‘Value-education-initiatives to empower our youth and nation
For State–level Conference on
Value-education-initiatives to empower our youth and
nation- Disha Bharat
Introduction
Values are for humanity, undisputedly the
only means for a healthy and balanced existence. They sculpt our thought,
speech and action from the elementary level. Our great nation and all its
material and spiritual achievements have withstood the test of time and repeated
onslaughts mainly because they were all built upon a strong value system. But after
centuries of foreign rule interfered terribly in our social, cultural and
academic structures, the conventional value education system came to be trivialized.
Education itself gradually demoted to a mere ‘bread making means’ and the place
of values stooped low. Most of our academicians and parents now assume that a
list of do’s and dont’s mentioned on a wall board is sufficient value education!
We are therefore now breeding ‘literate, smart and rich’ but ‘insensitive,
unpatriotic and arrogant youth’ in modern times. They easily fall prey to vices
like corruption, misuse of power and money, crime and hypocrisy. As a result, our
society is suffering from a dangerous value crisis.
As Indians, let us reflect back upon how our ages
old tradition meaningfully explores the concept of the universal value- ‘Dharma’. Here we have the three fold
concept of dharma-
Rta- comprehension of the eternal value
consciousness
Satya- verbal expression of the same (truth) and
Dharma- implementation of the same in action
When we comprehend ‘Rta’, then Satya (truth)
and Dharma (virtue)’ come to us
naturally. Rta, unfolds in us a
universal value consciousness, empowers our speech and actions and generates
the inner strength to blossom forth the best within us. When we fail to
comprehend Rta, we naturally cannot
implement satya and dharma too. If humanity, despite all its
material progress, does not implement this ‘Rta-Satya-Dharma’
concept, it will consequently suffer from self-induced hatred and violence. In
a thus fragmented and selfish society, the quality of life and mutual trust degenerate.
Only the implementation of Dharma in all
walks of life can promote individual as well as national wellbeing and enable progress.
Have a look at the picture on the right-
Notice how the roots of the gigantic tree are
two times deeper and more complex than its stem and branches. This explains how
the huge tree is nourished and sustained for years. Similarly, the vast tree of
humanity can be sustained only if its roots (value system) are deep and
mightier than all its material attributes. New branches may grow back when damaged,
but if the roots are diseased and under nourished, the whole tree falls apart. If
values decline, the human society will degenerate down for sure.
Why then are people not interested in
adhering to values? Why is the modern society trivializing the place of value
in education and life? Why is man so insensitive towards the feelings of his
fellowmen? Why does he forsake even his own dignity for small gains? Ofcourse,
the answer is– ‘Failure of value education at the elementary level’.
Some factors discussed below express the need
for a strong value education system in India-
1.
Swami
Vivekananda proclaimed- “What we need is
Man-making and character-building education”. It is only value education that
generates strength of character and all round personality development. Without values,
we would use all our material resources only for selfish gains and end up
offending each other. This would make life on earth devoid of trust and
love.
2.
Swami
Vivekananda meaningfully said- “Have
five great ideals and make them your life and character. Then you are more
educated than a man who has a whole library by heart”. Value education
inspires us to aspire for lofty ideals and work persistently towards them. We truly
unfold our inner worth only when a ‘higher ideal’ thus becomes our driving
force.
3.
Dharma gives us a broad sense of discrimination
and empowers our conscience to dictate to us clearly ‘what to do and what not
to do’. It instills in us the patience to work and wait for ends,
instead of hurrying towards unethical shortcuts that ‘cut us short’.
4.
Dharma defines our social image and relationships. Values inspire in us a
bigger picture of life wherein we visualize success as not ‘easy to grab results’
but actually hard earned experience, skills and service. That naturally fetches
us love and admiration from the society.
5.
Considering
the violence and insecurity that value crisis has generated in the modern
world, a serious rejuvenation of the standards of dharma proves to be the only way to save mankind.
6.
The ‘paradigm
shift’ towards money has made man ‘race for results’. Caring least for the
ethical aspects of the means, he thoughtlessly follows blind trends and this
has been costing him his peace, health, safety, mutual trust and even life.
7.
Man has
made this beautiful earth a battlefield by massacring, looting, colonializing
masses simply to appease his ego and assert his superiority. His vishesha-dharma (personal values like
beliefs, religion, profession, clan, language, taste, aptitude, etc.,) has come
to gain an upper-hand over saamanya-dharma
(the universal values like truth, love, forgiveness, purity, placidity, etc.,)
and creating mutual conflicts.
8.
