Value Education

This document contains content table.

The term value itself came to ethics through the sense of economical demand and understanding, at its initial stage, within the idea of human empowerment such as—(i) value is used to upward the capacity of an object to satisfy human need or desire, (ii) value is used to exchange or set needed amount of any commodity that can be obtained in exchange with other, Sir David Ross has made a distinction between objects of satisfaction and objects of admiration, objects of satisfaction is, what the economists call ‘value in use’, everything that is satisfying  human being but objects of admiration may not bring satisfaction in ordinary sense of the word to the person who admires them, may be morally good or not. 

Value is a moral or professional standard of behaviour in general terms. Value is related to standard in order to appreciate some work. Value is a quality which we apply to some work. Value is transmitted to a circumstantial factor which depends upon the judgement of the fact

Ethics (nitisastra) is a branch of philosophy that deals with moral values. Ethics simply means moral principles that govern a person's behavior or conducting an activity. Ethics is nothing but moral values that enhance one's power of judgment. Ethical behavior could be said to be conduct in the line with one's conscience. The word “Ethics” is derived from the Greek term “ethicos” or “ethos” which means “custom, character.” Looking through its meaning, we can call it “do’s and don'ts of behavior” of an individual in society. 

Today we are facing with the problems of declining values in every aspect of our life mainly in our individual, social and the world at large. Our upbringing and en-culturation has trained us for having a single minded pursuit which leads the attainment of personal happiness and gratification. 

The word ‘Etchics’ is derived from the Greek adjective ‘ethica which comes from the substantive ‘ethos’. ‘Ethos’ means customs usage or habits. Ethics also called ‘Moral Philosophy’-which means customs of habits. Customs are also always approved by the society. Habits are the expression of the will or character. Ethics evaluates the character of person and considers its virtuousness. It is concerned with evaluation of conduct with reference to an ideal.

“Women have many and grave problems, but all can be solved by that magic word: Education” (Swami Vivekananda). Only education can bring braveness among women to solve their problems. The differences between men and women have been experienced for a long time. However, we must remember the capability of women. They should be trained for self-reliance and to be independent, in the time of danger their eyes should be filled with light not with tears. Vivekananda stated that, “Education for female should be religion centric.” Because religion forms our behaviour or character and the caliber of observance.

 This value education means some educational systems whether physical, mental or co-curricular etc. which help upgrade the overall development from physical to psychological part. Inspite of some controversy on value within different schools, value may chance with the race of time, thus it creates some new sense of value. Value has the great aim to make a world of man who will help another man to be a real man.

Every society has its own customs, rules, principles, ideals, belief, morals, values etc, which keep it markedly different from the other societies Today the objectives of education is to develop this values and norms which are acquired these by older generation through the interaction with the society. Value is the outcome of the society and it is closely related with the aims of education. 

Man is a social animal in that whatever he needs and wants he gets from the labour and cooperation of the society. Similarly, whatever he produces materially and whatever the knowledge he acquires are spreading to all people of the world. To cope with the diverse modern environments everyone should have holistic education to sympathize and live in tolerance with the standards of his fellow beings. By the phrase “holistic education” I am not including the specific sciences, which can be learned according to the wish of the individual; what I mean is the overall education of the facts of human life, including human values, which are the culmination of the evolutionary process of mankind.

Today the world in general and the Indian society in particular is faced with crisis. This is not so much intellectual but rather moral and spiritual. India is passing through a period of value crisis. Future growth of any country depends on its youth. Unfortunately, youth in India is getting increasingly inclined towards violence, social evils and lack of respect towards world around them. Our social life is full of corruption, violence, hypocrisy, exploitation, disparity and disruption.

Sustainable development means, in general, continuous overall development of the civilization. Education is one of the most essential tools for achieving sustainability. People around the world recognize that current economic development trends are not sustainable and that public awareness, education, and training are keys for transporting society toward sustainability. People argue about the meaning of sustainable development and whether or not it is attainable. 

