Education is an integral part of life and it is the key to a bright and successful future. Education without morals or values is not a quality education or education without values is like a body without soul. Moral education, also called values education or character education, refers to helping children acquire those virtues or moral habits that will help them individually live good lives and at the same time become positive contributing members of their communities.
In today’s competitive world, where everyone wants to adopt and excel in a certain profession, but at the same time they are overlooking one of the most important lessons of life, that is being a good human being. For shaping the character and behaviour of a person, moral education plays a crucial role. Moral education is a set of principles that helps a person to differentiate between right and wrong or good and bad. It helps the children learn honesty, integrity, courtesy, truthfulness, compassion, love, helpfulness, hard work and respectfulness. Albert Einstein once said “The most important human endeavour is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depends on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.”
In today’s society, youths are involved in a wide variety of anti-social activities such as gambling, drug or alcohol abuse, bullying, murder, theft, robbery, cheating etc. There is an increase in crime rates, according to the National Crime Records Bureau the overall crime graph in Jammu and Kashmir has increased by 23.16 in 2021 as compared to figures of 2019. This increase in crime rates is because of the degradation of moral values. We are not able to differentiate between right and wrong.
Childhood is the most valuable period which impacts the overall development of an individual’s personality. As the children grow, their grasping power of abstract concepts also grows. So, their understanding of moral values increases as well. Inculcating moral values in children helps them to deal with difficult situations in life and boosts their self confidence. Children get highly influenced by the people around them. They imitate their parents’ behaviour and actions. So the parent should be careful in every act of their behaviour. Parents should make sure that their actions are good enough to shape the life of their children, make them better citizens and make our society a better place.
After parents teachers play an important role in shaping the future of our children. They have the responsibility to teach them morals, ethics and discipline. However, it is so apparent that today’s educational institutes are preoccupied with making themselves a manufacturing unit of good professionals, but they are failing to create a sense of morality in their students. In order to make the students good human beings, moral education plays a key role in developing their character and personality. Students who have good morals are likely to become good citizens. Moral values determine the character of a child, can eliminate antisocial activities, lead to sincerity in children, help a child to evaluate what is good and what is bad.
Children are the foundation of our society. As a parent, be attentive to what your child is learning, be careful about the peers and friends of your child. Instil moral values in children by narrating religious or ethical stories to them, be polite and respectful towards others, involve the child while performing religious activities, listen carefully to your child’s ideas and wherever required correct them, spend quality time with them, provide opportunities for them to help others, involve them in community services and give positive reinforcement (rewards) to them when they show good behaviour. It is also important to educate children to be disciplined and not to cheat while in class and examination and they are to be taught that there are no shortcuts in life and life is an examination where there is no syllabus the only thing that can get them through is a good character and speaking truth at all times. It is also important to tell your children the severity of punishment one might get committing crimes and serious offences. The role of a parent goes beyond just being a parent; it also involves being the child’s mentor and friend so that the child can learn more easily.
Character defines a person, regardless of their profession, be it a scientist, an aeronautical engineer, a doctor, etc., if the character of a person is not good then he or she is worthless. In order to make our society a better place there is dire need to impart moral or value education in schools because without morals we are animals . As Martin Luther King has truly said, “Education without morals is like a ship without a compass, merely wandering nowhere.”
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