Easy. First write a textbook using the curriculum guide. But the
first ones to produce such textbook, which should serve as a model for
writing values ed textbooks, are the people (i.e., the consultants) who
constructed the questioned curriculum themselves. Such book shall not be
sold for profit, of course. It's just a model textbook, granting that
one could be made from the current form of the Gabay sa EsP, that the
government should distribute for free to all those who wish to write a
textbook in EsP. This is to prove that the makers of the Gabay
themselves know exactly what they had written in the Gabay, that they
could indeed write a decent textbook out of it. This is a fair and
necessary test so that the public, especially the major stakeholders in
education, could tell if the curriculum in question was not slovenly
done, i.e., that its makers indeed know exactly what they had created,
its logic including. If the makers of the Gabay themselves could not
prove that they can write a decent book from their own guide, the public
should readily take that as a sign that the curriculum is nothing but a
bunch of beautiful-sounding words in the wind.
Already I have heard a number of
intelligent UP professors, who are also parents of elementary
schoolchildren, complaining that the proposed contents of Edukasyon sa
Pagpapakatao (in Jan. 2013 draft) are a mere list of unexamined and
haphazardly selected "virtues." I agree it's "unexamined" because the
Gabay offers no clear and precise, much less logical, definitions of key
concepts in and proposed contents of the EsP. I likewise agree that the
proposed contents are "haphazardly selected" virtues because the Gabay
has no clear criteria for the selection of proposed values to be taught
at various levels of schooling. Again, what, for instance, makes those who crafted the Gabay think and say that "konsensiya" (conscience) should be taught
from K-3 and not at the other levels of EsP? No answer. Because no
criteria for the selection of such value could be found in the Gabay.
The same could be said about the other proposed contents of EsP. Hence, I
and the other parent professors are wondering how on earth did the
makers of the Gabay decide what to teach at various levels of EsP. Try
reading the Gabay yourself here: http://www.depedbataan.com/resources/11/k_to12_-_gabay_pangkurikulum_sa_edukasyon_sa_pagpapakatao_baitang_1-10.pdf. Then try, in your mind, writing a book from
this curriculum. And you'll most likely see what I mean. Since I could not think of
a good textbook out of this problematic guide, I think it's just but right for
me--and perhaps the other parents and other stakeholders, too--to make
the same demand, i.e., require the makers of the Gabay to be the first
ones to write the first textbook themselves. Don't you think that this should be part of the deal?
Whenever an educationist is consulted to fix a curriculum, as a rule and
matter of fulfilling one's academic duty, he/she should join his/her
fellow consultants in proving that a good textbook could be
written out of his/her and other fellow consultants' creation. To do
that , they should write the first textbook from their own guide
themselves.
Since I cannot write a decent textbook out of the existing
questioned curriculum, I'll just give an outline of what I believe to be
a logically tenable textbook in Values Education. Soon.
