The Progressive Teacher Vol 04 Issue 03

value education
–Geeta Gujral
Theodore Roosevelt
said, ‘To educate a
man in mind and not in
morals is to educate a
menace to society.’
Trending now? Happened
earlier? Or proposed for
future?
It is for the Junior School, the
Pre-Primary and Primary level,
that I address this issue of
‘VALUE EDUCATION’ today. I
firmly believe and so do we all,
that it is the ethics that keep
the society intact. This guild has
people who feel secure and have
acquired appropriate attitude.
This issue should trend at all
times. If we lose sight of morals,
we have lost the target while
educating children in schools.
In this competitive era of marks
and grades, the demand and
supply groove, do you think
we are forgetting the most
important aspect of education?
The value system! Yes, this is the
need of the hour. If not trending
now, it will be the utmost concern
in the coming times and has
been even centuries ago when
the kings sent the princes to the
ashrams to procure the skills and
values to become suitable heirs
to the throne and be capable of
taking care of the public and
pronounce unbiased judgments in
the courts.
This should be a concern in our
times too. It is an awakening
call, to steer education into the
runway for students to takeoff
for their smooth flight to the
future.
The needs of students,
upgradation of educators and
demand of present and future
jobs have to be synchronized.
This starts at the Pre-primary
level when we start preparing the
children for the big world. Stories
chosen and books read out to
them or read by them should
not be directed to make a point
blatantly but in a subtle manner.
For example, stories from the
Panchatantra which have moral
messages could be extended
for enactment in the form of
an activity which demands
application, analysis, reasoning
and critical thinking before
arriving at a decision.
This can have an extension where
students can then discuss why it
was the correct or the incorrect
decision or how it could have
been modified in a better way.
By this approach, we allow the
Teacher
Reaches
Engages
Nurtures
Directs
Ignites
Nourishes
Grooms
TOWARDS VALUE EDUCATION
In this competitive era of marks and grades, the demand and supply
groove, do you think we are forgetting the most important aspect of
education? The value system! Yes, this is the need of the hour.
children to think, support them
in their efforts and escort them
by facilitating the process of
imbibing values.
Students do need knowledge
which is the dynamo for
education. But being
programmed as a robot is not
worthwhile. What is required is,
love and care given by parents
and teachers which enable the
student to lead an emotionally
healthy life and take the right
decisions at the right time. A
good decision maker will always
be a contented person and will
bring happiness around him.
A happy educator can do this
by using various child-centred
strategies. Do we really buy this
thought that ‘Moral Science’
sermons help the children? I am
sure we disagree as participation
always works better than theory.
Through generations, stories
have played an important
role in passing on of cultures,
values, etc. The lives of famous
individuals, kings, sportspersons,
people from ordinary walks of
life, episodes from ones own
life, instances narrated by the
children become live wire value
modules. But we need to spend
time on this! They have to be
equipped to influence the society
positively in partnership with
parents, technology, storytelling,
theatre show presentations, etc.
The impact, thus, will be gentle
Ms Geeta Gujral, has been a part of
the prestigious DPS family since 1992.
She started her journey from DPS
East of Kailash (Junior branch of DPS
R.K.Puram) and is now the Supervisor at
the Junior branch of DPS International,
Saket, New Delhi. She is a good orator
and her skills range from curriculum
designing, lesson planning to activity based teaching.
She has conducted live satellite programmes and training
sessions for teachers at various Delhi Public Schools.
She had participated in ‘Continuing Professional
Development Story Competition’ organised by British
Council and made it to the top five winners at the all
India level. British Council sponsored her to attend the
Third International English Language Teacher Educator
Conference at Hyderabad. Trinity College London had
organised a ‘Lesson Planning Competition’ for the
delegates. Geeta’s lesson plan was selected by their
Teacher Development Panel and was ranked among first
twenty.
She was awarded the Second prize for her presentation at
the ‘Best Teaching Practices Conference’ organized by NIIT
but lifelong.
We as educators have the
liability to prepare ‘citizens’ who
will be the pride of the country.
For that it is not important
to fight a war at the border
but to tenderly, intelligently
groom young children to be
compassionate and have good
demeanor, tolerance and belief in
universal brotherhood.
In the kind of mixed classrooms
that we have nowadays, where
we treasure children from all
sorts of backgrounds, it becomes
imperative that the curriculum
designing needs to offer the best
package to the children for them
to become socially, intellectually
and traditionally compatible as
India is a land of rich and varied
cultures and has a vast range
of economic layering. I call it a
‘range’ and not a ‘divide’. It is for
us as educators that we bridge
the fissures by sewing the loose
ends so that children have a
smooth sailing into the future.
Everyday incidents dealt with by
the teachers and administrators
become role model examples for
the children to appreciate what
could be discarded and what to
imbibe in a variety of situations.
This pattern of observing and
practicing in the classroom and
home environments becomes a
habit for them.
Inclusive education is no more
just a term but a strategy to
get ‘all’ involved in all, the
engagement being of the right
kind. The interaction here
needs to be monitored by the
48 The Progressive Teacher Jul/Aug 2017