Value Education

Some Thoughts on Value Education

  M.P.Parameswaran

This is only a loud thinking on ‘Values’ and how to help children to imbibe them.

When unity and secularism are the mottoes

Children of Kushinagar Karmani Premwalia Kasya GVV

1. They have to ‘imbibe’ them and not to be imparted to.
2. ‘Value’ is a meaningful term only amongst collectives and not for individuals.
3. Propensity for collectivism and cooperation is an evolution and character of human species and not a cultural attribute.
4. Many say that humans are ‘essentially selfish” and competitive. This is not scientifically true. They are essentially cooperative and love to share.
5. The basic unit of the society or collective is ‘family’. Values are imbibed from family, school and society at large.
6. These ‘values; imbibed from various sources need not necessarily be the same, they could be even at loggerheads with each other.
7. The purpose of ‘education’, is to help the child to harmonize the conflicting values it picks up at home and from society at large.
8. Values can be defined within different frameworks- the individual, the family, the society, the species, short-term, long-term. All are relevant.

Summarising the above we may express desirable values in the following words:

Cooperation, sustainability, equity, caring and sharing.