The ethical point of view, whether Niskama karma1 or the action performed without desire of fruit is possible. The word ‘Niskama’ is a composite concept because it is made up of two different concepts as ‘nih’ and ‘kama’. The word ‘kama’ means desire or ‘kama’ is highly a vague concept because this word has been used in different senses in different contexts but in the Bhagavad Gita, it is generally used in the sense of sensuous desires and it is conceptually linked with the notion of attachment and that desires always spring from the objects of the pleasure. 

“Content analysis is a research technique for the objective, systematic and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication.” —(Barelson, 1952 as cited in Holsti, 1969) According to Cartwright (1970), Content analysis is a process which involves objective, systematic and quantitative description of any symbolic behavior. It is also referred to as documentary analysis or information analysis. 

The theory of Purusartha occupies a Pivotal Position in the history of Indian thought. The concept also has a great significance in the vedantic setup. Some expositors differ among themselves about the characterization of the concept of Purusartha, but the broad framework of the theory is not questioned by the advocates as well as the exponents. Purusartha is not merely a technical term. It has a common usage in Sanskrit. Etymologically, ‘Purusartha’ means Purusasya artha. 

We are at the threshold of the 21st century when value crisis is one of the burning problems in our daily life. The present global society is facing lots of ethical crisis. It will badly affect social equilibrium of human life. We all know that Human society may not sustain without ethical values. Ethical values primarily help a person to live a righteous life.

"In our society any man who doesn't cry at his mother's funeral is liable to be condemned to death." —[The outsider: Afterword: Albert Camus] Though Camus intended to explain the above quoted sentence in a deeper and ironic way in order to justify the deeds of Meursault, the sentence always gets an instant approval of readers at its surface level meaning and explanation. 

“A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world”. —Albert Camus (French novelist, Essayist, playwright) We practice our ethics in a living context rather than an ideal one. We may define ethics "as the normative science of the conduct of human beings living in societies—a science which judges this conduct to be right or wrong, to be good or bad or in some similar way" (William Lillie, "An introduction to Ethics") Though ethics are ideals, ideals can only serve as guidelines in life situations.

Today the word ‘value’ is widely used in every aspect of life. This word value has become more and important in individual and social life. According to the Oxford Dictionary Value is the belief about what is right and wrong and what is important in life: moral values a return to traditional values in Education. All type of education can be called value education. Education, in its aims, curriculum and methods, is inseparably linked with values. Initially the focus of our curriculum is on moral values or morality

“By education I mean an all-round drawing of best in child and man in body, mind and spirit.” —M.K. Gandhi Today as we know the aggressive mind of human being is gradually increasing to capture the power or establish himself or herself to dominate other. Young children are not well disciplined, well mannered, well trained. But we know the future of our society depends on these young people. 

Studies on different aspects of value education and inculcation of the aims of education from it have been a dominant aspect of curriculum research. Preeja, 1966 (as cited in Mishra, 1992) concluded that if given good education, students would have good moral behaviour. In 1970 Prasad, N. K. (as cited in Joshi, 1988) studied ‘Educational value of Hindi folk literature with special reference to the role of Bihar’ and aimed to find its place in future curriculum. 

Ancient Indian culture and civilization was based on values. If we go though the old Indian Scriptures we find domination of values in all walks of life. Even in the battle field value was strictly followed. Values help in the maintenance of peace and harmony chaos and confusion is the result of degradation of values. To bring the Society into the sight tract the National Education policy (1986) highlighted the urgent need of value education.

Values are the constrains that curb deeds and manners at the heart of ones dispositions. Behavioral temperament of a person are curbed by value tendencies, mental temperaments and doctrine arrangements with definite indication and importance to wider milieu of the individual. Value tendency is necessary for the arrangement of a bright future for humanity. It is thus a fact that it is a source of experience that humanity retorts to human temperament often with confirmation and sometimes with rejection. 

Human society cannot survive without values. In present time, the value crisis is too prominent in all sphere of our life. Values are developed in consequence with moral development. Moral development of a child depends on such group where he belongs to. The child as a member of the group tries to imbibe the attitudes, values and basic behaviour of the group and moulds himself according to the norms of the group.