SWIMMING AGAINST THE CURRENT
By DR. JESUS P. ESTANISLAO
Dr. Jesus P. Estanislao
It is heart-warming to read and hear appeals about bringing God back into the center of our social, political, economic, and indeed national life. But we must go beyond making such appeals.
And this is where suggestions should be made on game-changing initiatives that we all need to undertake in order to bring about the transformative changes we seek to bring about to our country. This time, everyone should be involved; enough of the usual sit-by-the-sideline comments of “the President should do this” or “Congress should pass this law.” All of us should contribute.
This is where Clink Hagedorn comes in with the strategic priority that all of us can pursue, i.e. take care of our children and grand children, and thereby make sure all of our youth are properly brought up as effective, caring, responsible citizens of our country. This is what he says:
“Formation has to begin at home, in the family. It should then be followed through and supported by society. This is where schools, media, and the government step in; for instance, government ads depicting our morals and our values as part of a formative continuing education for all, but particularly for our youth. Simply put, we need to undertake a never-ending information campaign.” But it is imperative that this is backed up and reinforced by good and proper example from the elders”
“Moreover, such a campaign should engage all of us. We as parents, uncles and aunts, grandparents should look after our children in the family, by teaching them what is right and wrong. Better still, by showing them the proper example of doing what is right. And this has to be life-long: from their formative years at home, through their school career, and while they are already young professionals. We should arm them with basic knowledge of how to face the future with virtue and responsible citizenship. In this regard, parents should step up to the plate, since they have the primary obligation to bring up, educate, and form their children. But then schools, particularly the teachers, and the community and wider society as a whole as well, should be secondary educators, giving effective support to parents in the proper formation of all our young”.
“And in educating and forming our young, we must all make sure that we instill in them the values and the good habits that conform to the demands, expectations, standards, and dreams of our envisioned society. And in this regard, all of us should work to get our young people and everyone else to appreciate our good points and gifts as a nation, not only so that we all become proud of our country, but also — and above all — that we build on these good points and gifts in order to contribute to the Philippines we all should be proud about.”
There we all have it very clear as a strategic priority in the decades ahead: continuing education, good example, proper formation, particularly of our young. And in undertaking initiatives in pursuit of this strategic priority, everyone — from parents, grandparents, and other relatives within our extended family system, the community, society, and all the way up to the national government — should get very actively involved and engaged.