascistic elements. These are impending <forces in our country today, and, in the whole world, they are not only impending but resurgent and insurgent. Against them, the will of Democracy has to battle. In this battle, we are enlisted with the forces of Democracy. We are enlisted for the duration. 2. Education for Peace. We shall educate for peace : for peace among ourselves,for peace in and with the world. The trials and sorrows of our own people are enough to prove the dire necessity of a conscious and conscientious education for peace. The horrors of war scream a terrible protest against the unreason of it, and the thought that we should have to endure the repetition of those horrors is unbearable. Let political and economic statesmanship lay down, as they must, the political and economic foundations of peace. The mission of educational statesmanship is clear and definite, and at this time it attains primacy and omnipotence over the task of laying down the political and economic bases of peace. We must remake the minds and redirect the emotions of the people. Only on remade minds and redirected emotions may the structure of peace be built and sustained enduringly. The world today is different, far different, from the world we have known before. We are witnesses today to the greatest experiment in world government. If this experiment has to succ~d. 'tis- we desire that it must succeed, it must be endowed with the moral support Qf all the peoples concerned, and to get that support requires extraordinary adjustments such as men do not freely make. The following propositions may well be the guiding principles in an education for peace: 1. We should keep alive the costly lesson of nazism and facism. We should never, never allow any lapse of memory as regards the vicoius results of those doctrines. 2. We must overcome prejudice against enemy peoples. They are different from their criminal governments that had plunged them into war. As our enemies prove chastened and reformed, we must take them for what they are and not for what formerly their criminal leaders had regimented them into. We must build wider and more inclusive understanding and appreciation of their cultures, a wider and more inclusive feeling of membership in the world of nations. 3. We must keep uppermost a desire 23 THE PH!L!PPI:>E EDUCATOR for peace. We ,~ust emphasize the sanity of peaceful processes. The methods of conference and arbitration must be made a cult. The rare attitudes essential to concession for a common good we must build, as we must create an aversion to jingoistic bluster and loud calls to force. Realism with respect to military preparedness, we must teach, but, at the same time, we must develop a determination to make military preparedness unnecessary. We must build a loyalty to the world !federation, co-extensive and parallel to national loyalty. We realize that world loyalty is an untried field. It calls for the projection of emotion and conviction into areas farther from the field of insularity. We must approach frankly the importance of collective action. We must realize that free enterprise, with its concomitants of competition, logically breeds wars. In the larger frame of our economy, we must acknowledge the inevitable and necessary values of collective enterprise. All these propositions are necessary in an education for peace. They call for creative responsibilities of the first order, not only limited in their application to young people in school but necessarily inclusive of the whole population through every channel that · the educator can command. 3. Education For Nationalism. We are pledged to educate .for nationalism. This shall constitute the base of the triang1e upon which the other two sides - education for democracy and education for peace - must be built. The devotion to the democratic ideal • and the application of its ultimate predicates upon the promotion of peace, must be enchanneled to the supreme purpose of promoting the legitimate interests of country. Conversely, devotion to the common patrimonies and the efforts to preserve them !or posterity must inspire zealous pursuance of the democratic way of life, and impel and compel an equally zealous pursuance of peace with the world. We shall help form a life pattern which, in the warp ami woof of international life, shall be recognized and identified as distinctly Filipino. We shall foster a spirit of national pride. That spirit is vital to national independence, essential to nationhood. We shall project the finer manifestations of that spirit, from which alone must spring national health vigor and courage. Under the propulsions and impulsions of that finer spirit shall develop a nationalism that is not incompatible with internationalism. The crowning glory of that nationalism shall be the development of the truly good Filipino: first and foremost, a nationalist, dynamic and assertive; dedicated to the cause of Democracy and a friend and brother of all democratic men the world over; a lover of peace and of all pursuits that promote peace; loving, defending and promoting all that is dear and enduring to the nation, and yet, at the same time, maintaining loyalty to what is dear and ~nduring to all mankind; holding on to ·all the priceless heritage that constitute the national patrimony, and yet building upon those heritage the great accn~ tions of world culture and civilizatjon. The Filipino embraces civilization and Lives and thrives in every clime . • The Filipino has alL the meekness and all the tenacity and ferocity of Ttis carabao. 24