The Current State of Patriotism in Today’s Youth
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The Current State of Patriotism in Today’s Youth
Patriotism, as defined by Merriam Webster, is the love that people feel for their country. The sense dfjsdf blah blah (insert more bg stuff around here)
The current state of patriotism of the youth today is sadly in a negative note. The youth lacks the patriotism the previous generation has. Filipinos have lost that sense of nationhood particularly the youth. Before, Filipinos would be glad to die for their motherland. However when asked with that question now, they would laugh at the mere suggestion of dying for their country (studymoose.com, 2014).
The youth’s eagerness to serve the country has slowly dwindled. An indicating factor of this is their reaction to the mandatory ROTC training for senior high school students. The ROTC program is a comprehensive program in which senior high school students will be trained in a military set-up. “Under HB 5113, Abu seeks to amend Republic Act (RA) No. 7077 or the ‘Citizen Armed Forces of the Philippines Reservist Act’ to motivate, train, organize and tap the students for country’s national defense preparedness or civil-military operations.” (Luci, 2017).
According as well to Speaker Raneo Abu (2017) “If implemented efficiently, it would have the potential to produce an entire generation of young Filipinos who will be proud of their Filipino heritage and are ready to give the entirety of their being to serve their countrymen, to defend the State at all cost,” The ROTC programs aims to develop a sense of pride for one’s country and also deepen the love a citizen has for it. This program has nothing but good intentions, however there are a lot of backlash from the public. There are a number of people who thinks this program would not benefit the youth at all. “The unpopularity of bringing back mandatory ROTC remains significant as students, parents, and school officials are highly convinced that it is not only through that program wherein the youth can be instilled ‘discipline’ and ‘good citizenship,” (Castro, 2016). Even Vencer Crisostomo (2016) has said that “ROTC should be abolished, not made mandatory. The program has never instilled nationalism, social responsibility, or discipline. It is a training ground for fascist repression and corruption,”
The lack of patriotism stems from the lack of knowledge about the significance of the nationalism and patriotism to the country (Santiago, n.d). The lack of awareness of these things and inspiration are contributing factors on why the youth is less patriotic than before. Our very own heroes are perpetrators of patriotism (Mangosing, 2014). However, general education in history only touches a handful of battles that showcases patriotism of our ancestors. Students do not know the Battle of Kiangan where Filipinos and Americans fought the last stronghold of the Japanese and was victorious (Carolina 2014).