Man can
today claim to control anything and everything except his own untamed passions
and negative emotions. How can he be truly a ‘conqueror’ when his own mind does
not care to obey him? Adi Shankaracharya rightly observes “Jitam Jagat kena? Mano hi yena”
(He has conquered the world
who has conquered his mind)[1].
9.
Even
animals and birds display a sense of value comprehension.[2]
How then can man who claims to be the most superior of all creatures, live
bereft of Dharma? That would render him inferior to even wild beasts.
Why then is value education losing its charm
and appeal in the modern world? We could infer some reasons thus-
a)
It is
presently being framed and taught by mere academic scholars as a mere ‘optional
supplementary’ to the main syllabus. Academic system itself doesn’t view it to
be as important as other ‘score to pass’ subjects.[3]
Naturally the style of teaching values lacks enthusiasm and has promoted a
culture of passive listening in the students.
b)
Most of
our teachers seldom carry a noble air around themselves. They lack experiential
knowledge or a spiritual height and many times lack even basic ethics. How
could they then become role models and impress upon the younger generation the
significance of values?[4]
c)
For
centuries, the colonial agenda of the west has been brainwashing Indians to feel
inferior about themselves and their native value systems. The blindly adopted
western style of education in India has been misleading youth believe that
‘nothing good or noteworthy has been achieved in the Indian methodology and
everything good and rational must come from the west’. Westernization,
conversions and plagiarization of Indian values by vested sources has been unplugging
people from their mother faiths and paving way for a dangerous identity crisis in
young Indians. We must seriously awaken to this danger before this may lead to
another phase of slavery for the nation.
What approaches can be adopted for value
education?
Value education needs to be refreshed to be
appreciated better by our young minds. We need to create a source of rich
information of our heritage, values, achievers and spirituality. We need a
‘less talk and more work’ model to teach. Boring theories must be replaced by
related activities which make them sit up, think and understand. Keeping all
these in mind, given below is a list of indoor and outdoor activities –
1.
“Be and Make” - directs Swami
Vivekananda. Teachers and parents must set up high ethical standards for
themselves and become role models in order to convince the young ones.
2.
Swami
Vivekananda warned- “A country that has
forgotten its roots has no future”. Generate more and more information about
our roots and values in form of talks, discussions, audio-visuals, celebrations,
events, workshops, projects, etc., Throw light upon the historical,
geographical, literary, cultural and spiritual aspects of ancient, medieval and
contemporary Indian achievements to generate national pride and patriotism.[5]
3.
Swami
Vivekananda said- “Indianize the Indians”.
Conduct activities that connect the youth to their heritage and elders. Eg- ‘Interview
the grandparents or a soldier or a successful entrepreneur or eminent
educationist, farmer, artist, artisan, inventor and so on’. This enables the
youth to directly feel and acknowledge the makers of the society.
4.
Teachers
and parents need to develop effective narrating styles, body language and a
strong knowledge base of cultural and spiritual information and captivate the young
minds through impressive words packed with insights, attractive poems, proverbs
and meaningful anecdotes.
5.
Technology
is a good tool in the modern day. Develop good audio-visuals, portals,
interactive blogs, discussions and games and involve the young. The content
must highlight national values and the style must be impressive.
6.
Take
youngsters to visit temples and traditional centers. Explain how our temples
were centers of religious, cultural, social, charitable and artistic activities
and as to how they were charity homes, shelter to the homeless and lodges to
travellers, venue for local courts, rich treasury to support people during
crisis, platforms for large scale public events, etc., in ancient times. Form
student groups and take initiatives to clean up, raise funds, volunteer and
promote activities in poor temples and mutts in your localities.
7.
Verbal
activities-
·
Deal
with stories from puranas, epics, history, folk and fantasy as well as foreign tales of good taste. Have
activities like ‘complete the story’, ‘stories through pics / action (using no
words)’
·
Arrange
essay writing and open debates on values, social issues and human behavior.
·
Explain
the meanings of the songs, poems and shlokas
that we sing.
8.
Create
awareness through charts, wall posts, workshops, seminars, skits and discussions
on how man’s insensitivity towards ethics and environment affect health and hygiene
and promotes drugs, alcohol, smoking, illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, mutual
conflicts and many more.
9.
Set up
student volunteer groups to serve at school and college events as well as
social and cultural events in town. Direct youngsters to join active youth
associations like YFS, Disha, etc.,
10. Make students clean up class rooms and
premises and help teachers arrange material in staff rooms, laboratories,
sports room and stores. This makes them humble, self-reliant and more
responsible.
