Republic of the Philippines

ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY

LESSON 4: SIGNIFICANCE OF PHILIPPINE

LESSON OVERVIEW

This lesson presents the different perspectives of students about Philippine history and
government as a subject. It also includes a brief discussion on significance or relevance of the
inclusion of history and government in the curriculum of Philippine basic education. This will help
you, as a future teacher, examine how important it is to innovate your teaching and deviate from
the rudimentary and traditional way teaching social studies as well as how to inculcate to your
future students the real essence of learning Philippine History and Government.

LEARNING OUTCOME
1. Appreciate the significance of teaching Philippine history and government in the
elementary grades.

LESSON CONTENT

Why do students hate history?

It is sad to admit but I am sure teachers worldwide would have to agree that many of their
students are not a huge fan of History. Most students can’t quite grasp why they need to retain
historical information that they don’t feel like they’ll end up remembering five years down the
road (Tan, 2018).

It is unfair however for history to be viewed in such a negative light. History is not only an
important subject, it’s also informative and interesting. While shifting your student’s mindsets
won’t happen overnight, it’s most certainly possible. You would be pleasantly surprised at how a
few changes can make your students fall in love with history.
 Tan (2018) listed five reasons you might hear from students as to why they hate history
and how you can go about changing that.

1. History is boring. The most common reason as to why students hate history is because
they find it boring. Let’s face it, most history classes are not conducted in the most
interesting way. Learning history either involves lectures which consist of the teacher
rambling on about the events that took place or students reading many chapters of a thick
book. History classes can also involve students watching a history documentary that was
filmed many years ago.
If taught correctly, history doesn’t have to be boring. There are many ways to teach
history to make it interesting and exciting. Students also tend to learn better when classes
are more interactive. An example includes incorporating games such as a roleplaying
session of an event that has taken place in history. You can even have the students choose
a topic about history that they may want to learn more about or zoom in on the more
unknown parts of history to pique their interest. Once your students are engaged, they’ll be
more inclined to keep learning history and class will no longer be boring. Instead, they’ll
find it fun and start to view history in a more positive light.
1. History is just about dead people. A big misconception about history is that it’s just about
dead people. Most history lessons involve students being only exposed to topics about
individuals that existed in the past. However, history is so much more than that. There’s
history on so many other subjects that the possibilities are endless.
You can find out about how electricity, automobiles or even how shoes came about.
Even technology that we’ve come to be so reliant on has its own history. It’s inaccurate in
categorizing history to being just about dead people.
You can shift your student’s mindset from that by having them understand how
history applies to the present as well. Talk about political changes, how human rights have
shifted, technological advances and much more.
2. History is just the memorization of people, places, and dates. It’s certainly true that
history involves memorizing a lot of information such as places and dates. However, the
notion of just mindlessly memorizing all this information is wrong. Students shouldn’t be
trying to shove information into their minds just for the sake of it.
 It’s important for students to have a good overall big picture of the event that they’re
trying to memorize. With that, they’ll have a better understanding of the events that took
place and be more inclined to remember it instead of trying to mindlessly store information.
Once they’ve gotten the big picture, it helps for students to learn the significance of the
event that took place and how it’s impacted the future.
With a better understanding of the event and its actual importance, it won’t just be
about memorization. In fact, students will be more inclined to retain this information.
3. History is all lecture and text reading. If your students are attending history classes that
only consists of lectures and reading massive amounts of books, it’s no wonder that they’ll
find learning about history a chore. There are so many other ways to learn about history
and the best way involves allowing them to be directly exposed to history.
You can arrange for a walking tour around the city, bring them to a museum or even
plan a scavenger hunt. If you prefer something that’s more indoors rather than outdoors,
you can research online for some internet history games that they can partake in. Perhaps
you could even do a competitive game show style quiz with history questions to get them
going. You can also introduce crafts where they can create something from the past and
showcase it to their fellow peers.
There are so many other ways to teach history either than through a lecture or
reading a book that can make learning fun for everyone.
4. History is never relevant. I’ll never use History in my lifetime! Even though it is a
fact that history happened in the past, it’s far from irrelevant. The notion that history will
never be used in your lifetime is untrue. After all, without the past, there wouldn’t be a
future.
If it wasn’t for events that had transpired in the past, we definitely wouldn’t have
access to a lot of what we have now. History is also used as a way for us to assess our past
failures and successes. We peer into history to see what mistakes we can prevent from
happening again and what successes we can capitalize on. History also helps us understand
the world on a much deeper level. We can learn about how other countries were developed
or how a different country’s culture has evolved.
It’s imperative to show your students the bigger picture and allow them to see that
history extends far more than the past and permeates into our daily lives.
 Either than the ways mentioned above, there are so many other ways to also keep history
alive and interesting for your students. It’s all about packaging the subject in a way that will keep
them excited, expanding their knowledge and mind and making them understand the importance
of history to their future.

Why do children need to be taught Philippine History and Government?

