YOUNG FILIPINOS today should not be faulted if their grounding in Philippine history is below par. Particular concern has been raised about the millennials’ almost total ignorance of martial law and its consequences as well as the significance of the Edsa People Power upheaval.
Mutilated under two colonial powers, Philippine history was stripped of what were true and beautiful about our past. Much of what remains in government-authorized textbooks today are expurgated versions written by authors of different persuasions.
Nonetheless, despite their shortcomings and limitations, these books still contain the basic facts a student of history should know. They serve as the umbilical cords that connect him to his historical moorings.
However, history teachers have noted in the last three decades the continued shaving of truth from written accounts of important events or their omission (intended or otherwise) in historical narratives. This is unfortunate considering that our country has long been independent.
In other countries, government considers safeguarding the content and printing of textbooks used in schools an exclusive function of the state. This is to avoid the possible intellectual and cultural alienation of its young citizens. It appears, however, that today, this function has been relegated to entities that fund the costs of printing these books. This explains why every time old books are reprinted, some portions are lost and references considered offensive to the funders are tempered or eliminated.
The coup de grâce against Philippine history, in my view, occurred when it was abolished as a separate subject from the school curricula and, in diluted form, integrated into what is now called Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies). Even in college, where history was a required subject in the first or second year, it has been reduced to an elective, causing loss of subjects to history instructors. The Rizal courses and its related readings like “Noli Me Tangere” and “El Filibusterismo” have also been abolished.
It is therefore not surprising that some viewers of the movie “Heneral Luna” wondered why Apolinario Mabini, “The Sublime Paralytic” and the brains behind the five-year Filipino-American war, was seated throughout the movie. If Rizal now is just a park and Edsa (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue) a traffic-cursed thoroughfare, what more can be said about our educational priorities?
It is worth noting, though, that many private sector groups and nongovernment organizations have embarked on projects designed to improve reading and other skills using modern methods and technologies. But while the educational system must evolve from time to time to keep in step with new trends and to respond to the practical demands of economic survival, the core values that make citizens proud of their heritage and elevate their sense of nation must be preserved.
Like the Americans who focused on the Filipino mind when they brought in their phalanx of Thomasians, the present generation must and can revive truth in history by using new media facilities and technologies and thus correct historical wrongs and inspire new beginnings in Philippine society.
—EVA MAGGAY-INCIONG, 15th Avenue, Cubao, Quezon City