"Empowering Children With The Truth” – Anna Cristina Tuazon, Psychologist. “How About Empowering Children & Adults On How To Determine The Truth!?” – Frank A Hilario, Educator

Inquirer columnist Anna Cristina Tuazon is “Teaching What’s Important” (19 May 2022, inquirer.net). As a teacher, Professional level, I am looking at “Teaching What’s Most Important.”

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 howto think, how to come up with other rich possibilities!@517