Schooling morality to the young minds!
By: Tajamul Naseem Lone
The idea of writing this article came to me in 2016 when I read an article about ‘Education system in Finland’ published in a reputed newspaper of Kashmir. I tried to find that article again but failed. I read that article and was very much impressed by the education system adopted in Finland. After a long period of time, I attended a religious congregation held at Baramulla where a religious scholar in his sermon, talked about the same as he had spent enough time in that country. The entire article was recapitulated for me once again and I sat down to express my views about it.
Moral education means an ethical education that helps choose the right path in life. It comprises of some basic and universal principles such as truthfulness, honesty, charity, hospitality, tolerance, love, kindness and sympathy. Education is not aimed at obtaining only a degree; it includes necessary value based learning which results in character building and social improvement. It is not enough to know the good, one must equally be committed to it and one must not only know, but have the conviction that a particular course of action is the right one.
For education of any kind to be more than a system of instruction, one must make a total commitment with the whole personality development. It must entail comprehension and commitment and if either is lacking, then, the process is incomplete. The term ‘morals’ however implies behaviour and the adjectives- there is also a suggestion of ‘social criteria’, because when we talk about moral behaviour being acceptable and immoral behaviour being unacceptable, we think of the acceptance, or non-acceptance, by a given society. Society has established norms or standards against which we measure different modes of behaviour to determine their acceptability or otherwise. And because norms or standards are established by society, there is a link between value-judgment, values and morals. All these are mutually related to education.
When society establishes its norms of good and bad behaviour, it is making a value-judgment. It is saying that some forms of behaviour are more socially acceptable, more in the interest of the majority than others. It makes these judgments not arbitrarily or in isolation, but in relation to the values which it holds. One may say that moral education is therefore only adequate if it both prepares learners to reach their own moral decision on the basis of valid criteria and also enables them to implement such decision. This apparently ensures that moral education results in actual moral conduct and so does not merely produce an ethically bankrupt learner. Thus morality is seen as the ultimate aim of education. The connection between morality and education is an important one. Through education, people understand the difference between right and wrong, between good conduct and bad conduct.
The present scenario needs to undergo a radical change as the country’s future depends on its young. This is the reason schools have introduced a subject called Moral Science so that moral teachings can be disseminated among today’s modern children. Inculcating a sound moral base is becoming a tougher challenge day by day. There is cut throat competition everywhere- be it schools, colleges, offices or any talent competition. In today’s materialistic world, people are jealous of each others progress but rather than being suspicious and envious one must support and co-operate each other and work unitedly for the common welfare.
Students today are so much into studies and games but somewhere moral teachings becomes compulsory as it gives them a proper shape and direction to act or react during various situations. It is the need of the hour that schools include the concept of hidden-curriculum which refers to the transmission of norms, values, and beliefs conveyed in the classroom and the social environment. It helps to reinforce the lessons of the formal curriculum but many schools neglect it. Neglecting the value of moral education in the very beginning will lead us to immorality. Everybody must play his/her part, be it an educationist, a parent, a religious scholar, government or any of other stakeholders.
The writer is a Teacher at HSS DangiwachaRafiabad
