A Descriptive Study on the Instillment of Moral Values of the Second Year Students of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of the Philippines Manila

Abstract

The moral training of children have taken a new sense of urgency, because religion, schools, and the community are not influential as they once were before and what is more alarming is the fact that young people are confronted by moral issues at an earlier age. With the high percentage of heinous crimes being committed by minors in the country the solution that the government is considering is to lower the age of death convicts from 18yrs. old to 16yrs. old as an attempt to scare off potential criminals and to lessen such crimes. Such a terrible vision, to see the youth of our country going in the wrong direction. They are the future of our country and the researcher believes that the solution is not to lower the age of death convicts but instead, the answer to such problems is to seek the roots of moral formation. If moral values are taught and instilled at home by parents and if institutions as school, church and media, also play there roles in teaching moral values, such a reality would seize to exist. Thus such a study was conducted regarding the instillment of moral values, to find out if and how moral values are taught by parents and at the same time what can be considered factors in moral value formation. The study used the descriptive research design. To collect the needed information; the library research was used to gather secondary data used in the review of related literature, then a pretest was given to sample population of five students to ensure that the questions are understood and answered to the satisfaction of the researchers goals, then finally questionnaires were given out. The sample population were 40 second year students of the University of the Philippines, College of Arts and Sciences, presently enrolled this First Semester of The Academic Year 1999-2000. The results of the study showed that moral value formation mainly comes from parents and between both parents it is the mother who plays a more important role in instilling moral values than the father. Another significant finding is that there is a high percentage of difference in styles of incorporating moral values between mother and father towards their children. Another result of the study was that physical punishment was still being used by parents to their children when their children were younger. Other factors such as peers, school, church, television, magazines, Internet, etc. according to the study also plays an essential role in moral value formation. Finally it was pleasing to discover that majority of the respondents think and feel that they already have a firm grasp of morality.