029 Nutty Season
It’s that time again, that crazy time when we tell ourselves that everyone must go out and vote—yes, it’s another election year.
And just like any other election year, we see a dearth of intelligent voters. One would think we’d have improved by now, after so many grave errors I wouldn’t even dare mention specifically (You know who I’m talking about!). But no, a lot of us still vote for unqualified candidates, including those who literally sing and dance to the same pathetic tune.
Some have been enlightened, thank God! And it’s so good to see our youth—our idealistic youth—leading the charge toward better governance and better voter selection. Sadly, some have also fallen prey to disinformation (tsk, tsk).
So again we talk about the need for good voters education. But this time, we also need to deal with a new issue, the phenomenon we all know as fake news (it’s not like things aren’t difficult already).
The age of the internet has brought us a dangerous by-product—social media. It’s where everyone with a modicum of knowledge of writing, layout and photo manipulation can convince so many that the world is flat, or in this case, that this or that candidate is worthy (or not worthy) of their vote.
Of course, digital literacy must be taught in our schools, which should include learning how to discern between fact and fake. Beyond this, however, we must realize that students need to develop critical thinking skills in order to become more discerning of the massive amount of information they are bombarded with on a daily basis (and to become more discerning voters in the future).
Thus, it doesn’t help that we’re not really doing a good job at it. As pointed out in the latest PISA, the OECD’s test of student proficiency wherein the Philippines is seen competing for last place, critical thinking is one of our students’ weak points.
So as we wrestle with the poor judgment of so many voters in our generation, we should plan ahead for the next generation of voters so that they may become more learned and competent to vote intelligently.
This obviously starts with better teaching and learning in our schools. Our schools (and our teachers) must teach in a way that encourages students to think and think critically. They must make students more aware of social issues and they must make them learn to empower themselves to actively participate in addressing these issues.
Otherwise, the next generation of voters will simply follow the same voting habits of their elders and fall for the same incompetent and corrupt candidates each time they cast their vote.