FILAMER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL
DEREGULATED STATUS – CHED
5800 Roxas City, Capiz
Tel. No. (036) 6212-317 Fax No. (036) 6213-075

Take Home Midterm Examination in Soc. Sci. 408

(Social Institutions & Group Interactions)

Name: Christian B. Barrientos

Choose five questions only but you have to answer question #1 first and then you are free to
randomly pick the other four from questions 2-7. (20 points each)

1. Enumerate and give brief descriptions of the different Social Institutions and discuss
their respective roles in nation building.

The following are the social institutions:

a. Family – it is considered as the smallest social institution and the basic unit of a society. It is
where the rearing of the child takes place and also the agent of socialization for the child
because it is where the child learns and develops values and behaviors through interaction
with his/her family members.
The family provides the child the opportunity to become a socially responsible
individual. The socialization of the child takes place first inside the family. Both parents could
teach their child the values and behaviors to become a better citizen. The culture is
transferred to the child through interaction with the family. It also provides affection and a
sense of security that provides them a healthy environment that will help them develop a
great personality towards others that could help in nation building.

b. Education – it is where the knowledge and skills of the people are transferred from one
generation to the next through teaching.

Education equipped the people the knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards
sustainable development of a nation. According to Dr. Jose Rizal “The youth is the Hope of
our Future,” this statement from Dr. Jose Rizal proves that a well-educated youth could uplift
the nation. We would have a well-educated workforce that is capable to ensured national
productivity. These well-educated persons will strive for progress that could create a strong
society with its own culture of advancement and global unity.
c. Religion – it binds people together with a system of belief and rituals through worship.

There are critical roles religion plays in nation building. It serves as a social control.
The belief that religions teach serves as the basis of the everyday life. For example, the “Ten
Commandments,” teach people on how to live their life.
The teachings of religion had an influence to one’s personality. They could endure the
difficulties of life. It gives man the strength and hope in times of crisis. For example, these
pandemic there are people who had acquired the virus and lost their lives but there are those
people who had survive the virus because of their faith that religions bring to them. Those
people who had lost their faith tend to develop negative attitudes and deviant behaviors that
could worsen the situation.

d. Economy – it is a social institution that organizes the consumption, production and

distribution of services and goods.

The role of economy in nation building is that it provides for the production and
production of goods and services that people need. Having a progressive nation means having
a great economy. Economic growth means more goods and services that could meet the
needs of the people. It could uplift the living standard of the people, reduced the
unemployment and underemployment rate, and improved public services that could help in
nation building. For example, if the country could afford free healthcare services it could
boost the productivity of the people that will contribute to nation building. The per capita
income of its people would increase that could help them to think creatively without
worrying the finances. They could create ideas that would be a great help in nation building
because they work for technological advancement and not just by money.

e. Government – it is a social institution that carries out rules of action for the people to live
by. It is also an institution that creates a social sense of control to the people of the country.

The government provides a necessary atmosphere for the people of its country to
live in. It is the one that carries out law for the people to follow and abide. Those who deviate
from the laws would be punished also by the law. These laws provide social control to people
that would help them live in a healthy environment for nation building. For example, “The
Philippine Constitution’s Bill of Rights,” those listed rights provide a sense of security to the
people. They are given the rights to own a property, protect them from unlawful acts and
freedom to live without suppressing their movements.

The government facilitates people’s money on where to use it for the

improvement of the society. There are schools and hospitals aided by the government for its
people. Infrastructure projects, technological advancement and researches are being
facilitated by the government. These are the roles of the government in nation building.
2. Share your opinion about our present educational system and its impact to the Filipinos.

The Philippines present educational system is greatly impacted by the pandemic. It

brings a lot of positive and negative things to our educational system and also to the Filipinos.

Filipino children even parents suffered from the present educational system especially
those in public schools. Even before the pandemic, schools lacks educational equipment’s like
books and computers, crowded classrooms that could contribute to lack of conducive
learning environment. And even worse with the pandemic coming in, even with the lack of
books the Department of Education urges to use the modules, which in reality they are not
given a proportion of 1 is to 1. Students shared modules because of it. The content of
modules is not properly assured because there are many errors in it. Parents had the
difficulty to teach their child especially those parents’ are illiterate. Those who had been in an
online class especially those in higher institution because it is necessary tend to have costly
and slow internet connectivity. We had also mentioned that the latent function of the school
is the socialization of the child but because of this present educational system those students
who had suffered from depression is deprived of attention from which they could get from
their teachers and schoolmates if they were in school tends to commit suicide especially
those student who had parent that is busy in their work.

Although, our present educational system suffer a lot from the lack of preparation for
this school year there are positive things that comes out of it. We have learned that with
enormous and proper preparation we could transition from a traditional classroom into a
more technological driven type of instruction. Due to this pandemic, Filipino children learned
how to use their cellphones and computers efficiently for their school works. Not just the
children but also the teachers, they are able to learn things that they should have learned 10
years from now, but because of pandemic it becomes a must. Technological advancement
because of this pandemic improves and expands the teaching strategies of teachers and
learning capabilities of the learners. Filipinos learned to be as resilient as they can to adjust to
this new normal type of Educational System.

