Duterte asked to be role model, for a change

The inculcation of values in the hearts and minds of young Filipinos is one of the primary aims of education, at all levels—be it pre-school, elementary, secondary or collegiate. That is one reason why Values Education is integrated in all subject areas of the school curriculum.

One effective way teachers, tutors, instructors and professors inculcate values in their students is by finding role models of fine virtues and discussing their contributions to the moral well-being of pupils and students. That’s one primordial reason why the country’s national heroes and leaders are extolled in classrooms as teachers teach their young charges character/values education, also referred to as “Good Manners and Right Conduct” or “GMRC.”

The country’s presidents are usually portrayed as exemplars of decency and courtesy—and as exponents of polite and refined language. It is sad that, generally speaking, teachers cannot find the incumbent President Duterte as such. Known for profane and vulgar utterances, especially his cursing and vulgar jokes, good-mannered people find it difficult to consider the country’s chief executive an appropriate and worthy example of a good national leader, whose language should be refined and polite.

Add to this his ungentlemanly penchant for demeaning women. He minces no words in attacking them. He uses gutter language in degrading them in the eyes of the people. And worst, he threatens them in utter disregard of fair play and statesmanship.

Sadder still, almost all the outspoken individuals and organizations that were usually critical of sitting presidents are now shying away and seemingly afraid to take the President to task for his unbecoming, ungentlemanly and vulgar manners. The silence of these so-called activists is deafening, to say the least.

Now that the nation observes National Teachers Month (Sept. 5 to Oct. 5), it is high time we reminded the incumbent President to act and behave in a presidential manner and be a good example for our pupils and students to emulate, thereby helping the teachers perform their roles as molders of characters. Let this observance be the starting point for the foremost chief executive of the land to act honorably and serve as a role model for good manners and right behavior.

Is this asking too much from a ruler who promised change? Change for the better, of course.

—EUSEBIO S. SAN DIEGO, founder, Kaguro and former president, QCPSTA, essandiego@ymail.com