Parents are helpless on the mindset of their children. The lingering mindset of today’s generation is the indifferent attitude to family, to community and even to self.
Indifference to family is the forgetfulness of the simple tasks and obligation at home. Indifference to themselves is they do not even know how to wash their clothes and tend to small tasks. The attitude to the community is deficiency in knowing the basic society’s structure and courtesy, lack of protocol, and disrespect to the natural law and order.
Today’s generation has a distorted mindset and thinking on what is the natural order against the imaginary; practical and pragmatic thinking versus the theoretical or academic; and on what is real versus conceptual. In short, this generation is more reactive instead of proactive – a fruit of legislations dictated by emotions and extended imaginations.
For instance, the Anti-Violence against Women and their Children Act (VAWC) and its parallel laws is now a deterrent for parents to discipline their children and has strengthened the resolve of the children to rule over their parents. The anti-VAWC emanated from an isolated case and because of the emotion and passion of generational legislators, it was passed without looking into its repercussion to the mindset of the younger age bracket.
Another emotional legislation is the abolition of the Reserved Officer’s Training Corp (ROTC) due to isolated cases of maltreatment and changing it to community immersion.
The clamor to revive ROTC is the obvious need of some students to have disciplinary mechanism in forming leadership role in their youthful age. Instead of investigating the isolated case, the legislators used the case in emotionally abolishing a crucial curriculum of discipline. Legislators could have improved the law by injecting leadership, management, citizenry, and nationalism in the ROTC.
The family as the smallest unit of society and primary component of one’s aspiration and motivation are crucial in the child’s development. However, under the laws that reinvented the environment on child development, the parents’ role is only for procreation and the state’s role is for child formation.
Not also to discount the social legislations that is pending in the Senate on the reoffering of the Good Manners and Right Conduct authored by Sen. Ping Lacson and the newly certified priority bill on Malasakit Centers authored by Sen. Bong Go, legislators should use investigation in aid of well-founded, emotionally-inspired legislations. — MARTIN B. MANODON, Baguio City
October 2, 2023