Topic 8: CALL FOR A FILIPINO PATRIOTISM

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, the students must be able to:

 Show concern for the rights of the others;

 Practice tolerant behavior towards diversity of views, culture, and beliefs and
 Translate human rights into social reality.

INTRODUCTION

A. “RESPECT FOR HUMAN DIGNITY”

A landmark papal encyclical, Pacem in Terris, has also declared that peace would be built if citizens “apply
themselves seriously to respecting the rights of others and discharging their own duties” (Pope John XXII, 1963). In
Islam, it is believed that all human beings have the right to life at conception, and after birth, a right to full
opportunities to lead a rewarding and satisfying life (Mahmood-Abedin, in Mische and Merkling (eds.), 2001).

ABSTRACTION
Understanding the Concept

The tradition of human rights concepts is as human civilization. Every society has varying norms to protect
human life and dignity. Great religious strengthen the traditions.

Human rights can be broadly defined as those rights which human beings are entitled to which no one can
deprive them of. They are a set of guarantees that ensure not only living but also those basic conditions to live with
dignity as a human being. They are designed to protect individuals from the threat to life and human dignity with the
growth of the power of states, complexity, and satisfaction of the society, such as a set of guarantees was necessary.

The Declaration of the Universal Human Rights by the United Nations Organization is a moral victory of
mankind in recent times. It is the culmination of the moral values that all religions advocated from the beginning of
history. Now for the first time in history the whole world has accepted a set of rights applied to every human being,
irrespective of nationality, religion, sex, social status, occupation, wealth, property, or any other differentiating
ethnic, cultural, or social characteristic. The declaration begins with the article:

“All human beings are born free and equal indignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

The purpose of the declaration is obviously to provide a global foundation to protect human dignity. It
subsequently initiated various States to adopt and enlarge the principles of human rights in their Constitutions.
Many codes of rights, like African Charteron Human and People’s Rights, European Convention on Human Rights and
Duties of Man sprang up following it. The declaration also led to include principles of human rights into various
sections of public laws, such as race equality, sex discrimination, and court procedures. The declaration covers right
to life, liberty, and security of person. Slavery, torture, cruel punishment, arbitrary arrest and detention and invasion
of privacy of law is guaranteed using such principles as “innocent until proved guilty.” Freedom of thought and
speech, conscience and religious belief are accepted. Private ownership of property, freedom of movement, right to
employment, health and education are also guaranteed.

The Declaration covers such major areas like survival, dignity, political action, culture, and economic and
social rights. However, the convention in the present form may not be perfect according to certain cultural
perspectives because of the strong Western cultural influence in their in their make. At least, it has got to be
accepted as a set of minimum moral standards required by all cultures.

Developing consciousness in that they are strong factors in peace. Most of the conflicts arise from violation
of human rights. Mere acceptance of the rights nationally or internationally alone is not sufficient.

The political, cultural, and economic diversities of the globe are so complex and therefore there is a need to
have determined action to make human rights a reality in the societies. It is the responsibility of every citizen,
government, and civil organization to secure them.

Education of Human Rights

Schools have the responsibility to educate the next generation on human rights and inculcate the basic
values embedded in there. Although many curricula have it as a unit generally it is taught only at the cognitive level.
Such academic learning has little impact on the actual behavior. Merely memorizing the articles in the convention
does not go far. What is necessary is to help learning them in a manner that the respect for human dignity is
internalized and be a part of one’s character. We have yet to search for effective methods of teaching human rights.

One of the critiques of the present approach to teaching rights is that it ignores the responsibility side. In the
West we see the over stress for the rights which has led to imbalance of civic consciousness and human
relationships. Campaigns that propagate human rights rarely speak about duties that go with them. Therefore, the
message that people get is “fight for your rights; neglect your duties.” In the Orient the emphasis is always given to
one’s duties before rights. There is an interesting Buddhist discourse called Sigalowada Sutta, which reflects the
Oriental attitude to rights. Therein the Buddha explains that parents are bound to do their rightful to children when
children perform their duties to parents. Masters are bound to do their rightful to workers when they perform their
duties to masters. One must earn one’s rights by performing the duties. They are inseparable as the two sides of the
same coin.

Children, especially in primary grades, may find it difficult to grasp the concepts involved in human rights.
Their ability to understand abstract concepts like rights, freedom is yet to develop. Learning human rights should
begin with understanding them in daily experiences of the personal life of children. For instance:

 Standing in a queue for one’s turn

 Keeping promise
 Returning a debt in time
 Helping the injured and sick
 Keeping the public places clean
 Not encroaching on others’ property

Sharing experiences of such familiar situations are helpful. (Balasooriya, 2001)

Individual introspection under such circumstances is encouraged. The teacher opens students to discuss, share
their feelings and thoughts. The experiences are interpreted and judged by the principles of human rights,
equality, and justice. The basic approach adopted here is to develop sensitivity to deep suffering experienced by
human beings in situations where their natural rights are deprived. For instance, the feelings of being socially
rejected are recognized. Along with the development of affective feelings of deprivation students begin to
broaden their consciousness and change their attitudes towards the necessity of respecting and protecting human
dignity. Building on that issue of the rights of women, children, minorities, religious sects, refugees, and various
other social groups could be discussed. The notion of rights needs to be extended to the animals and from there
to Nature as well. Peace recognizes and respects life in every form.

As you move forward, you begin to see every right arises from a basic human need. For example, the right to
 education has that education is a need in man. Thus, denying him an education is violating a right. All violations of
human rights are violent acts because they involve depriving a person from fulfilling his need.

