The process of education should be of developing the spirit of rational inquiry and self-discovery, says Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj
Recently the news about a school girl raped by her own school teacher left the whole nation benumbed with shock and shame. A land where goddesses are worshiped and young girls are considered as Devi’s has witnessed the most barbaric incident of recent times. While we try to reconcile ourselves to this dark reality by looking for answers in the burning embers and muted cries of victims and in due course push the unpleasant memories under the pressures of our mundane problems, we need to look at the root cause of such incidents.
What breeds such barbarity and savagery on the part of so called literate and respect personalities who indulge in shameless act of exploiting innocent children and womenIJ To get an answer to these questions, we need to first look at one of the fundamental factors that shape our future citizens. We need to have a close look at our education system. Has anyone from us ever thought about this that what kind of education are we giving to our childrenIJ Do we know that the lessons that our children learn in the confines of the classrooms are far removed from the reality around them.
Extreme pressure on young innocent minds to memorise huge volumes of information and perform well in exams robs them of the joy of learning. They spend their formative years mugging facts without being taught to think rationally and critically as a result of which their creative, emotional and moral development gets halted .
A detailed psychological study has shown that very often the repressive and authoritarian culture at schools can be linked to the violent and dysfunctional behaviour in adolescents and adults.
As per psychiatrists if such behaviour is expressed and reformed in uninhibited interactions during childhood, then we may not have so many cases of well-behaved persons going berserk and giving vent to their repressed instincts in moments of frenzy.
The process of education should thus be of developing the spirit of rational inquiry and self-discovery where teachers should facilitate children to inquire, explore, think and express different viewpoints and discern the values of life.
However in reality, the situation is completely opposite and on the contrary in many of the schools, right from the beginning children are discouraged to ask questions, to speak or express what they think about something and hence they end up accepting whatever is spoken by their teachers without giving any thought to it.
Modern educators should clearly understand one thing that is, that the fear of reprimand or punishment is not the means to teach discipline to students as it is enforced in most of the schools. Instead, children should be made to learn the value of self-discipline from the beginning so that we may not require so many law-enforcement systems to control the citizens.
Nowadays there is a trend among the schools to teach values as subjects to children. But, one should remember a fact that values cannot be taught, they have to be caught by the young minds from their environment and good role models. We can have a long list of values but basically a value is that for which we dedicate our life. One needs to experience values in a practical way and enlighten self to make a difference to the whole world.
When teachers fail to embody these values in their own behaviour, it raises confusion about the ideal and the practical. Hence, education should be a means for getting in touch with our innate values like love, happiness and truth so that we become strong, balanced and constructive citizens. So, let us work towards educating our children in value education as a living example and empower our future in true tradition of our culture and heritage.