Life long Learning and Values

 

  In today's time children need more parental guidance and support in their day to day life. The support of parents and teachers plays a crucial role in their upbringing. There are parents - the permissive ones who shower all their love blindly but are unable to provide the required guidance. Some do the opposite by being strict disciplinarians and fail to provide love - the authoritarians. There are those who neither shower their love nor guide the children - the negligent parents. None of these are helpful in the proper upbringing. To be an effective parent you need to be an appropriate blend of discipline and love for your child.
   Teachers too play an important role in shaping the psyche and future of a child. The children today are at a big loss due to the decline in the communication between a parent-child at home and the disengagement of student-teacher in the classrooms. We as parents and teachers need to look for opportunities to interact personally with our children. There should be room for one-on-one interactions, reflection and mentoring in order to build the self beliefs and values among the children today. This can be possible only if we go beyond our limits or say beyond our call of duty/ parental obligations and spend more time and energy for our children. Due to lack of such an environment children are often grappling with questions like: Am I loved? Why am I criticized always? Am I good for nothing? Who will listen to me? and many more.
   Despite of advancing in technology we have common behavioral traits as we have adapted to new lifestyles: like anger, conflict, mental health issues, intolerance and issues of broken/failed relationships. The information oriented education does not make our children wise because there is no inculcation of values, the mind is not being trained nor there is any discernment to differentiate right from wrong. Despite of advancing in technology and information on a daily basis  we must understand that humanity is sustained by eternal values - Self school, moral development, character building, adherence to social norms, human welfare and the valuing life are highly essential.
   A study to find out the under performance in students has revealed that even though the students were intelligent and were given reasonable care by the parents, they had no sense of gratitude  - an indicator of value deficiency. They all had an illusionary worldview which hardly allowed the students to reflect on their actions or its consequences. They were not honest nor sincere towards their responsibilities which can be called a deficiency of being accountable for your responsibilities.
When it is time for studies and assessments, these two factors - value and accountability deficiency interplay in a way that the students become highly anxious, less confident and emotionally disturbed.
   The education system needs a change that guarantees that these life skills/ soft skills are taught to children as they will be very essential for their future. Students need grace, an attitude of being a lifelong learner, poise and cultural proficiency to be successful in life. We need to have a collaborative approach to help children and make them prepared for their life ahead. That should be the aim of our education system - life long learning.