Let us take a closer look at why Philippine History and Government is important to explore
and why everyone should make it a point to study it in depth. Funtecha & Padilla (2010) and
Arcadia Publishing (2016) listed the following:

1. It bridges the gap between the present and the past. The present being is the result of
the past. It can be said that the Philippines and the Filipinos are what they are today because
of what happened in times past. The nature and the extent of contemporary problems in the
country can best be understood in the light of their historical roots. Thus, knowing the past
enhances the understanding of the present.
2. It explains the causes of things and events. No other discipline can provide explanations
for causes of events and/or development than history. For example, there is no way to
explain why the “state-side-mentality” among Filipinos is very strong without delving back
in time. The question is “What was in the past that brought about his ment6ality?” History,
in a sense, deals with the cause and effect relationship of things.
3. It Projects the future. Events and developments in the future may be envisioned using
lessons of history as bases. Circumstances in the past have been observed to contribute to
the unfolding of a significant event. Taking stock of similarities or parallels between the
past and the present also leads to consideration of likely possibilities or scenarios in the
future. History allows us to speculate intelligently in the future. Present and future
intelligent actions spring from sound knowledge of the past.
4. It interprets conditions of a given space and time. History is the only branch of
knowledge that can provide information and corresponding interpretation of periods of
history. The coming of the United States in the Philippines may be explained by going back
to the events long before 1898 and finding out what factors contributed to the rise of the
United States as an imperialist power.
5. It promotes Nationalism and Patriotism. History is the best area of human knowledge
that can help in promoting nationalism and patriotism. It inspires and develops a sense of
national pride and sense of devotion to country by recording the exploits and struggles of
forefathers to win freedom and independence. History affirms the fact that Filipinos
possess many positive traits and a very rich culture brought about by both their pre-colonial
and colonial experiences.
6. It helps us develop a better understanding of the world. You can’t build a framework
on which to base your life without understanding how things work in the world. History
paints us a detailed picture of how society, technology, and government worked way back
when so that we can better understand how it works now. It also helps us determine how
to approach the future, as it allows us to learn from our past mistakes (and triumphs) as a
society.
7. It helps us understand ourselves. To understand who you are, you need to develop a
sense of self. A large part of that is learning where you fit into the story of your country or
the global community in the grand scheme of things. History tells you the story of how
your nation, city, or community came to be everything that it is. It tells you where your
ancestors came from and tells you who they were. Most importantly of all, it gives you the
ability to spot (and appreciate) the legacies you may have inherited from them.
8. It helps us learn to understand other people. History isn’t just an essential introduction
to your own country, ethnic heritage, and ancestry. It’s also a valuable tool when it comes
to understanding those who are different from us. Global, national, and regional history
books help us understand how other cultures affect our own. They encourage us to develop
a greater appreciation for multicultural influences within our own communities as well –
exactly why everyone should study African American history, immigrant history, and so
forth, regardless of their own cultural background.
9. It teaches a working understanding of change. It goes without saying that change can
be a difficult concept to understand. Each of us has a different experience with the rest of
the world – an experience shaped by societal norms, cultural differences, personal
experiences, and more. We know when we as individuals crave change and why. History
helps us better understand how, when, and why change occurs (or should be sought) on a
larger scale.
10. It gives us the tools we need to be decent citizens. Good citizens are always informed
citizens, and no one can consider himself to be an informed citizen without a working
knowledge of history. This is the case whether we’re talking about our role in our
community or in regards to our nation on the whole. History helps us become better voters
and more effective members of any type of society. It helps put us in a position to better
inform others as well.
11. It makes us better decision makers. “Those that do not learn history are doomed to repeat
it.” Those words were first spoken by George Santayana, and they are still very relevant
today because of how true they are. History gives us the opportunity to learn from past
mistakes. It helps us understand the many reasons why people may behave the way they
do. As a result, it helps us become more compassionate as people and more impartial as
decision makers. Our judicial system is a perfect example of this concept at work.
12. It helps us develop a new level of appreciation for just about everything. History is
more than just the living record of nations, leaders, and wars. It’s also the story of us. It’s
packed with tales of how someone stood up for what they believed in, or died for love, or
worked hard to make their dreams come true. All of those things are concepts we can relate
to; it’s enriching to know that so could the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson,
or Martin Luther King.
13. It widens people’s knowledge about government system and political education. The
inclusion of Government in students’ curriculum helps to widen people’s knowledge about
administration and other institutions involved in governance. It educates them on the
political life or affairs of the country.
14. Opportunity for Leadership. Through the study of government, we understand and
appreciate the need for a government. Consequently, the opportunity is provided for people
through the study of government to become future political leaders.
15. Government Provides the Opportunity to Know. It helps us appreciate the constitution
and the process of making and reviewing laws and statues. It helps us understand our rights
and responsibilities as well as the limitation within which we must operate for the well-
being of every member of the society.
FLEXIBLE TEACHING LEARNING MODALITY ADAPTED

1. Module

Activity

Direction: Interview an elementary student or high school student and ask the following
questions. Audio record or video record or write down the interview response of the
interviewee and try to answer it on your own too every after the interviewees response.

1. How do you see History as a subject? Was it your favorite or least favorite subject? Explain
why yes or why not.
2. Do you agree that most history classes are not conducted in the most interesting way?
Explain.
3. What could have been done to make the lesson more interesting or to make it interesting
to you?
4. How should history be taught to children?

REFERENCES

Arcadia Publishing. (2016). Why It’s Important That We Study History. Retrieved August 20,
2020, from arcadiapublishing.com website:
https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Navigation/Community/Arcadia-and-THP-Blog/June-
2016/Why-It’s-Important-That-We-Study-History

Funtecha, H. F., & Padilla, M. J. (2010). A Study Guide in Philippine History. Retrieved from
https://www.worldcat.org/title/a-study-guide-in-philippine-history/oclc/842184796

Tan, R. (2018). Top 5 Reasons Students HATE History – And what you can do to change that.
Retrieved August 20, 2020, from https://smiletutor.sg/top-5-reasons-students-hate-history-and-
what-you-can-do-to-change-that/