Value Education and the Youth
A holistic approach to value education has ensured that there is a balanced development of all dimensions of students’ personalities. Spiritual and moral education is the powerful force that forges the strong and staunch individual. “The aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values.” – William S Burroughs Introduction Education is not all about… Read More »
A holistic approach to value education has ensured that there is a balanced development of all dimensions of students’ personalities. Spiritual and moral education is the powerful force that forges the strong and staunch individual.
“The aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values.”
– William S Burroughs
Introduction
Education is not all about studying and getting good marks. It is really a means to discover new things which we don’t know and increase our knowledge. An educated person has the ability to differentiate between what is right and wrong or good and evil. According to the Oxford dictionary, education means, the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university.
The main function and purpose of education is the development of an all-around and well-balanced personality of the students, and also to develop all dimensions of the human intellect so that children can help to make the country more democratic, cohesive, socially responsible, culturally rich and intellectually competitive nation. Whereas Values represent what people regard as good or bad, desirable or undesirable. However, values do not necessarily imply energy nor lead to action.
Present daytime of science and innovation has made numerous indecencies. Savagery, immorality, egoism, conceit, dissatisfaction is uncontrolled all around. The world has effectively encountered the horrors of present-day wars amid World War I and II. It has been the casualty of interests and indecencies like brutality, desire, national predominance, and self-importance. That is the reason, regardless of brilliant, logical accomplishments the world is a position of savagery, violence, gloom, and unease.
Amidst material flourishing, a substantial area of humankind is under the grasp of immorality, destitution, and defilement. Along these lines, man has been the ruler of the whole world. Presently, such unsuitable circumstances have emerged because of emergencies of qualities.
Education framework today focuses on giving “How to do” as opposed to “What to do” or “For what reason to do?” The present education framework does not get ready students well to deal with life. Fundamentally, it sets them up for jobs or professions. An aftereffect of this is the students are neither mindful of their surroundings nor of their own self and face existence with trouble.
They need to learn without anyone else’s input to deal with life, which incorporates inspecting one’s objectives, distinguishing and dealing with clashes, managing in family and friends, understanding society, and driving a commonly enhancing association with nature. This expects capacity to contemplate regular issues of life.
Present education does not address these issues. It is the foremost responsibility of a society to educate its citizens. Not only knowledge-based and information-based education but also value education.
What is Value Education?
Value education is a term used to name several things, and there is much scholarly debate encompassing it. Some view it as all parts of the procedure by which educators transmit qualities to students.
Others consider it to be an activity that can happen in any organisation amid which individuals are helped by others, who might be more established, in a place of specialist or are more experienced, to make explicit those qualities basic their own particular conduct, to evaluate the adequacy of these qualities and related conduct for their own particular and others’ long haul prosperity and to think about and obtain different esteems and conduct which they perceive as being more powerful for the long-haul prosperity of self as well as other people.
This implies value education can take place at home, and additionally in schools, schools, colleges, and voluntary youth associations.
“Value-education is the aggregate of all the process by means of which a person develops abilities, attitudes and other forms of behavior of the positive values in the society in which he lives.”
Value Education isn’t a course in moral science. It doesn’t tell Dos and Don’ts; doesn’t disclose to us what we ought to end up, or what we ought to do; doesn’t discuss prizes and disciplines in an afterworld. The deal is happiness here and now. It doesn’t state physical facilities are insignificant. It rather discusses thriving in life and therefore, says that there is a place for facilities in life and urges individuals to settle their place in their own particular life.
It isn’t an organization or society; doesn’t demand particular confidence or a particular conviction. It advances the suggestion that the essential human esteems are innate and in place in every last one of us, what is required is to know about them. It just proposes and requests that its audience members research and investigate into their own particular internal identity and interface what exactly is inborn and in place in every one of them as something which is all-inclusive, common and all-satisfying.