To conclude, these challenges would bring us sadness and despair but in the end we
Filipino are resilient enough to cope up with the situation to stand again to become better
and bolder to face those challenges.
3. What is culture change and its processes?

As we go back to our history, our culture has changed a lot over a period of time. This
is what we called Culture Change. It is a modification of a society through invention,
discovery, innovation or contact with other society. Some of those shared ideas of a society
that are used in the past are being replaced at another time in the future. For example, for
the past years Filipinos are fond of wearing barong for men and baro’t saya for women, now
these type of clothes are being modified or replaced by a more stylistic and westernized
fashion clothes. There are processes on how our past culture are being replaced or modified.
Culture change occurs when there is a new invention and innovation. This invention is
the source of all the culture change. Invention does not have a direct impact on culture
change if those inventions are not accepted by the society. It should be accepted and be used
regularly for the process of culture change to occur. For example, we teachers are slowly
transitioning and changing cultures in teaching our students. For the past decades, Filipino
teachers uses chalk and blackboard for their instructional materials, but now we are
transitioning in using computers that has newly invented application that will enabled us to
teach our students. Google Meet, Google Classroom, Discord, WebEx and etc. are examples
of newly innovated application for better and easier teaching strategies. Inventions of
technologies and innovation of ideas are one of the ways for cultural change.
The new source of cultural elements may come from another society, it is called
Diffusion. It occurs when cultural an element of another society is borrowed and incorporates
to the recipient group. The everyday life of a Filipino comes with many cultures we borrowed
from other society. For example, from the time we wake up from the bed, we fold the
blanket made from the silk from China, we brush our teeth with a toothpaste made from the
US, we do morning Zumba exercise using song of Gangnam Style from a Korean singer, we
used the soap from Taiwan in bathing and when we go to school we have adopted that type
of school system of learning from the Americans. All of this cultural diffusion are being easily
adopted because we open up ourselves in adopting better ways of living. Globalization also
helps in spreading different cultures around the world.
There is also what we called Acculturation. It is a process where changes occur when
there is an intensive contact of different cultural groups. It occurs when one of the cultural
group is more powerful than the other thus the inferior group’s culture would be replaced by
the superior group’s culture. One example of these type of cultural change is the colonization
of the Philippines by the Spaniards, Filipino people had their own cultural beliefs before the
Spaniards came. The Filipinos accepted Catholicism brought by the Spanish because as you
can see the Philippines had been invaded by that time a superior group. Those native beliefs
of animism simply vanished away because of acculturation and it is replaced by Catholicism.
To conclude, invention and innovation , Diffusion and Acculturation are the processes
of culture change.
4. Discuss and give an example of the advantages and disadvantages of industrialization
and information technology.
Industrialization and information technology had enabled us people to cope up with
changing world. The world faces challenges and adversities such as rapid population growth,
lacks of sustainability as a country, pandemic and unemployment. But with the help of
industrialization and information technology we have responded to it immediately.
Industrialization enabled poor countries with lack of food to increase the production
inorder to cope up with rapid population growth. It reduces their dependence to other
countries because of industrialization they could have their own factories for their foods and
services. It also means that when if there are factories, they would need labor force and this
created jobs for the people in a country. For example, if you’re an agricultural country like the
Philippines, if Filipino farmers yield those crops at a traditional way the production of those
crops would decrease but because of industrialization farmers are given a chance to use
modern machines for yielding crops, organic fertilizers that are as good as commercial
fertilizers and less health hazard they could increase the production inorder to feed the
people. Those productions from factories because of industrialization can be bought at
affordable price. In economics, if there are surplus in the production it could also mean lower
prices for those good and services.
Industrialization helps us in the aspect of healthcare. As we are enduring right now,
the Covid-19, advancement in modern techniques of determining vaccines for the virus that
usually could take more years will be done for a short amount of time. This could help us to
live without being scared of a virus.
Information technology enabled us to communicate with one other in any other part
of the globe. Using mobile phones, tablets, and laptops would enable us to see our love one’s
in real time. We could spend and bond with them even they are distant from you.
In this pandemic time, information technology enables to do things that we aren’t
able to do if we are distant. Just like working from home, distant learning and giving
information to the people through the advancement of technology.
Information technology paved the way to globalization and closing the cultural gap
between different groups. We are able to learn and understand their language, customs,
practices and even behaviors through information technology.
Industrialization and information technology had truly helps us in solving many
problems but there are some disadvantages. In industrialization it could destroy our
environment, widening the gap between the rich and the poor, living in an overcrowded
urban place. In information technology it could lead to unemployment, dominant culture,
and security issues.
Industrialization pollutes the air, water, and the soil. The chemicals that could come
from factory pollute the air, water and the soil. The machines that could make our yields
increase productivity could damage the soil. It would loss nutrients that are naturally
restored if not for aggressive farming. Pollution in the air and water could lead to different
diseases such as cough, asthma, diarrhea and etc. Deforestation could also become rampant
because of building factories which could lead to the extinction of endangered wildlife
creatures. A great example of that is the flooding of Metro Manila and provinces across Luzon
brought by Typhoon Ulysses. Because of the industrialization there is less number of tress
that could help in flooding issues.
Industrialization results to the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor.
Those who are rich who could build their own factory for the people to work with could
become richer, resulting to disparity of income and wealth.
Industrialization also leads workers and their families in an overcrowded place.
Industrialization also brings urbanization of a certain place. These urbanized cities for workers
put them in a position where they can easily go to their jobs and their family in an exchange
of unhealthy environment.
Information technology also brings disadvantages. One of those disadvantages is that
it leads to unemployment. Those office or factory works that could be done by the machine
or technology will eventually replace human that will lead to unemployment. For example,
there are paperwork that in traditional way we could use a labor force or a worker but in the
age of information technology where everything is online and you are transacting into what
we called A.I. Artificial Intelligence those paperwork could be done without the help of a
worker that eventually loss its job that leads to unemployment.
Information technology also leads on having a dominant culture. As the globalization
fast approaching, internet gives us information from around the world. It has contributed to
one culture dominating weak ones. For example, children nowadays are not proud enough of
their own skin color, their own country, their own culture because of the information that the
internet had given to them. They think that Korean people are better than us. They think that
Korean food is tastier than us we have here in the Philippines. Those cultures from the other
countries replace our own culture.
And lastly, information technology allowed us to become vulnerable to hackers and
identity thieves. In using internet we are exposing private information for everyone to see
and used for their own purpose. Just by typing your own name, birthday, address and email
address made us very vulnerable. For example, for someone who is using TikTok application
where you post everyday lives. The developer of Tiktok is a Chinese company that had been
sued because of security issues wherein they are accused that they had been spying their
clients with the use of the application.
There is lots of benefit that could come from industrialization and information
technology but there are many disadvantages as well. We shall always have to remember
that in applying any of these technologies we had to back it up in resolving the drawbacks of
it.

