"Empowering Children With The Truth” – Anna Cristina Tuazon, Psychologist. “How About Empowering Children & Adults On How To Determine The Truth!?” – Frank A Hilario, Educator
Ms Anna Cristina is “a registered psychologist who topped the
2017 Psychologist Board Exam” (Inquirer.net).
She began writing her Inquirer column “Safe Space” on 07 July 2021.
Her topic this time is dear to me: Teaching. Seriously,
I began teaching myself creative thinking in 1975 with copywriter friend Orlino Ochosa’s gift of a copy of Edward De Bono’s amazing book Mechanism Of Mind (Penguin Books, London, 1969). In that book, De Bono
teaches the use of “Po” in generating “Possibilities” (my interpretation).
(“Teach Your Child” image from
Survival8, blogspot.com)
Now then, Ms Anna Cristina says that some things important
to teach are (my summary):
(1)
Martial
Law – “The most dangerous
absurdity of all, however, is the notion that any material that talks about
martial law is inherently antigovernment.”
(2)
Child
psychotherapy – “We can
definitely teach children to appreciate rules and limits, not for [their] own
sake but in how these rules and limits can benefit the child and others.”
(3)
“Space to say ‘No’” – “Disagreements should also be
allowed because then our children will feel safe enough to express their true
thoughts and feelings.”
(4)
“Teach them about the facts of life – as soon as possible.” “For sex education, experts say we
can provide age-appropriate education to kids as young as two years of age in
order for them to differentiate “good touch” from “bad touch.”
(5)
“Preschool-aged kids already have
the capacity to learn about racism, slavery, oppression, and other social injustices.”
Ms Anna Cristina
says:
National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA)
Director-General Alex Paul Monteagudo “accused
publisher Adarna House of ‘subtly
radicalizing’ Filipino children against the government (by) offering its ‘#NeverAgain’
book bundle. Instead of telling children about martial law, Monteagudo says
children should be “taught to recite the alphabet and pray to God.”
In response, Ms Anna Cristina says:
It is absurd to
suggest that children should be limited to learning the alphabet – if they
already have the ability to read children’s books, then obviously the time for
teaching the alphabet has passed. There is a similar absurdity in telling
children to instead pray to God, when the Bible is arguably a history book as
well (one that depicts long-standing oppression and suffering of a group of
people). The most dangerous absurdity of all, however, is the notion that any
material that talks about martial law is inherently antigovernment. If someone
else had won, would they have said the same thing? Or are they simply saying it
because a Marcos is returning to power?
Given
all that, Ms Anna Cristina’s 837-word Inquirer column (including author, title
& text) tells us to teach our children the truth – but not how to determine
the truth themselves! Instead, from De Bono, we should learn to teach how
to think, how to come up with other rich possibilities!@517
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