Essence of Life-Our
Personal Values
Each human being is a self-developing soul. Therefore, every individual in his/her life develops a core set of personal values and makes every effort to implement these values. A life based on personal values brings meaning, purpose and direction to living. This, in turn, energises an individual's life and gives motive to it. When we observe the lives of famous people, we understand how personal values guided and propelled them to achieve their missions.
Values:
A value is a belief, standard, mission or principle that is worth and useful. In other words, we can say that values are deeply held beliefs regarding what is good, correct and appropriate to help an individual become worth and useful to the society. Values can range from the commonplace such as the belief in hard work and punctuality to the more psychological such as self-reliance, concern for others and harmony of purpose. Once we identify the values that are meaningful to us, we can develop strategies to implement them. If the values we identified are taken to the heart and implemented in the smallest details of our lives, we are sure to achieve great accomplishment and success in our lives.
Aim of Education:
We accumulate values since our childhood, based on the teachings and observations of our parents, teachers, religious leaders and other influential and powerful people. These values get deep-seated in our behaviour and attitude and remain throughout our lives. Although children are self-developing souls, parents and teachers should help them educate themselves and develop their intellectual, social, moral, aesthetic and practical capacities. In addition, parents and teachers should allow children to grow freely as organic beings and should not pressurise them to become inert plastic materials.
Values are beliefs that influence our behaviour and decisions-making ability. For example, if we believe that telling the truth is very important, we will try to be truthful in all spheres of life. Research has shown that understanding our values is one of the most important factors in determining satisfaction in work, relationships and leisure activities.
Now, the question that lies is how to make these values practical and applicable in life by means of the educational system. The education system should be such that it enables children to clarify and prioritise their values and serves them as a blueprint for future decision-making. Evidently, this is a long process and many steps have to be taken before reaching the goal. Moreover, the growth of a man is an evolutionary process and to understand this, we need to concentrate on the different parts of the various stages in an individual's life. These parts include the body and the physical being, the vital being and the mind that is the center of attention. Values for the soul and the inner being may be introduced gently at all the stages, till it becomes a natural habit in the individual. We must always remember that education must be a natural flowering of the individual and not a forced enclosure into certain pre-fixed grooves.
The aim of our education system should be to
enable a child live a value-based life. A value-based life will
help a child recognise his/her worth to provide meaning and purpose
to his/her life. If a child is clear about his/her personal code of
values, he/she will experience the following benefits in life:
· Life will become meaningful.
· A child will be able to set a purpose in life.
· It will be easier for a child to make decisions.
· A child will have a stress-free life.
· A child will have clear choices.
· A child will have an easy life.
· A child will have clear aims and goals in life.
It is to be however noted that all types of education involve interaction among the three groups of people: parents, teachers and the children themselves.
Parents:
The school authorities do not have any real control over the parents. It is however indispensable that the school must have a detailed interaction with the parents; otherwise, whatever is taught in the school might go waste. We have to accept the fact that no real control is possible over the parents. Because parents are a very important part of the educational process, it would be good if they are taken into confidence. For this, there could be regular interaction with them and they could be given some literature, based on the philosophy that the school is following. As a matter of fact, parents should become partners in the school's education process. How to do this depends on many factors, and each educational institution should be able to find out the best way to get the full cooperation of parents.
Teachers:
We talk a lot about whether values should be taught in the school. We know that values are not genetically passed on from parents to children; hence, it is obvious that values are learned. A child in his/her tender age, which is also impressionable, is more inclined towards his/her teachers and peers. Thus, the role of teachers become more significant. Teachers must understand that students learn most effectively in a stimulating and varied classroom environment. They should also ensure that appropriate environment is provided to the children. It is the teachers' responsibily to ensure that besides basic values such as truth, honesty, respect, decency, love and kindness, the values such as cleanliness, valuing time, safety, health and personal hygiene should be taught to children. These values will help students determine what is right and what is wrong.
The School Environment:
The school environment is within the control of the school authorities. The school should ensure that the values that are preached to the children are also practised by the teachers, helper staff and administrative staff because it is evident that children learn what they see. Throughout the session, the school should organise games, cultural shows and activities based on values. The school should ensure that social studies is a part of the curriculum to help students understand human interactions that has happened in the past, is happening in the present and will also happen in the future. Even the curriculum should have an integrated approach in subjects and values. This will help children in learning values and adding them into their behaviour.
Values for Children of Age 2-5
Because we are dealing with children of younger age, we shall divide this age group into two parts. The first part will be for children of 2 to 5 years of age and the second part will be for children of 6 to 11 years of age. In this article, we will be reading about the values that need to be developed in children of age 2-5 years.
This can be discussed under three aspects: the physical, the cognitive and the psychological.
The Physical Aspects
The physical environment plays an important role in the education of a child, particularly at the nursery and kindergarden stages. Great care has to be taken in creating the right physical environment. It will not be possible to go into a detailed description of the environment in this article. Therefore, we have listed a few broad principles related to the physical aspects that must be strictly adhered to:
- It is very important that the school building, the rooms and the area around the school should make the children completely at ease and comfortable. There should be enough space for children to move freely.
- The school surroundings must be full of trees, plants and shrubs, flowers, birds, animals and aquariums; the school has to be beautiful and closely related to nature.
- The rooms must be carpeted as children will need to lie down from time to time.
- Children should always be encouraged to play freely in groups.
- Daily physical exercises, yoga and outdoor activities are a must in the curriculum.
- Children should be encouraged to jump and dance freely on music.
The Cognitive Aspects:
At this early age, the consciousness of children is generally centred in their bodies and the physical being. It is therefore through the body that awareness has to be increased and developed.
The first thing to be remembered is that all education has to be in the form of play. It is through games that one can most effectively train a child. A great deal of freedom must be given to children; no imposition should be inforced on them. However, with encouragement, children must be led to the activity that one wants them to do.
A child must be taught how to sit, stand, eat, write, sleep, walk and breathe.
All children want to express themselves. Because language is not developed fully at this stage, they must be allowed to express themselves through drawing, painting, working with their hands, singing and even playing musical instruments.
The right physical habits must be taught when children are young; once these habits are established, a great deal of time and energy will be saved in later life.
At a slightly later stage, as the child learns to read, he/she must be taught how to talk properly without becoming artificial. Language should be introduced to children in its correct form and diction.
The senses are a man's first means of coming into contact with the world. Therefore, at this age, a lot of time has to be given for sense training. A large number of exercises and games can be devised to train all the senses. One should take care to see that all the senses are developed.
Children must be exposed to good music of all kinds, beautiful paintings and realistic sculptures. This brings in a refinement and develops the aesthetic sense.
The school timetable should include activities like reading, writing, art, craft, gardening, putting things together, clay modelling, cooking, computer, gym, sorting, counting, swimming, etc. Teachers should ensure that all children take part in the school activities.
Children can participate in dramas using music and props.
Festivals can
be celebrated; children will love it. In addition, art exhibitions
can be held frequently.
Excursions should be held to various places of interest.
The Psychological Aspects
Children should be surrounded by love, affection and a deep understanding. Teachers must develop a personal relationship with each child; teachers must observe, in a detailed manner, the characteristics and tendencies of each child and must note them down. Once the teacher knows the children well, he/she can help lead the children to right habits and right actions accordingly. The teacher must be a good psychologist and must always be in full control of herself/himself.
Children are very curious and ask a lot of questions; this should be encouraged and the teacher must find ways of answering them in a language that is understandable to the children.