5. If you are the President of the Philippines what are your strategies to effectively address
the issues of poverty, unemployment, peace & order, terrorism, unemployment,
corruption and illegal drugs?

If I would be the President of the Philippines I would eradicate the issues of poverty,
unemployment, peace & order, terrorism, unemployment, corruption and illegal drugs by
focusing on having participatory governance in order to achieve good governance.

Philippines is a democratic country. The problems and issues encountered by the

government affects the people. Those issues couldn’t be resolve if the people of a democratic
country always blame the government of what is happening. I dreamed of a country where
the people always participate to solve the issues regarding poverty, peace & order, terrorism,
unemployment, corruption and illegal drugs.

As a President of the Philippines, I would urged the people of the country to

participate in decision making of the policies in the country. This participation would enable
us to attain the goals we need to achieve such as eradicating poverty. In doing this, ordinary
people are entitled to join in discussing and drafting policies to solve the issues. They will be
actively communicating with the government to create solutions to the problems.

It is very important that we need to involved ordinary people in decision making. In

involving them, we are practicing of what we called bottom-up approach in giving solutions.
Bottom-up approach is the best way to solve the problems. The government could see what
the real scenarios in a certain area and could come up with immediate solution. For example,
in Dumarao there are a lot of illegal drug users and it was a problem of the government. In
solving this, we could use bottom up approach. We go back to the community and asked who
are those persons involved in drugs, what are their status in life, and etc. That simple first-
hand information could help us solve this problem in drugs. If they could conclude that most
of the drug users and pushers comes from the poor family I could come up with the solution
that illegal drugs could be eradicated if I strengthen the programs regarding economic status
of every Filipino family. That is how important bottom-up approach in resolving issues.

Moreover, the participatory governance is not new to the Filipinos. As a President, I

would just strengthen the implementation of it by imposing penalties for those who doesn’t
perform their own duties. They will be accountable for every action that they will be missed.
Participatory government in the Philippines is done through the Local Government Code of
1991, wherein the local government had the duties and responsibilities to their constituents
in delivering services. As a President, I would imposed that all the municipalities would create
what we called People’s Council, wherein the members are the people from all walks of life
just like a farmer, fisherman, teacher, student and etc. This council would participate in
making every policy in the municipalities this would eradicate poverty, issues in peace and
order, unemployment, illegal drugs and corruption because they could help seeing the roots
of these issues.

In building a strong nation that could face issues like poverty, corruption, terrorism
and illegal drugs, it important to keep in mind that there is no single person that could
eradicate all of these. But with unity in diversity we could do it.

(Deadline of submission is November 21, 2020 just send it to my gmail at bedecirwebster@gmail.com).

Prepared by:

WEBSTER J. BEDECIR, EdD

Professor