Where is Value in education?
18/12/2007
Moments ago, I was reading a mail that enlisted the simple pleasures that people born before the 80s enjoyed. One which talks about the regular activiities of the kids of those times, rare for kids of these days, which involved simple pleasures such as jumping over the wall, climbing the tree, running in grounds, a fairly good immunity to eat anything that we want, so on and so forth. Just after basking in that cosy feeling, the first news to hit me from the ticker was that of a class 11 boy stabbing a class 8 girl for rejecting his "marriage" proposal.
Dejected over the girl's refusal to "marry" him, the boy had stabbed her to death and he consumed poison himself. Not long ago, was that incident in a Delhi school when a class 9 student fired gun shots at his classmates over some minor disagreement. A similar case of a school boy throwing acid in the face of a girl who rejected his wedding proposal also hit the headlines a couple of months ago.
Of late, the incidence of such violent incidents in school campuses are on the rise.It is appalling to note that children these days completely lack the basic human tenet of forgiveness, instead are gripped with cold feelings of hatred and revenge. How else would you explain such act of "revenge" and "rejection"?
This brings a few questions to the fore. Where is the eternal value called patience gone? Where is that wonderful virtue of forgiveness, for which India is known in history gone? What is the kind of education that these kids are acquiring? What are the values that the teachers and parents impart in their wards?
Just a mere school trip to temples or historical places or just showing them a few slides about a few animation films about saints, none of these so-called virtues will be imparted.
Virtues are not acquired,they have to be cultivated. It is the responsibility of both the parents and teachers to explain to children as to how to handle disappointments, failure, cheat etc and explain the importance of forgiving people and forgetting unpleasant things.
But in this competitive world, with success being recognised as the only positive virtue while anything else is considered a total fiasco, the parents and teachers themselves are out to invent numerous short cuts to reach the goal. So, driven by , both parents and teachers,children tend to believe that failure is taboo and fail to accept defeat and debauchery. This leads them to such extreme acts of violence.
Unless parents and teachers highlight the virtues of patience, perseverence, forgiveness to their wards, I am sure such headlines will continue to make it to news pages.
Moments ago, I was reading a mail that enlisted the simple pleasures that people born before the 80s enjoyed. One which talks about the regular activiities of the kids of those times, rare for kids of these days, which involved simple pleasures such as jumping over the wall, climbing the tree, running in grounds, a fairly good immunity to eat anything that we want, so on and so forth. Just after basking in that cosy feeling, the first news to hit me from the ticker was that of a class 11 boy stabbing a class 8 girl for rejecting his "marriage" proposal.
Dejected over the girl's refusal to "marry" him, the boy had stabbed her to death and he consumed poison himself. Not long ago, was that incident in a Delhi school when a class 9 student fired gun shots at his classmates over some minor disagreement. A similar case of a school boy throwing acid in the face of a girl who rejected his wedding proposal also hit the headlines a couple of months ago.
Of late, the incidence of such violent incidents in school campuses are on the rise.It is appalling to note that children these days completely lack the basic human tenet of forgiveness, instead are gripped with cold feelings of hatred and revenge. How else would you explain such act of "revenge" and "rejection"?
This brings a few questions to the fore. Where is the eternal value called patience gone? Where is that wonderful virtue of forgiveness, for which India is known in history gone? What is the kind of education that these kids are acquiring? What are the values that the teachers and parents impart in their wards?
Just a mere school trip to temples or historical places or just showing them a few slides about a few animation films about saints, none of these so-called virtues will be imparted.
Virtues are not acquired,they have to be cultivated. It is the responsibility of both the parents and teachers to explain to children as to how to handle disappointments, failure, cheat etc and explain the importance of forgiving people and forgetting unpleasant things.
But in this competitive world, with success being recognised as the only positive virtue while anything else is considered a total fiasco, the parents and teachers themselves are out to invent numerous short cuts to reach the goal. So, driven by , both parents and teachers,children tend to believe that failure is taboo and fail to accept defeat and debauchery. This leads them to such extreme acts of violence.
Unless parents and teachers highlight the virtues of patience, perseverence, forgiveness to their wards, I am sure such headlines will continue to make it to news pages.
Comments
Many schools lack funds for inspirational guest speakers, cultural field trips, etc. Teachers are forced to work towards exam scores not making great citizens. Even the so-called Moral Education class is slowly vanishing or replaced with core subject drills during examination times, especially for the 9-12 grades (when it is all the more needed).
While I agree schools could do better, they are not the only ones to blame. And God bless, it is not so easy to acquire a pistol in Delhi as it is in Los Angeles. Such incidents are still "rare" and "newsworthy" and not a daily routine in India. Thank God for that.