A mere and simple mother rather than political or government leaders, was chosen by a public school to serve as guest speaker in their public elementary school graduation last week in Baguio City. Mrs. Dulce Buyayo and her husband prepared and organize their message while Mrs. Buyayo shared it in front of the graduates, the parents, teachers and Dep Ed representatives at San Luis Elementary School during the graduation rites.

Our distinguished guests, barangay leaders and elders, our energetic district supervisor- Dr. Nenita B. Olairez, dear teachers, beloved parents, our first graduates, students, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, let me congratulate our very first graduates of this school who through the years have persevered and overcame. Coming from near and far, rain or shine, even without snack-money or ba-on, these brave kids kept marching back and forth to school for six gradual years.

Powered by the love and constant guidance of our parents and teachers, finally today, 28 of these young children can now march on the stage. At their very tender age, these kids cannot yet comprehend the real meaning of having an education. Neither do they know the bitter consequences of not being educated.

But we the parents and teachers do. Some of us to this day may even have regrets for not having done our best during our young school days. With this awareness, we have been encouraging and pushing our children to go to school. We all have dreams for our children. Parents want the best for their children and want their children to be the best because they are our extension, they are our hope and they continue our lineage. They are our legacy long after we have gone to the spiritual world.

What they will become depends on how much we invest in their internal and external education. We want our children not just to be better-off externally or materially in the future, but to be internally or morally responsible people. We want them to have wonderful careers and ideal families in the future. Let us challenge them at their young age to be leaders of the community embodying the principle of living for the sake of others even to the point of sacrificing their own interests.

These core values have to start from our own family which is the corner stone of the ideal community. Then we can expand to become the ideal society, the ideal nation and the ideal peaceful world. Our society today is far from being ideal. It is run by highly educated people from famous and respected schools. Yet corruption, immorality and war besiege us.

Pocketing millions of people‘s money or having illicit relationships in public seem to be an accepted norm. It is simply because we have not emphasized on the moral aspects of education. Let me, for a while, expound the essence of moral education, from the view point of my organization; The Universal Peace Federation.

Human beings are created with two fundamental aspects; Mind and Body. These two dimensions cause us to seek two corresponding sets of values. First centered on our bodies, we have material needs and desires. The desires for food, good health and a comfortable place to live are some of the most basic material needs. Additionally, we pursue wealth in order to gain access to higher levels of physical comfort and the ability to exercise greater control over how we lead our lives.

On the other hand, our mind, centering on our conscience, seeks moral or spiritual values such as truth, beauty, goodness and true love. Finding or realizing these values leads to inner satisfaction. The mistake that many people make is to believe that the pursuit of material values alone leads to inner satisfaction. However, the satisfaction this brings turns out to be fleeting and unfulfilling.

This is because we cannot neglect the spiritual dimension of our being. Education must take into account both dimensions of a human being. Only then are we directing our youth along the road to true and lasting happiness. It can be concluded that there are two aspects of education. Education in morals and ethics is needed to help people realize such spiritual values as truth, beauty, goodness and love, creating the foundation for good character.

What can be called conventional education -- academic education, technical and vocational education, artistic and physical training -- enables people to better pursue such practical goals as developing a career and attaining wealth, a comfortable life, good health and social status. Of these two dimensions of education, education in morals and ethics is by far the most important. The two dimensions are meant to relate to each other like mind and body.

Just as our mind should guide and control our body, so too should morality and ethics guide and control the use of our practical knowledge, skills and activities. If not, as individuals we will be immature and selfish, and as a society we will misuse our knowledge and technology towards selfish purposes. Let us not allow our children to grow in such a treacherous and individualistic environment.

Let us educate them with a new paradigm that we are a global family under one Creator. Every little good deed we do in the family level affects the community. The community affects the society and so forth the nation and the world. The ideal peaceful world is the dream of every parent and teacher and the dream of God Himself! Let us welcome and embrace the age of Conscience where every individual is governed by this silent teacher -- the Conscience.

Our conscience is by far the best guide for us to discern which is right or wrong. God is directly working through our conscience. Today stands before us the youth, our children who are the hope of our fatherland. With them are the seeds of a new dawn which will rise to become the pattern for the next generation of graduates in the coming years. They will become the torch bearers of peace and goodwill because that is what they learned from their parents and from our school. Thank you very much!