Study Guide 5: Rules of Good Manners and Right Conduct

Revival of GMRC

Lately, a favorite topic in public discussions is the proposal to revive the teaching of good manners and
right conduct (GMRC) as a full school subject and for it to be added to the curriculum of the K-12 program.

For the youngsters who most likely do not know, the GMRC is a school subject that teaches kids about the
importance of having basic morals, values, qualities and ethics.

In the past , the GMRC was taught in schools and students are not only graded for it. There is also a certain
award or medal that is given for anyone who excels in the subject and shows perfect application via
behaviour in school.

Recently, we only hear of the term ‘GMRC’ in admonitions or criticisms about one’s upbringing. When
someone shows ill behaviour and is chided for it, we usually hear the words, ‘maybe he was absent when
GMRC was being taught in school.’

In my opinion, bringing back GMRC as part of every student’s learning process in this day and age is
necessary and long overdue.

I’m sure many would share my observation on wide-ranging occasions where one could only sigh at the
lack of GMRC on the part of today’s youth.

In public transportation units and other public places including Churches, you will see millennials — boys
at that— sitting comfortably and pretending to be either asleep or checking on their cellphones while a
pregnant woman, a mother with a baby, a handicapped or an elderly stands right in front of him or her
during the entire trip or event.

These days too, you see milennials taking pictures of their food before eating instead of saying grace. The
words ‘po’ and ‘opo’, the blessing of the hands of the elderly and saying ‘please’, ‘excuse me’ and ‘thank
you’ have become like gems. They are that rare already when during the olden days, they were basic
good manners.

The level of discipline and respectful behavior among children and teens of today is unquestionably at an
all-time low.

Notice that even in restaurants, you see a table with family members who do not even talk, since they are
all preoccupied with their gadgets. Youngsters these days no longer respect food and what we call as
‘hapag-kainan’ and treat eating as a sideline while they are on their cellphones.

I read somewhere that most of the generation of today are on the internet for as long as ten hours a day.
Given this situation, I hope that the GMRC, should it be really revived, be taught with the kind of approach
that would make it compatible to the prevailing lifestyle which revolves around technology.

There is no doubt though, that there is a current urgent need to institutionalize the GMRC as a subject in
both elementary and high schools and yes, maybe even all the way up to college.