Do children now have their models or heroes?

That’s the $64 question nowadays that’s hard to answer, given the collision of cultures impacting on the young minds and impressions. This complicates with the onrush of information technology and computer sophistry available to the young, like ordinary toys.

The past educational methodology and teaching aids, are now being internet-influenced, with historical events becoming passé, not just obsolescent, but obsolete. Thus, the concept of long-ago heroes, though not replaced outright by anti-heroes, would just die a natural death.

Adopting an “idol”, or hero-worship is anchored on the long-engrained evolvement and historical development of a country. Idolatry of heroes or models to emulate often generated from wars and competitions wherein the best gets honored. Lapulapu as Mactan native chieftain and lesser Cebuano fighters were models of Filipino altruism, Spanish circa, for four centuries of subjugation.

Thus, heroes born from wars or battles have been historically and traditionally lionized, manifested in monuments in town centers and celebrated in town and school programs with appropriate activities. Heroes and martyrs, like, Jose Rizal, Apolinario Mabini, Andres Bonifacio, the Del Pilars, et al. earned proper places in Philippine annals for generations to extol as patrimony.

And when Uncle Sam took over as, admittedly, a big step towards democratic independence, we also had civilian heroes. Presidents Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña Sr. and their contemporaries who obviously all preferred a “government (even) run like hell by Filipinos, to a government run like heaven by Americans”, eventually got their wish.

In the grim interim of Japanese imperialism, the Philippines also went through crucibles in its pursuit of freedom. Like in the Spanish era, Filipino heroes emerged from the Battle of Bataan and the guerilla resistance and pocket battles nationwide. Cebu was on tops of the guerilla resistance versus Japan, as exemplified by the famous Guila-guila Battle in Compostela, Cebu where Cebuano fighters under Mandauehanon Major Fabian Sanchez then, exacted truckloads of Jap casualties.

Since time immemorial, wars of attrition forged by ideologies, and wars of territorial aggrandizement have been causes and motivations of world conflicts. And these produce heroes and models of the respective warring countries.

The USA prides itself as the defender of democracy. Whether one agrees or not, Uncle Sam is almost omni-present wherever democracy is at stake, as in World War I and World War II, or in pocket wars almost everywhere now. In WW I, they had their national idol in Sergeant Alvin York. In WW II, their hero was later actor Audie Murphy. Both were Congressional Medal of Honor awardees, and both their real-life battle exploits were reprised in movies. Sgt. York was reprised by Gary Cooper, while Audie Murphy did himself in the movie version.

It appears that the cultural revolution, with IT on headlong override reaching the very young – hardly in pre-school, kindergarten and elementary levels – has radically affected the obsolescent educational system. Crashed to smithereens is the customary concept of model or hero-worship. The children’s obsession to the point of psycho monomania, is what the internets, the laptops, the Ipods, and whatever the IT feeds them at home, in school, or internet cafés.

In recap, today as Bonifacio Day in honor of the great Katipunero, what has the national officialdom or the LGUs nationwide done to commemorate, even passively, the once significant occasion? Possibly, all monuments of Bonifacio and other heroes in the plazas or nooks stand mute and obscure. Not a wreath of flowers, not even a single flickering candle of remembrance, or a crack of a wayward firecracker to break the silence of neglect.

And so, no need to answer the question if the children now have heroes or models of their own to emulate. Heroes and role models are now just names of cities or towns, or of streets and byways, old buildings, or unkempt plazas.

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