Teaching kids with teaching parents

Batas Mauricio

THE view, espoused by a group calling itself the Philippine Business for Education (PBE), that the deteriorated educational system in the country today is due to the overly centralized manner by which the Department of Education (Deped) is being run and how teachers are being chosen, is, as it were, barking at the wrong tree all over again.

This presupposes, quite erroneously, that imparting the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic to Filipino children starts with the schools and therefore with the Deped and its teachers. This is wrong. Teaching our children the rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic starts with us parents, and in our homes.

If parents and families failed or refused, for one reason or another, to teach their young children how to read, write, or do the basics of addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication, or to at least interest the kids on these endeavors while they are still capable of being trained or molded, there is nothing more that the schools and the Deped and its teachers can do afterwards.

The PBE should therefore train its guns on what could be done in Filipino homes while the children are still susceptible of being taught and trained. The focus on educating young Filipinos should start with the very parents of the children, making sure that these parents are themselves equipped with the necessary ability to read, write, and do arithmetic.

The idea is, how could parents teach anything to their children, as they are growing up, when they themselves know nothing, or are not interested, about reading, writing, and arithmetic? When the parents know nothing, they can teach nothing. And when they cannot teach anything, it is pretty sure they are going to be bad examples or role models for their children.

On the other hand, it is a fact that even if many parents are totally illiterate, this did not prevent them from showing good examples to their children, enabling the children to rise above the lack of education of their ascendants. The objective of PBE and of the  government should therefore be to assure that the parents can either teach reading, writing, or arithmetic to their children, or to be morally and spiritually upright.

Indeed, it has been written by sages of old that training a person should start while he is a young child. Thus, it has been said, train the child in the way that he should go, and he will never depart from it even if he grows old. This old advice remains true today, in the age of computers and Internet and knowledge and information exploding online.

But, what is the way that the child should go and for which he should be trained? It has also been written a long time ago that the child should be taught on the way of the Lord—which means the child should be taught that there is a God who must be feared and loved with all our hearts, minds, and souls.

Teaching our children the fear and love of God would keep them in the only way towards probity and integrity, and away from evil and criminality. Who should teach these basic pieces of wisdom? The parents are admonished to do so, for they are truly the first—and the best — teaches any child can ever get.

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com