A Teacher’s Call

Is there hope for the future, if the youth is dying? Not physically but intellectually and morally.

There is a crime that we continually ignore. The majority of casualties are young ones. This is epidemic heed that should be treated immediately. If not, education would be useless because the majority of the students nowadays turn their back off about what is true and embrace fabricated facts available online.

They are more likely to believe in trolls than professionals. They have high regard for individuals who are peddlers of misinformation and disinformation. Their physical body is not dying, but their mind is slowly falling off from lies. No one else came to rescue them because the majority of us wanted to play safe.

The catch? The youth today think that they already know everything and disregard crimes of the past committed by the personalities that they are supporting.

It will be proven when you go online. I even encountered being ridiculed and called “bobo” implicitly when I corrected their wrong beliefs about Martial Law. The sad thing is some of them are my students. I tried to educate them but, in the end, they kept on insulting me indirectly by sharing more fake news about their stance on Martial Law.

Some of them are aggressive to stand with their belief that during Marcos’ regime was the “golden years of the Philippines” and there were no crimes that Marcoses committed against the government. Although the archives and history tell them otherwise, they even accused me that my presented sources are not valid during our argument. Yet, I obtained it in published books and materials available online in Martial Law Museum and other sites like Vera files.

Some of the youth today even blamed the media and historians. That history has been twisted to favor some of the people. They even mocked professionals who have explained and presented reliable facts. When you do not agree and try to educate them, they always line you will receive – “Just respect our opinion and beliefs” and “it is okay to be kind than to be right.”

It just saddened me how students are being manipulated in the online world. The disinformation and misinformation are so rampant and yet many of us are so silent to correct these students’ beliefs and save them about historical revisionism that favored those who are in power. There is already a call about it, but the action has been too slow and like the response to COVID-19 millions are already contaminated by the virus spreading by paid trolls.

With this, youth are in danger. The educational system in our country has become weaker because of the wrong information that the online world is feeding to the young ones’ minds. The highly preferred to be educated by paid trolls rather than to believe with their teachers or other professionals. They do not engage themselves in healthy discourse and they will end up disrespecting you and saying that the media and historians manipulated the facts. They do not want to be corrected despite the reliable information you are feeding them.

But I think some professionals are infected too with the virus of misinformation and disinformation. There are educators who even supported misinformation and disinformation about Martial Laws despite reliable resources being presented to them. They do not even think of how the generation today has been greatly affected by one of the gruesome parts of Philippines history. As long as they are on the safe side, there are no problems if injustices are persisted and the perpetrators of crimes against humanity are not convicted. In fact, they always rebut if the historical claims are true why those people are not in prison?

I am tired of throwing arguments online but I think as a teacher one must correct the wrong information that your students are sharing. There were times that I questioned myself if it was worth it, but through the encouragement of some of my friends who have seen how I fought ignorance online, I felt this is a calling nowadays to save youth from lies. I might not be too intelligent but I know I am on the right side of history. Like some professionals who have experienced being bullied, mocked, and ridiculed online for standing for what is truth and moral, I will join forces with them to save the young ones who will be the future of our nation.

If no one will try to save the youth from this kind of intellectual crisis, who will hold the future? Should we allow those people who always rob the country and thus let the marginalized suffer while the greatest criminals enjoy a luxurious life?

A little knowledge may be dangerous but that little knowledge if it will be used with a social conscience and on the right side of history, will spark hope and the greatest tool to fight ignorance.

Is there hope for the future, if the youth is dying? Yes, because the youth will never die intellectually, and I believe that there are educators out there who will answer a teacher’s call to help fight this kind of intellectual crisis.