11. Encourage youth to give tuitions (to orphans
and slum children), raise funds and donate stationery, articles, pictures,
charts, saplings, etc., for poor schools and NGOs.
12. Impart training in first aid, traffic rules
and self-defense, waste management, planting trees, avoiding plastics, etc.,
and guide them to implement it in life.
13. Conduct motivational workshops on soft-skills
to enlighten them about interpersonal and intrapersonal-skills, conflict-management,
decision-making, group dynamics, stress-management, positive-thinking, etc.,
14. Set up school banks & promote piggy bank savings
to train youngsters to save more and realize the value of money, its uses and
abuses.
15. Create awareness about the pseudo commercials
that have been looting our economy and young minds.[6]
Promote the swadeshi movement (self-reliance)
to empower our economy.
16. Teach young ones to bow down to their
parents, teachers and elders daily. Parents and teachers must do it themselves
to establish a living tradition of the same.
17. Train young ones in Atithi satkara. It is sad that many of our youth are too arrogant to even greet or share
pleasantries with guests at home or school.
18. Infuse traditional flavor in school/ college
events– Popularize traditional games, pastimes, desi sports and folk art and arrange classes on native art forms
like Yakshagaana, dollu kunita, kamsaale,
embroidery, beed work, cooking, sculpture and many others apart
from classical music and dance. The colour and aesthetic charm shall doubtlessly
generate love and admiration in young minds.
19. Think of some events like-
a) Aduge habba
(food fest hosted by children)
b) Makkala sante
(children fairs where they trade and learn marketing)
c) Ethnic dress code for all important occasions
in the institution.
d) ‘Heritage walk’ across the city to see and
learn about historical places in town.[7]
e) Quiz on India[8]
The above is only a random list of ideas,
some of which are already being implemented. Grab noble ideas from everywhere
and use them resourcefully. More than anything, a firm resolve to ‘do something’
will generate more creative ideas in responsible parents and teachers.
1.
How does value education empower youth to
empower nation?
It is only when Dharma dictates our thought, emotions, lifestyles, goals and attitude that we
emerge as strong and dignified individuals and society. The genius of our sages
framed the ‘dharma-artha-kama-moksha
concept (the four-fold ethical code to human life). Accordingly, our artha(material assets) and kaama(needs) must be framed and tamed within
dharma(universal value consciousness).
A society that emulates this concept shall grow materially prosperous and
ethically strong. A thorough soul cleansing can thus happen in every heart and
only then can people rise above cheap temptations and think big. Only then can
powerful personalities like Krishna, Buddha, Chanakya and Vidyaranya rise once
again. Only then can Indians become truly empowered as a nation and overcome mutual
hatred and sectarianism. Only then can we build a strong national spirit and
progress in the true sense.
2.
Conclusion
Swami
Vivekananda assured- ‘--- the longest night is passing, the sorest trouble is
ending at last” “----Never is she (India) going to sleep anymore---”. Swamiji visualized
a glorious awakening thus- “Arise and awake and see India seated on her eternal
throne, rejuvenated, more glorious than she ever was- this motherland of ours”.
He motivated every Indian- “Up my boys and put yourself to the task!”. Swamiji
strived all life and sacrificed his all to awaken the national spirit of India.
Let us respond to the clarion call of Swami Vivekananda. May his glorious
message echo in the hearts of every Indian and inspire us all to work incessantly
towards building a strong nation and realizing the eternal ideal of ‘sat, chit and ananda’ (truth, wisdom and bliss) in life.
[1]
Prashnottararatnamaalika- by
Adi Shankaracharya
[2]
Scandinavian mountain rodents called ‘Lemmings’ which multiply in large numbers
in a short period, periodically commit mass suicide by falling into the sea.
They volunteer to this great sacrifice simply so that their young ones get
better food, shelter and living! Does this not pinch the conscience of the
greedy and insensitive human beings?
[3] Many
institutions don’t even have a session for values and others use up the time for
‘more important’ subjects
[4] Recent accounts of ‘teachers
abusing their own students sexually or with religious bias obviously shakeup
the regard for the ‘guru’.
[5] Our parents and teachers have
failed to pass on the information about our past heroes and achievers, which
has led to make our young ones feel that all worthy knowledge and inspiration
can come only for the west.
[6] Studies say that teenage pocket
money spent in India amounts to about 2 billion rupees every year !
[7] Historian Mr Suresh Moona conducts
it in Bengaluru
[8] Eg- The ‘Bharat ko Jano’ model of Bharat vikas Parishad
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