Whenever there is a discussion about values and value education there is generally skepticism about the relevance of values in the present day context. One reason is because our general conception about value education has been mainly expressed in terms of development of values and virtues like honesty, self-control, respect, responsibility, loyality for personality or character development of the individual per se without situating them in the prevailing social, cultural realities and conditions.
Values should not be treated as ideal concepts but as ‘empowering tools’ which are helpful in meeting the challenges of the contemporary social world–be it religious fundamentalism, environmental degradation, multi-cultural conflicts, misuse of science and technology, inequalities, ill effects of mass media, globalisation, commercialisation and so on.
The very nature of value education implies empowering the students with certain attitudes and skills as well as giving them the critical ability to use them in the contemporary every day world, full of myriad challenges. In the context of schools and school education, there are some key challenges, particularly in contemporary social contexts, that acquire a sense of urgency which need to be addressed.
An attempt has been made to present a brief discussion of why we need to come up with new ways of educating students, to allow them to better situate themselves when confronted by the socio-cultural complexities, and the role of values in meeting the challenges.
Values should not be treated as ideal concepts but as ‘empowering tools’ which are helpful in meeting the challenges of the contemporary social world–be it religious fundamentalism, environmental degradation, multi-cultural conflicts, misuse of science and technology, inequalities, ill effects of mass media, globalisation, commercialisation and so on.
The very nature of value education implies empowering the students with certain attitudes and skills as well as giving them the critical ability to use them in the contemporary every day world, full of myriad challenges. In the context of schools and school education, there are some key challenges, particularly in contemporary social contexts, that acquire a sense of urgency which need to be addressed.
An attempt has been made to present a brief discussion of why we need to come up with new ways of educating students, to allow them to better situate themselves when confronted by the socio-cultural complexities, and the role of values in meeting the challenges.
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