MSU – ILIGAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Department of Professional Education
Iligan City, Philippines
ED123 – THE TEACHING PROFESSION
PROF. RUBEN L. ABUCAYON, BSED, MA, MBE, PhD

NAME: Sharmaine S. Ybañez COURSE & YEAR: BPED 1ST Year DATE: May 14, 2019 SCORE _____

LESSON 4: THE FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF MORALITY AND YOU

(Adapted: The Teaching Profession by Purita P. Bilbao et.al., 2006)

Someone wrote of teachers: “Even on your worst day on the job, you are still some children’s hope.”
Indeed society expects much from you, the teacher. This was affirmed by a finding in Navarro’s research
which was presented in the previous lesson. You, too, have a significant influence in society. Henry Brooks
Adams said it succinctly: “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”
For you to be able to cope with these expectations you should be anchored on a bedrock foundation
of moral and ethical principles.

ACTIVITY 1

Direction: Answer the following in a sentence or two.

1. To be moral is to be human. What does this mean?

- This means that humanity is judged based on our morality. The type of morality might change,
its consistency or inconsistency internally might vary, but it is a necessity; an inescapable facet
of human existence.

2. Why is morality only for persons?

- Human beings have got many characters that other animals lack for e.g. Parental care, max size
of brained, we got these characteristics genetically because only persons have intellect and will.

3. What do the following tell you about the natural law?

a. Ancient philosophers and dramatists had already mentioned the natural law. Sophocles, for
instance, in the drama Antigone, spoke of the “unwritten statutes of heaven which are not of
today or yesterday but from all time and no man knows when they were first put forth.”
Cicero wrote: “True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application,
unchanging and everlasting”
“Lawless license or promiscuity is not common among primitive peoples. According to Fr.
Vanoverberg, a Belgian anthropologist of the CICM congregation, the Negritos of Northern Luzon
have excellent moral standards especially with regard to honesty and sexual matters although
their power of abstraction is so low that they can hardly count beyond 5.” (Panizo, 1964).

- The natural law is “written in the heart of every man.” This is true to all men and women. One
need not be schooled to have a sense of the natural law.

ACTIVITY 2

1. “Do good; avoid evil” is the foundational moral principle. List at least 5 good things that you have to do
as a teacher and 5 evil things you have to avoid doing.

5 Good Things That a Teacher should do
1. Understand the students on what they’re
thinking and their work.
2. Believe that every students can achieve
success
3. Learn something new everyday
4. Listen to the students more than they talk
5. Plan lessons clearly to achieve goals
5 Evil Things that a Teacher should avoid
1. Don’t bad mouth another staff member of
the school
2. Don’t fail the students for personal
reasons
3. Don’t curse the students and avoid using
bad language
4. Don’t hit the students
5. Don’t harass the students

2. The Golden Rule for Christians is: “Do to others what you would like others to do to you.” Give a
concrete application of the Golden Rule as you relate to a learner, to a fellow teacher, to a parent or any
member of the community and to your superiors, member of the community and to your superiors.
 Answer:

ACTIVITY 3

A. Research on the following:

1. What do the following statements imply about the role of religion in the moral formation of
man?
 “If God did not exist, then everything would be permitted.” – Dostoyevsky

Answer: The implication is that if God didn’t exist, morality also doesn’t exist because only
God can impose moral limits on human behavior. This is a concept often given as a reason
for a deist – type belief in some sort of God, even if a person doesn’t attend church, read the
relevant holy text, observe the relevant holy days or rituals, etc. It doesn’t make sense for
the simple reason that God is the only thing whose existence is necessary. Everything else,
and everybody else in the world only has contingent existence – we exist because God
created us and holds us in existence. In other words, the nature of God is Existence itself
that is why he gave His Name as “I am”. The only thing implied by the statement “if God did
not exist then everything would be permitted” implies that the person making the statement
is either lunatic or insane, or perhaps they just don’t understand what “God” is, or what the
concept of God implies.

 There is no doubt that man can recognize the world without God, but in the final
analysis he can only organize it against man.” – Pope Paul VI

Answer: It implies that he, the Pope accepts that man can organize the world, or the gross
things in the world. However, without faith in his, (the Popes) God, it can only be
detrimental to man in the end. This may or may not be the case, depending on your point of
view. That some people have faith in a particular religion is usually a good and helpful thing
in life. It supports and comforts many, particularly in difficult times. People of faith, of any
deist religion, insist that the universe, and all in it, depend on their God, and that mankind
is doomed without that particular religion. There are nearly as many religions as there are
Gods that populate them. All differ on what and how man/womankind should act, worship
and respect their God. Simple logic tells us they cannot all be correct, at least in this single
universe. We are asked and, in some religions, commanded, to believe the particular words –
revealed by the deity to some person – to take them as the true word of God or Gods.

2. How does conscience relate to morality?

Answer: The connection between conscience and morality: If you are conscience of what you
are doing your common sense will guide to do the right thing, therefore your actions will be
morally good. Your conscience is inborn, natural ability to detect what is right and wrong. It is
literally, how we become “conscious” of the morality of our actions. We feel bad when we do
something wrong. Now the problem is, it is possible to ignore and eventually kill your
conscience, so that this natural sense is no longer functional. So, your conscience doesn’t make
things good or bad, but merely detects when we’ve chosen evil.

3. Are man-made laws part of the natural law? What about your Professional Code of Ethics?

Answer: Man – made laws are sometimes an outgrowth of natural or physical laws. Think
about just any traffic law. These laws are governed by the laws of Physics. Professional Code of
Ethics are not laws in the same sense, but you abide by them because they show the correct
way to treat mankind.

4. Do laws limit our freedom?

Answer: Laws do limit our freedoms, but that will always be necessary until there is only
one person left on earth. There is a saying that goes “Your freedom ends where my nose begins.”
In other words, until you interfere with my rights and freedoms.

5. What is meant by the statement? “The Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath.”

Answer: The Sabbath is made for man not man for the Sabbath means that things that
might not be usually be acceptable may be so under certain circumstances. The saying
originated when Jesus’ disciples were rolling ripe grain stalks between their fingers to get the
wheat out and eat it because they were hungry. They were not breaking a law, but the Pharisees
were upset about it because to them the disciples were “working” on the Sabbath. Jesus
answered with this saying and reminded them that if some of their livestock fell in a hole, the
Pharisees would get them out even if it was the Sabbath and even if they were having to “work”
to do so.
ACTIVITY 4

A. By means of a song, a poem or an acrostic on the word MORALITY, show the importance of
morality.
Answer: M morality, O Opens, R Rational, A Attitude towards, L Life, I in, T Tempting and Y Youth.