Taken as a whole, all the rights as expressed in the articles, provide the foundation for democracy. In short,
democracy is the governance that ensures human rights. Democracy is the process of ensuring and securing
human rights. It is basically a conflict resolution process. Peace arises from the proper functioning of democracy.
In other words, peace in a country is the product of democracy. (Balasooriya, 2001)

B. “BUILDING PATRIOTIC COMMUNITY”

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the lesson, the students must be able to:

 Discuss contemporary social issues;

 Demonstrate healthy patriotism and
 Adopt democratic principle.

INTRODUCTION

We can make the new world if we want

We can make the new world if we all try
What we do is to make it show
And the old world’s got to go
We can make the new world and we will
- From a song by P.J. Hoffman
ABSTRACTION
This theme aims at developing knowledge, attitudes, and skills for active and responsible citizenship.
Education is accountable to produce good citizens for both the country and the world. Schools can easily forget this
obligation in their competition for examination results or daily organizational maintenance efforts. Are schools
genuinely concerned for developing students’ citizenship? Does that concern reflect in the behavior of our youth?
We often hear people saying, that the present youth lack interest in issues of their own country. The general
immaturity into social problems is reflected by their values system. In some countries terrorism thrives on this lack of
informed citizenship of the youth. School has a heavy responsibility to develop their students’ civic attitudes. For
this, first schools should set examples in being interested in contemporary social issues, in preference to keeping up
with the long prevailing tradition distancing themselves from the social reality. Schools teach children the past as
history but are somewhat blind to the present.

Citizenship attitude building

Being a citizen involves understanding one's role as a member of the community or nation and acting with
responsibility. A social role is built upon a certain set of attitudes. Attitudes are predispositions to behavior.
Education is accountable to society to produce good citizens. The word citizen is basically a political term. It is the
politics in the global context. Thus, a good citizen thinks globally and acts locally. Citizenship need not always be
interpreted in a parochial narrow sense as blind obedience to the immediate political forces.

In promoting citizenship, a school needs a clear model of it both in terms of local and global needs. With that
picture in mind, they must draw education programs within the curriculum. Peace education basically attempts
developing peaceful attitudes in the future citizen. Good citizenship is built upon the following attitudes anywhere in
the world.

1. Patriotism is the ground on which citizenship and democracy are based. A person is obliged to perform his duties
because of his love for the community and country. It is a basic attachment to nation beyond the present interest of
the government in power. In it there, is general willingness to co-operate with the nation's effort for advancement.

2. Productivity is the degree of contribution a citizen makes towards the development of one's society. A good
citizen does not want to be a burden on his people. He or she thinks in terms of "What can I give to the country?"
not in terms of "What can I get from the country?"

3. Civic responsibility is the consciousness of one's duties towards the society in day- to-day life as well in long-
term perspective, e.g., being informed about the current political and other issues, abstaining from disturbing the
peace of the neighborhood. protection of public property, participation in community building activities.

4. Interest in contemporary community, national and global issues

A citizen takes interest to seek information on the issues affecting his or her society at every level. Today there is a
global tendency developing towards individualism. One of the seeming dysfunctions of this tendency is selfishness,
which drives people to pay less care or no care to social issues and duties. Elders often criticize the youth as being
increasingly disinterested in the problems of their society.

5. Active participation in community building a citizen is bound by duty to participate actively in community
building according to his or her best capacities. The Convention on the Rights of the Child lays great stress on the
need of recognizing children's right to participate in community life and development through seeking information,
expressing views and opinions through equal access to opportunity for personal development and cultural activities
and education.

Active participation in community building and environmental protection is the most effective way of developing
children's attitudes and interests on responsible citizenship.

6. Cultural enrichment
A good citizen is a cultured person in that he is disciplined by the rich qualities of his culture as well as the global
culture. Educationally speaking, children at the beginning need to be nurtured and disciplined by their own cultures.
As they grow up, they should be exposed to other cultures as well so that they can appreciate and learn from them
to be world citizens.s

7. Obedience to law
A citizen is necessarily one who abides by the law of his country. Here by law, we mean the established code of law.
Justice is the source of rightful law. However, a citizen tries to rectify laws when they happen to be unjust as it
happens sometimes. Schools need to develop law consciousness in children. It is a striking fact that many school
syllabi are silent about social justice and the civic laws.

8. National coherence
A citizen living in a multicultural society preserves the national unity by respecting and giving due recognition and
rights to all the sectors of people in spite of their differences of ethnicity, language, religion and class. Social diversity
must be viewed as an opportunity of social and cultural enrichment. Today many countries are becoming plural
societies. Education is considered an effective means of promoting national harmony. To meet this need teachers,
have to be equipped to respond to ethnic and cultural diversities of students in schools. The curriculum must be
reconsidered in the light of multicultural needs.
9. Simple living
The need for simple living has never been felt in such a degree before as it is now. All the commercial forces press us
to buy their products. They create new needs. In us through their strong machinery of propaganda. The
consequence is the ever-growing consumerist society that wastes natural resources in the production of
unnecessary goods only to satisfy the greed of people. They pollute the environment both during the process of
productions and after their use, as heaps of garbage. Thus, simple living is nature-friendly in every way. To live simply
is to lead a life, outwardly, poor but inwardly rich.

10. Democracy is interpreted in different forms in different countries. However, the basic features in democracy
are freedom of speech, public participation in governance through representatives, tolerance of differences and
respect for human rights. In addition, a democracy can be evaluated by the degree of public confidence, voluntary
compliance with the law, party activism, voluntary organization, activism, and political discussion. In a country,
democracy emerges essentially from the ways people adopt in their lifestyle and administration of social institutes.
For instance, children learn democracy by the way home, school and classroom are managed. (Balasooriya, 2001)