(Toward a Framework to the Sociology of the Filipino Youth)
Institute of Youth Studies Position Paper on Youth Studies
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Albert Banico, 2005, mla
Youth Studies is not a new idea in the Philippines.
It was conceived long ago without mentioning formally the name of the discipline. The physical evidence of this claim is the mountain of research, studies, facts, books, papers, outputs, blue prints, programs, history and struggle on the Filipino youth.
If we accept it sincerely, youth studies in the Philippines is rooted to our national history since the beginning of the first student reform movement was led by the first generation of the Propaganda movement entrenched in our Spanish controlled schools and colleges and influenced by the secularization movement of Father Burgos in 1770’s and up to the formation of our first republic in 1898.
Who can challenge the commitment and sacrificing generation of the youngest recorded officer of the Katipunan in the person of Emilio Jacinto and the “Boy” General Gregorio Del Pilar whose courage and heroism for the country are both unquestioned?
The only difference today is that we put a new name to that same interest on the Filipino youth by giving new institutional angle and of course an academic twist.
Youth Studies and RelevanceWhat is the value of any research without any bearing, importance or significance?
In any research, the significance of the study is always asked and put as a foremost priority before accepting the paper. These parameters determine the implication of the research to the larger society. However there are research because of novelty and “newness” to our ears and eyes, and because of that we entertain it as well as it entertain us.
This is not wrong in the spirit of academic freedom but on the other hand, the relevance not the just the significance of any study must be considered specially if we are talking about “government funds” in a time of “government tight spending” and is particularly directed towards a particular program. A P10, 000 can be an equivalent amount that can feed at least 65 poor and malnourished street children or juvenile delinquent for one day. An amount that can finance a better program that can be a sustainable initiative more than any other paper out puts.
It is in this line that we must put distinction between research for entertainment and real studies for the betterment of our society particularly the youth sector.
An Obligation for AllNo person can separate him or herself to his or her beliefs and experience.
Any person is shape by his or her belief and experience. The more we expand our social experience for the benefit and the upliftment of the dignity others, the more we become involve to the lives of other significant or generalized others and as we move on from one experience to another, we expand our beliefs that we carry anywhere, anytime or whatever task we have in life. That is why value free thing in sociological research is an ultimate lie. It may sound as subversive to the principles of objectivity however, as advocates of progressive social change we must put the core values of service, truth and humility.
Youth Studies must not just be timely, but relevant to the need of the times.
Youth Studies for a Better SocietyRecently, a screening committee for the candidates of the 5th National Youth Parliament at the National Youth Commission was held and the author was one of the panel member who asked the a question if what is the fundamental problem of the youth today to the candidates. The National Youth Parliament was the highest recommending body for the youth in the Philippines today and was a product of the Republic Act 8044 or the “Youth in Nation Building Act.”
The 10 candidates from the National Capital Region and the representatives of the marginalized sub-sectors of the youth pointed out the following as the main problems of the youth today;
Discrimination
Poverty
Education
Money
Fiscal crisis
Family
Self-centeredness
Health
Drugs
Low quality of life
One interviewee even mentioned that drugs as a severe problems in the country today seems very difficult because even if that there are regular news headlines about raids, discovered and captured big drug factories here and there and somewhere else but still in every localities or corner of the streets in the urban centers have drug users and pushers in the neighborhood. This kind of insight should be put into test so that social scientist can validate what is being reported in the news by mass media, by the government and what is visibly seen and experienced by young people or the general public as a whole.
If we will observed, most of the youth research in recent years often discussed the topics of reproductive health, sex, homosexuality, sexuality, gender, sex behavior, texting, sexting and other related topics that are being magnified and amplified by mass media.
In relation with this we can find a few end goals and after effect for the academe, mass media, general public, interest groups, lobby groups, private and public agencies;
To entertain us – the mentioned issues seemed entertaining for willing audience especially the latest sex behavior and drug stimulant among the young.
