SPE-VED: Good Manners and Right Conduct
Module 10: Lesson 3-A: Call for Filipino Patriotism
Lesson 3-B: Building Patriotic Community
TOPIC: THE GMRC TEACHER AS AN AGENT OF NATION-BUILDING AND SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT
SUB-TOPIC: Lesson 3-A: Call for Filipino Patriotism
Lesson 3-B: Building Patriotic Community
III. LESSON PROPER
LESSON 3-A: CALL FOR FILIPINO PATRIOTISM
Understanding the Concept
The tradition of human rights concepts is as old as human civilization. Every society has varying
norms to protect human life and dignity. Great religions 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 stratification of the society, such
a set of guarantees was necessary.
The Declaration of the Universal Human Rights by the United Nations Organization is a moral victory
of mankind as a whole 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 American Declaration of 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
and family are banned. Due process 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 make. At least, it has got to be accepted
a set of minimum moral standards required by all cultures.
Developing consciousness of rights is important 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.
SPE-VED: Good Manners and Right Conduct
Module 10: Lesson 3-A: Call for Filipino Patriotism
Lesson 3-B: Building Patriotic Community
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 has to 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 promises
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 up 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)
SPE-VED: Good Manners and Right Conduct
Module 10: Lesson 3-A: Call for Filipino Patriotism
Lesson 3-B: Building Patriotic Community
LESSON 3-B: BUILDING PATRIOTIC COMMUNITY
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 student’s 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 student’s civic attitudes. For this, first of all 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 have to 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
SPE-VED: Good Manners and Right Conduct
Module 10: Lesson 3-A: Call for Filipino Patriotism
Lesson 3-B: Building Patriotic Community
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 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.
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 has to 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 has to 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
SPE-VED: Good Manners and Right Conduct
Module 10: Lesson 3-A: Call for Filipino Patriotism
Lesson 3-B: Building Patriotic Community
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)