Values as taught and caught December 8,9,10 and 11, 2009

For some teachers, teaching values seems effortless. All they have to do is to teach children the good manners and right conducts. That’s all. The task is done. But that would be for traditional teacher.

Nowadays, in the new paradigm of teaching, character education is not merely a subject to be taught in a particular time of the day; but it is being integrated in all the subjects. This is the reason why we always include values integration in our instructional preparation. It means that all of the time, the teacher should teach children good values as a person and as a part of the community.

In my straight teaching, the lesson on values education was centered in one concept, ‘How do I respect the authority?’

In my first day, I introduced to them the history of how people gave their respect to others in the form of chants activity. I showed them how our ancestors, Spanish people, American, Japanese and other people who came to our country and introduced their ways of respecting others.

It was quite wonderful since we were just playing a 1, 2,3... Bow, 1, 2, 3…and so on; yet it was already the lesson. They were able to know that our ancestors knelt and bow to show respect to their leaders or Gods. Through the chant ‘Spanish Style’, they were able to know that the Spaniards introduced to us the new way which is kissing the hand of the person. They were few of those chants which I had conceptualized just for them to easily grasp the meaning of respect.

As I have noticed that they only greet those teachers who came to the classroom. This time around, I told them to say ‘Good morning’ or ‘Good afternoon’ to their classmates who came late.

The following day, they were already greeting anybody who came to the classroom even the late comers. They easily learn what I have taught. It was also one way for the late comers not to be late again.

I focused the second day on using different expression in an appropriate situation like saying ‘Excuse me’ when passing between people talking to each other, and so on. Even though I was not so good in drawing human being I tried to since they really love to see pictures. It helped them learn more.

Since the main topic was on how to respect the authority, I let them know the names of those school authorities like the President, Principal, Librarian, Security Officers, etc. One way to respect them is to know them. In this case, after the class, they spent time jotting down the names of those school authorities. The next day was the follow up discussion.

The main lesson was actually respecting the authority by greeting them. Since the topic must be taught for the whole week, I decided to use other teaching strategies, instead of repeating the lesson every day.

It is true that once we taught children the good values, they will quite learn. But it is more accurate that once we take initiative to show what good values are, they will surely imitate us. Teaching values is not just teaching what good values are, it is teaching children how to use those ideas in their daily lives.