It begins with the culture of respect. The absence of it destroys the moral fabric of any institution. Leaders must not act from the vantage point of their pedestal. Who we are and what becomes of our society should be grounded in how we truly value people. What ails society is that those at the top of the hierarchy love to throw their weight around. The problem is the elitist mindset that subordinates others to a kind of thinking that makes one cling into a false sense of superiority.
Fr. Jose Conrado Estafia wrote a beautiful book on empathy. According to him, following the work the Edith Stein, empathy is not just about compassion. Empathy opens the subject to the world of the other. It is an intersubjective experience. In schools, we need to pay attention to our students and not just focus on rankings, periodic assessments by accrediting entities, and abstruse curriculum policies. It is not enough that we understand the way they think. We have to live in the same consciousness that our students have been put into in the world which is not their own making.
History may be a factor in the elitist culture of some schools in which our youth are being thrown into. The friars during the colonial period can possibly be considered as the first real bullies in our society. They were Rizal’s number one enemy, says Leon Ma. Guerrero’s biography of the national hero, The First Filipino. Nothing has changed much in our society. The powerful still rule like little gods and overlords. Our schools have become a microcosm of a society that has failed in its moral responsibility.
Students see their teachers as role models. But if teachers themselves are put in an environment where prejudice exists, including that ugly sense of favoritism, the same will become victims of exclusion. You cannot expect education to be an integral part in the reform of society. Education is not simply meant to be a producer of skilled workers. Such a function, which is designed by a globalized economy, is nothing but secondary. The main purpose of education is to make us better human beings.
What does it mean to be truly, and fully human? The task ahead, I believe, is that forming the character of persons involves developing human beings who are conscious of their country’s history, proud of their cultural identity, and aware of their political and social responsibilities. To this end, the teacher knows that educating the youth is more than just the transfer of knowledge. It is rooted in the basic respect for the moral worth of each and every individual as a human person.
But the important question remains unanswered. Whose responsibility is the young human being who has become a victim of a world that is wanting in love? The real culprits cannot be expected to admit their moral accountability. Why? It is because people do not see the pain and suffering of the innocent other. Society often alienates the orphan, the street child, and the bullied during her most difficult moments. People hear nothing of her cries when she feels weak. We are all guilty because we actually lack the real love for humanity.
Indeed, in moments that call for moral bravery and wisdom, the silence is sometimes deafening. Human values, these are what a society is supposed to be built on. This, I believe, is something that most of us already know. But there are learned and mature people who only care about themselves. The most intelligent among us are content to sit on their laurels. Some of us simply want to hide because of we lack the courage to speak. I pray these interesting times add no more to the suffering of the innocent and powerless because, rightly or wrongly, we are all complicit to a crime.