To influence or generate sympathy – lobby groups and interest groups are supporting these studies to generate constituencies for their cause of expanding the feminity among the males and for those who are in hiding to come up in the open than to resolve their personal confusion among themselves.
To get attention or constituency – the more forum for this topics the more constituency they can have not necessarily to understand but gain recognition that there is a phenomena such as the difference between the bi-sexual and the homosexuals/. That bi-sexual are separate entities and not totally gays. Straight gays will clearly say that this is a defense mechanism that they just can’t accept that they are totally gays and in a way this issues are entertaining for others.
To gain prestige – A professional and honorable researcher can mentioned that she is happy when her paper research is printed and accepted by her peers because it adds “prestige” to their institution and a validation from the people. Research that is not necessarily help for betterment of our lives, mindsets, behavior, quality of life and socialization but just to gain prestige. A research to get attention by organizing constituencies for our interests, sympathy and at the end to entertain our readers and ourselves especially the young.
Young people today have enough entertainment and perhaps so much of it that they less think and reflect among themselves to question the validity of their convictions and accepted perceptions of their social realities.
According to Epitacio Palispis, Vice President for Academic Affairs of the Asia Social Institute in (ASI) Manila, the Education Committee (EDCOM) spearheaded by the 10th Congress found out that in the last 50 years after World War II there are volumes of research pertaining the students which we never used.
This trend seems a prevailing culture in conducting research for research sake or for funding purposes and not to serve humanity specifically our countrymen particularly the youth.
Understanding the Filipino Youth
The Filipino youth according the Medium Term Development of 2000 constitute the 60% of our total population and increasing every year. This is significantly increasing in our young population of more than 82 Million according to the National Statistics Office (NSO).
Nobel Prize Winner and Mathematician John Nash said that numbers, logic, equation and reason ruled his interest. Applied and Scientific Social Research was even concerned with these variables. Yet, unlike Nash, he questioned the deeper meaning of logic and the questioned that who decide reason. And without talking the factors of numbers on the issue of who belong to the category of youth, we can only serve the youth well by understanding them from their own perspectives significantly their world view, mindsets and visions about the present, the past and their future not mentioning their individual and collective aspirations.
On the Filipino Youth?The National Youth Commission recently embark whom they said as an ambitious program of gathering youth research studies confronting the youth sector. The studies according to the NYC will be collated from the academe, government institutions, college and graduate students, youth organizations and people’s organization located in all regions, provinces and cities in the country on the issue of Employment, Education, Health, Values, Youth Participation and Youth with Special Needs.
The NYC was created by the RA 8044 as an expression of the youth empowerment institutionalization in the Philippines. It aims to involve the Filipino youth in a different form of adventure, which is in nation building. The youth nation building mechanism or youth empowerment vehicles in the country includes the Sangguniang Kabataan created in 1987 from a National Youth Consultation in Mariang Makiling, Laguna to end the Kabataang Barangay of the late President Ferdinand Marcos. This consultation produced three major proposals, which include the creation of the SK, the NYC and the National Youth Assembly in the expression of the National Youth Parliament.
Looking from the said proposals, it can be said that all of the three are tested and what is needed is to re-assess and evaluate the performance of the three youth representations in the country since all of them represent the empowerment institutionalization in the country today.
Several papers from Christopher N. Magno, Florante Gonzales, the College Editors Guild of the Philippines and Clarence M. Batan calls for re-thinking, reform or even radically reconstruct the current youth empowerment project in the Philippines.
The papers especially from Batan (2003) “Agenda for Youth Research in the Philippines, CEGP (1996) “SK and elite politics, Magno (2003) Wakas ng SK and others significantly consider the age in the political socialization of the youth and the corruption of the young people in the process of socialization in the said representation in our government institutions especially the paper of Magno and the CEGP.
It is significant to look into consideration the evaluation of the Youth Empowerment in the Philippines if it is really the expression and sentiments of the current generation or there is a need to change or abolish for example the Sangguniang Kabataan as what Magno said in his paper.
