There is once an island with
people not only blessed with natural resources but also with rich and
progressive culture and society. High-ranked people are those who lead their
fellow by setting up norms or cultural standards followed by everyone, yet all
of them benefit from their system equally. The whole society learns how to use
their resources properly and efficiently, resulting in a prosperous lifestyle.
Everyone is doing their role in the community. And so the society functions
well enough for the people in this island to enjoy their free-living all the
times. They have the right formula: rich natural resources + rich culture and
society (with responsible people and equal leaders) = just and prosperous
system beneficial to everyone.
But none of them have an idea
that there are eyes watching them from afar. These are businessmen from the
mainland who know how progressive that island is, and thus making them very
interested in investing there. It didn’t take too long before they visit the
island and introduced their “gifts” for the people. They brought with them the
finest and latest technological advancements that the people believed would
extremely help in making their lives not only better, but also easier. The
people accepted it, forgetting about the life they had before the coming of
these technologies. The businessmen,
seeing that the people of the island like what they brought, sell those things
in a high price.
And so every other day,
businessmen return to the island with new products. The people keep on taking
on all these things until they came to the point where they’ve lost their
identity. It is too late when they learned their living has not really come to
a better point, but in the other way around. Their society was destroyed, with
selfish and greedy people on top of it. They’re no more equal. Businessmen became
wealthier and poor people became poorer. Their rich resources were exploited.
Their culture was poisoned. And everyone in the island can’t do anything to
heal this cancer of society that they are suffering. They’re now slaves in
their very own home.
We, the Filipino people, are like
the residents of that island in the story. We live in the world of extreme
materialism not knowing its side effects on us. We don’t want to work hard
(properly, traditionally) nowadays. Instead, we keep on insisting that we need
an “easier way” for us to finish our tasks. There’s nothing wrong about it.
Except the fact that because of our hunger to find the short cuts in life we
actually walk on a path short cut to death.
The Role of Human and Social Sciences in Education (Relevance,
Significance)
It’s too late when we realize
that we’ve lost our own identity.
Human and Social Sciences both
portray as our “mirror” in the community. How could we understand advancements
and new discoveries if we, in ourselves, couldn’t discover our true nature? These
sciences show us the 5W’s and 1H of our life. When we want to look good
physically, we usually look on the mirror and fix things, right? It is just the
same as knowing these sciences. History and cultural background are very much
relevant in building our nation. If we want to fix things, we must first look
on ourselves, our identity.
Teaching students the scientific
and technological advancements more than the Human and Social sciences is like
instructing people the dance steps without hearing first the music. We should
understand fully how the basics work before going to the complex parts. Human
and Social sciences are the building blocks of the society. If we hoped for a
better one then we strengthen our fundamentals. Technology is good, but putting
it into priority and setting aside our rich culture and social uprightness is
as sweet as hell. Don’t let those greedy businessmen take control of our
nation.
That’s why our students need to
study Human and Social sciences. Not only that it reflects who we are and how
we work, but will also lead us to our future.
The society is a larger scale of
a human person. All parts of it shall function well, starting from the very
individuals in ourselves. Look at our current environment. Is this the
prosperity that we want for our life?
We are human. So be human.
(Originally an essay as a part of the requirements in my subject, Ethics. Edited version)
