A CALL FOR VALUES FORMATION

GINA M. GARCIA

In this modern era of technology, where social media and information overload is immense, it becomes difficult for the young generation to discern which would be important as they age. In this modern time where everything becomes available in a single click, people get confused and uncertain of what they really want and which will benefit them. They even tend to be careless on their actions and become impulsive. They are so eager to grab or grasp whatever they want, get curios to so many things and try to imitate what seems to be the trend without really considering its significance to their life. People tend to be attracted to superficial things resulting to different perceptions in life thus affecting our values. Though technology offers vast opportunity to enhance the learning process, it is important to take note the threats of the modern world to the future generations. Issues on ethics and values education arises due to the free access on information on the Internet. The moral fiber degenerates as violence, inappropriate scenes and immorality becomes ordinary occurrence in the society. The dilemma on ethics and values education becomes more evident as society changes which lead to the questioning of what is morally right and wrong.

As a teacher, a great responsibility is entrusted to us for this matter. Like that of the parents, it is our duty to mold and nourish our students while they are in school. We must produce globally competitive learners ready to face life’s challenges and meet the demands of the 21st Century. However, given such great responsibility, values formation is oftentimes disregarded or less prioritized as compared to skills and competency development. Most of the time, the focus of the learning process is the acquisition of knowledge and not the development of characters of the students. Hence, we observe learners having difficulty coping up with their learning tasks and completing the requirements for their academics.

On this regard, educators, in general, hold a big responsibility in molding and nurturing the future generations. With the given condition and demands of the society, teachers must be competent and creative in performing his/ her duties to be able produce globally competitive individual yet with high set of values. We have to be creative to device ways on how we can develop and instill the necessary values in life and not just focus on the learning competencies that must be acquired by the students.

— oOo—

The author is Teacher I at Sucad National High School