DUE PROCESS IN THE CLASSROOM

ELEN M. DECENA

Often times, we teachers give students wrong notions about many things. These erroneous concepts or mistaken understanding of basic things in life soon turn out to be problematic as they continue to plague our schoolchildren’s l i ves.

Take the ordinary concept of due process. While due process may sound like legal gobbledygook for children to understand at their tender age, there are more subtle ways of making them comprehend what it is, and hopefully infect them with its values.

Due process basically means the right to be heard before some action is taken. It is actually affording a person some opportunity to explain himself before anything else.

The concept has not been quite introduced in our school system. Having been used to a system where the teacher is the “know all” and “be all” of the classroom; many of us are not used to the concept of being heard. The overbearing attitude of teachers of old has not helped either. In a time when corporal punishment and verbal abuse was permissible, there simply was no room for introducing the concept of due process.

Many times in the past, teachers of the old school did not allow students to explain themselves for any misdeed they were suspected with. Defending one’s self or explaining how the whole thing turned out was never countenanced by the old teachers; it was considered nothing, but impolite or discourteous. The poor student had to keep his piece even if he knew what he was about to say would make a great difference In his teacher’s impression of him. But he simply had to keep mum. He can’t speak until told to; he has not right to be heard. And indeed, the culture of silence ingrained by the old system has made many students feel helpless about it. So that when they themselves grew up and went on with their own lives they didn’t have a good grasp of what clue process is.

Human rights violations are rife in the Philippines perhaps because we have not attempted to inculcate due process in the minds of our young citizens. It is also possible that many of us grew up in a system which did not value the importance of human dignity and respect for human rights, among them the right to be heard.

If our society needs a better crop of citizens who uphold the rule of law at all times, we need to start our students young. In order to instill the concept of due process on our children, we should give them every opportunity to explain themselves and assert their rights be it at home or at school.

— oOo— The author is Teacher III Cacutud Elementary School, Arayat West District