The world is facing a pandemic making countries shut borders and making people stay home. The young learners are amused of what is going on the reason why many violators of the stay home imposed are observed anywhere.
Many wonder why the celebration of the mass , fiestas and even gradation rites are suspended. They are amused why hand washing , social distancing, covering of mouth when sneezing or coughing seem to be the trend.
The present pandemic is an advantage for teachers to let learners understand better the meaning of discipline and responsibility towards one another. It is also the start of making them see how personal hygiene can be of utmost importance.
The young learners in their innocence are bewildered of what really is happening around them but one thing is common- they simply want to go out and play.
The rationale behind allowing them to talk about the pandemic is the most practical way to let them understand the real meaning of cooperation and unity to have a better world. It also exploits their imagination in their simple ways to illustrate how the virus became pandemic indirectly making them come up with how to minimize a pandemic.
It is also a way to identify the richness of their observations unknowingly developing in them the spirit of cooperation and unity as well as understanding the social and moral responsibility to each other. Learners will also be more wiser in adapting pertinent values on their own without the need of much reminders and repetitious scoldings.
Teachers can use the pandemic as a way to make learners talk and talk cultivating their communication skills. In the process of their sharing, their individual ways of thinking are challenged. In the process, each learner gets to reflect on his ways making each of them see the relationship of the famous ‘”cause and effect” streamlining individualism and selfishness.
Most importantly, they will understand why teachers always tell them that “cleanliness is next to godliness.” This can start a “new normal” way of thought and living.
By Mary Anne T. Pasado
