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.
