Ethics

The eighth and last of the eight required subjects in the new General Education Curriculum (GEC) is “Ethics / Etika,” described as “Principles of ethical behavior in modern society at the level of the person, society, and in interaction with the environment and other shared resources / Mga simulain ng ugaling pang-etika sa makabagong lipunan sa antas na pantao at panlipunan at sa ugnayan ng mga ito sa kalikasan at sa ibang kolektibong yaman.”

No one will question that the crisis confronting our country and even the world today is ethics, or more precisely, the lack of it. If it takes a village to educate a single child, it took all of society – not just government – for billions of pesos paid by ordinary citizens to go to the pockets of a few unscrupulous individuals. When we talk of government officials or clerks accepting bribes, we should remember that somebody bribed them. It takes two to tango, and it takes two – in the case of the pork barrel scam, it took hundreds of people – to commit corruption.

Similarly, when the American president is faced with the question of whether to bomb a foreign country or not, the question should not be just political or military. The people that will be killed by those bombs are human beings, whether we like them or not. To murder a bad guy is as bad as to murder a good guy. “Thou shalt not kill” is an absolute commandment, not a relative one.

How can we change the mindsets of the current leaders of the country and of the world? It is much too late to educate them. We have no choice but to start with the future leaders of the country and of the world, and those future leaders are now studying in our colleges and universities. The GEC is geared towards preparing future leaders. We must ensure that our future leaders are ethical. That is the primary reason that ethics is now (as it has not been previously) required of all college students.

The Appendix to CMO 20, series of 2013, gives tips to teachers and students of the GE Ethics subject:

“The course introduces students to the ethical dimension of human existence at various levels – personal, societal, environmental, and cultural. What is ethics, how is it framed and practiced, and what is its value to society and the person are the major questions the course seeks to answer. The first part lays the groundwork – the meaning of ethics – and leads students through the analysis of human experience, linking it to elements of the ethical dimension. Part one of the course cumulates in the students’ ability to translate human experiences into ethical cases.

“The second part of the course takes students through the various classical ethical frameworks – utilitarianism, deontological ethics, virtue ethics, and natural ethics – providing them with the tools by which to articulate and analyze the ethical cases they constructed. These frameworks also embed sets of values that students will be asked to examine. This portion of the course culminates in the students’ ability to express their constructed ethical cases in the language and form of particular ethical frameworks.

“The last part guides students through the analysis and evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the various ethical frameworks and their value to human life and society. The end goal is for students to be able to make informed decisions on their constructed ethical cases.

“The course will require considerable reading, discussion and writing, as students learn about ethical frameworks, raise questions, reflect, comment upon, and evaluate the frameworks and ethical cases they construct in class.”

Note that no one particular ethical framework is preferred in this subject. The government has no business telling people what to believe or how to act, except in cases where the human rights of other people are at stake. Instead, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is leaving it up to each Higher Education Institution (HEI) to decide what framework would work best in the context of its mission and vision. For example, a Roman Catholic school clearly will want to have its students follow Roman Catholic principles not just of ethics, but of morality. It would be highly irregular for a Catholic school, for example, to force its students to use condoms – one reason the Catholic Church was so afraid of the RH bill.

In summary, the new GEC should produce graduates who will make the world a better place to live in for themselves and their descendants. It will be their world, after all, and they should now assume responsibility for it.

CONTRIBUTION TO PEACE: The Angel C. Palanca Peace Program (ACP3) celebrates its 15th anniversary in peace education and advocacy. Formerly based in Far Eastern University, the ACP3 will now be implemented by the Angel C. Palanca Peace Foundation.

The Foundation will be launched at Paco Park on October 1, according to Angelina P. José, daughter of the late industrialist educational administrator. Also to be launched will be two books, “Angel C. Palanca: Peace in His Time” and “Winning Peace, Book 2.”