VALUES INTEGRATION IN ALL THE LEARNING AREAS

News headlines in the newspaper, television, radio or internet picture the historic and significant events happening in one’s nation. Moreover, such headlines reflect the general condition in varied aspects of a country in terms of economic, social, political, spiritual and cultural. As we read the newspaper headlines today, crime everywhere is rampant and seemed to be the norms of our Filipino Society. Have you ever asked yourself, how come our society has degenerated to such level?

According to records, the “honesty” of the Filipinos was tested and proven during the period of barter trade. It is a fact that the pre-Spanish Filipinos were among the “honest people” in Asia. However, today, issues about immorality, violence, graft and corruption are just few of the problems our country faces. In my point of view, the best cure for all of these is “extensive values education”. For all we know, a nation’s progress and success depend on the values of the individual members.

Values as defined are the universal truths which man considers good and important. They may be positive or negative in nature. They make a person pleasant or disastrous. Values may also be concrete or nonmaterial. Of the two, nonmaterial values lasts more than the concrete ones. Values integration is a channel of values development through the teaching-learning activities in the different learning areas. As educators, we need first to single out the concepts to be developed in the lesson then, unfold the values integral in the subject. It’s simply leading the learners to see a personal meaning in whatever the teacher teaches.

— oOo— The author is Teacher III at San Jose Panlumacan Integrated School