Value education tries to accomplish two objectives. Initially to build up a basic capacity to recognize embodiment and frame or between what is of value and what is superficial in life. Second, to develop commitment and courage to act on one’s beliefs in real-life situations. What makes it difficult is the fact that the ability is to be developed not for a narrow area or field of study, but for everyday situations in life. It covers the widest possible canvas.
Can values be taught?
At one level, the question of whether values can be taught is like asking if history can be taught or if mathematics can be taught. Individuals expect that a course in value education instructs values. This isn’t right. The course does not show values but rather urges students to find what is profitable for them.
Likewise, they ought to have the capacity to segregate amongst profitable and the shallow in genuine circumstances throughout their life. One of the foci is on perceptions which are principally on the self, alternate people, and connections.
Such perceptions and their investigation are shared and talked about. The instructor’s part is in indicating basic components to help in dealing with them from the surface components. Ideally, this prompts the improvement of “duty” for acting and working in light of one’s esteems.
Objectives of Value Education
- Full development of student’s personality in its physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects,
- Inculcation of good manners and of responsible and cooperative citizenship.
- Moral awareness should be endorsed to orient the progress in science & technology towards the welfare of mankind.
- To increase awareness about our national history our cultural heritage, constitutional rights, national integration, community development and environment, patriotism and national integration.
- Developing a democratic way of thinking and living.
- Developing tolerance towards and understanding of different religious faiths.
- Enabling pupils to make decisions based on sound moral principles
- To create attitudes and improvement towards a sustainable lifestyle.
Value Education in India
Value education is established in Indian philosophy and culture and imbued in each convention of Indian culture. Educational organizations assume a significant part in the advancement of value. The Vedas and Upanishads frame the wellspring of motivation for value education. In the Vedic period, In Ashram education, the Guru demands his Shishya to take after specific values for the duration of his life.
Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Justice, Liberty Equality, Fraternity, Dignity of the individuals and integrity of the nation are the perfect conditions in the Constitution. Our values in life must draw their motivation from these beliefs. College education commission 1948-49 specified the different parts of morality as unwaveringness, fearlessness, train, self-sacrifice and most profound sense of being.
“FIVE YEAR PLAN, 1974-79”, brought out by the Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, Government of India, it is pointed out — ‘Perhaps, the most significant need of the hour is to transform the educational system with a view to cultivating the basic values of humanism, democracy, socialism, and secularism.’ It is in the above-quoted context, it may be stated firmly that the teachers, teacher-educators, and administrators should try their best to promote value-oriented education in schools.
Hence, it is essential to generate adequate awareness among the people through mass media as well as different types of school organizations.
The National Policy on Education, 1986 has very strongly recommended the need for value education due to the following reasons:
- A tremendous advance in science and technology has resulted in a complete change in the lifestyle of the people.
- Science and technology are being used to produce weapons of mass destruction endangering the very existence of the human race instead of using it for the betterment of human life.
- Erosion of traditional values.
- Life in the future is going to be faster and more complex. The student of today has to face such moral situations in future, in which, instead of depending on others, they may be required to take their own decision.
- The present youth has special problems. It has started to question the conduct of elders — especially political leaders. They do not see the relevance of the values preached.
The above discussion stresses, again and again, the importance of the need for value education. Value education involves exposing students to a whole series of values in their complete totality. I help to bring about an improvement in the child’s thoughts, ideas attitudes, interests, emotions, sentiments, personality, and character.
Swami Vivekananda and Value Education
Swami Vivekananda, a philosopher preacher and a reformer dedicated his whole life to the upliftment of humanity. In his dynamism of thought, he laid emphasis on the amelioration of body and soul for human excellence. Vivekananda did not write a book on education, he contributed valuable thoughts on the subject that are relevant and viable today.
It is rightly said, “Education in modern times has turned into a factory of producing job seekers. Lack of a higher perspective of life has resulted in making the so-called educated more and more ‘self-centred’. The result is there for all of us to see. The educated youth live in constant fear and tension which is driving them to depression. In this situation, the youth need a role model who can show them a way out of this hopeless situation. What is the way out? It is to adopt Swami Vivekananda’s philosophy of education.”