Liberating the Youth from their Adult SentimentsDr. Jose Rizal more than a century said that the youth is the fair hope of the Mother land. Philosophically speaking Rizal is rationalizing the natural necessity of a any society to put hope among the young especially if the rest of the adult generations are hopelessly corrupted by their own doing.
However, philosophically also the youth also are wasted in their young especially if they lack guidance among the peers and between good adult and elders in their formative years and environment. Idealism therefore is not the monopoly of the youth especially if they don’t have good role models.
In case of identifying the real identity of youth which is an obvious problem in determining the framework and starting point of any research and studies for the youth. Samuel Ulman said that the youth is a state of mind, which means that the elderly can also be considered as youth not in physical qualities but in emotional qualities and quantities.
Philosophically, this claim by Ulman can be a good consideration given by the fact that this idea established emotional solidarity among young and old alike. Giving the older ones to intervened on the aspirations of the young. Politically, the implications of this is that older generation can affect and influence to the leadership, goals and nature of organizations that young people want to effect or realized. This may lead to negative or positive effect among young people because the elders or adult than is leading them by determining their own way of right action or their own aspiration.
On the lighter side this philosophical input of Ulman can also promote a genuine inter-generational cooperation among generations. But this not mean that older people will exercise power or coerce younger generation to direct their aspiration from the context of their ideas of the older ones. In this premise the genuine biological and psychological characteristics and qualities of the youth must stand alone in the process of defining their own convictions, dreams and aspirations as long as it is not detrimental or coercive too to the other generations particularly in the Philippine setting.
From this framework of understanding we can generate options to produce more research papers and studies for the youth.
Power and MovementsIn liberating the youth from the oppression of the older ones and from any other generational myths and delusions, we must also considered the movements of the youth today and the way they inter-act, cooperate and antogonised each other if there is?
The future youth studies must deepen the understanding how powerful really are the young today and who decide and determine their aspirations? Are they really intelligent compared to the older ones? Are they really more dumb than the more intelligent generations of the past and Are we really want to empower the youth or we are just using the idea of empowerment while corrupting and controlling the mindset and behavior of the Filipino youth?
The answer can be find from a sincere research that understand the youth and not just want to delude the public and entertain the young. And Youth Empowerment building and institutionalization that aims not just to generate the sentiments and pulse of the young but produce and generation that think, read and act for the welfare not only of themselves but for the common good.
Quo Vadis Kikay Generation?
Several years ago, children in the streets will dance and play as if this children’s play are part of the innocence of the child’s play. At the same time, not so long ago, nursery rhymes were the one being sung by these children in the school together with folk and songs from our provinces. Songs that expresses the lullaby from a mother to a dear loving child.
Decades ago, young people chant in unison as if they are praying and saying a sacred mantra from a Marxist perspective of the world such as learning from the masses and serving the people. In our time, children and youth dance, sing and behave in the tune of the same songs that we only hear during a child’s play. The only difference is that it is being danced and sings in our mass media with half-naked dancers chanting and moving in an erotic fashion.
Children and teens continue to sing and dance with lesser critical thinking from what there hear, sing and dance. For the young, life is a song and a venue to be entertained in a daily life of personal struggle, family problems, confusion and emotional misery.
Dr. Joel Rocamora of the Institute of Politics and Governance once said that one day the youth would find their place under the sun. Let us hope that this place under the sun is not an environment where dignity and self-respect are disregarded in exchange of their survival. If young people today love to dance like Kikay (playful and flirt full) is because of the reason that they don’t find anything wrong about it even if the dancers and singers of this musical song wears revealing dresses in a morning news and public affairs or in a noon time show where parental guidance is a must.
This phenomenon reflects the innocence of our dear young people on the implications of whatever choices they make. It sounds negative, but it is also positive on the other side because this innocence if we can only re-channel by producing more youthful and youth-friendly socialization can re-charge our own idealism and the imagination of the young for a good and sustainable future through a youth research and studies as a framework.
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