Swamiji was an inspirer of the soul. The chief aim of education should be to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use. This attempt at perfection is part of the evolutionary game of the divine. The educational aim consists of the development of the head, hand, and heart. Education should help the individual to develop physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. Such a perfect ideal can be found in Indian thinkers like Shankaracharya, Buddha, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo and others.
“Education is not the amount of information that is put into the brain and runs riot there, undigested, all your life… We must have life-building, man-making, character-building assimilation of ideas… the ideal of all education, all training, should be this man making. But, instead of that, we are always trying to polish up the outside. What use in polishing up the outside when there is no inside.”
– Swami Vivekananda
Nurturing, shaping and polishing this inside and helping it manifest properly is what the man-making education of Swamiji is all about. This education ensures man’s organic growth from within outside and not as an attempt to keep on adjusting from outside-in. Vivekananda’s main ideal of education was man-making, character building and assimilation of ideas. We can see the impact of Vivekananda’s philosophy of education in the writings of Jawaharlal Nehru and S. Radhakrishnan, who expressed the view that science and religion should go hand in hand.
Implementing Value-education
Having worked out the reason and the approach of value-education, its execution has a few components. Initial, one needs to decide in which classes it ought to be actualized with how much time. Second, it requires improvement of books and other learning materials, for example, teacher’s manual, video addresses, home assignments, functional activities, a course site, and so forth. Third, there should be a very much characterized and clear program for instructor preparation.
Unique care is required in executing the value-education program in the educational system. There are two primary reasons why it varies from other projects. To start with value education specifically addresses bigger inquiries of life and identifies with everyday living. Subsequently, the teacher must be vastly improved arranged to start a dialogue in the class and to manage questions of the student. Second, the program goes for creating affectability in the student.
Therefore, it requires an elevated sense in the educator, the school, the school board, and so on. This additionally demonstrates this program requires a more prominent level of understanding and affectability with respect to administration executing the program. Besides monitoring the progress towards physical targets, the sensitivity part has to be carefully nurtured and ensured.
Conclusion
Education is meant not only to provide knowledge and information but also to build the character of human beings. Having a set of values and ideas, learners must be guided for self-development, so that values become a part of their character. There is a strong feeling that in the present times there is a crisis in character formation. It is also felt that since the character is largely moulded during childhood and youth, it is the responsibility of educational institutions to provide education for character building.
As the contemporary world is rapidly demanding greater intercommunication and oneness, there is an urgent need for cultivating the values of cooperation, mutuality, and harmony which can best be fostered through education.
Harmony of man and nature is also being discussed and deliberated, in recent times due to greater global concern towards the protection of the environment. The recent disturbing trend of increasing deviant behaviours among youth has also emphasized the need for education that promotes among youth the values of discipline, respect, self-control, and peace. The ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity have been expressly stated in the preamble of the Indian constitution.
Certain fundamental duties, such as the pursuit of noble ideals like non-violence and patriotism, the promotion of harmony and spirit of common brotherhood, development of scientific temper and the spirit of inquiry, humaneness and striving towards excellence in all areas of individual and collective endeavour have also been enunciated.
The quest for excellence has also stressed the need for value education at all levels. As Swami Vivekananda rightly said, “true education is man-making education,” it implies that all education must stem from value education. The study on value education as an initiative towards empowerment of youth is an attempt to understand the role of value education in making a positive difference in the personality of students and their present and future lives.
There should be value education workshops that would help the students to understand the value of discipline and moral uprightness. They have to develop a greater team spirit, enhance their levels of confidence, improve the power of concentration and build better interpersonal relationships. This has helped them develop into sensitive human beings and equipped them to effectively face the challenges of life.
A holistic approach to value education has ensured that there is a balanced development of all dimensions of students’ personalities. Spiritual and moral education is the powerful force that forges the strong and staunch individual.