Children are the future of our civilization, and the need to administer their character-building process is our primary responsibility. Terms like crime, corruption, dishonesty, iniquity, and turpitude are some of the most common outcomes arising from immorality. Why does the modern educational curriculum need to rejuvenate the learning process that emphasizes moral values?
“Respect for ourselves guides our morality; Respect for others dictates our etiquette. “Statement by Lawrence Stern is necessary to be quoted down here to understand the significance of moral values and why they must be taught at a younger age.
What do you consider must be the guideline that assists a person in decision-making and in selecting the right path? Certainly, in this blog, we will try to discuss specific moral values and their significance. This write-up is meant to cover some of the crucial aspects that parents and teachers need to understand about positive character building in students.
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So, you must read this if you are a kid searching for your own light or you are a guardian worried about your kid’s future.
What are moral values?
‘Values,’ ‘What are values?’ Certainly, this question has been intensely discussed by philosophers for ages. An essential constituent or characteristic of a human that inspires their actions and behavior can be termed as values.
Values define the core nature of an individual and the way their belief system works.
A specific set of principles that is necessary to guide you to take certain decisions in life are known as values. Such belief systems and values try to encourage you to make a perception regarding things in terms of right and wrong. Values like loyalty, courage, empathy, and honesty are crucial to determine situations and act upon them accordingly.
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Moral values can be best described as the behavioural practices, habits, and virtues that try to include an individual in society. Socially acceptable behaviour is an integral part of humanity, and such traits are universal in almost all cultures, religions, and communities.
Significance of moral values in students’ life
Students in their early stages face many challenges like identity crises, self-doubts, and personality changes. The difference between nurture and nature is what demonstrates the entire process of child development. Some characteristics are innate in nature, while some need to be brought up in the students.
In schools, children learn their first lessons of life, and it is essential for institutes to inculcate in them ethical values to make them accountable as well as responsible for their life and toward society.
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Moral values, if developed early in a child, promotes:
- Such values assist students in distinguishing between right and wrong.
- It allows personality development and intense character building.
- It shapes their attitude and tries to develop an idea of life in them.
- Moral values also save them from the negative influence that can be in either form.
- It helps them in relationship building and promotes the idea of compassion, cooperation, generosity, and equality.
- It inspires them to face challenges and holds them in challenging situations.
- Last in this list, moral values help them raise self-confidence and positivity.
Specific moral values that must be taught to the students
1. Respect:
Every human deserves respect, irrespective of age or social standing. Students must be reminded of this fact in their early phase. Being an integral moral value, respect makes them understand and admire the differences that arise out of caste, religion, ethnicity, perspective, age, and beliefs. It stands as a crucial factor in building healthy professional and social relationships.
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2. Gratitude:
The readiness to offer appreciation and thankfulness for what you have been offered in this life. Children at young ages are full of aspirations, yet they miss out on the right direction that leads to the right preferences and selections. Thanksgiving behavior appreciates the value of resources readily available to them and helps them in developing an optimistic attitude in life.
3. Sharing:
One of the core values and a much needed in this time, yes, sharing is a practice of selflessness, and it promotes humanity in a real sense. Parents and tutors must appreciate the culture of sharing in children and encourage them to share their belongings with classmates, friends, and siblings. Sharing is just a means to care for someone you love or someone in need.
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4. Empathy:
There is a significant difference between the terms sympathy, apathy, and empathy. In students, it is essential to develop an empathetic attitude that allows them to get out of a self-centric zone.
An ability that allows you not only to comprehend the experiences and feelings of other persons but also to act for them defines the precise meaning of empathy. Basically, your child must be capable of feeling the happiness from others’ happiness and the pain from which others are suffering. Empathetic persons become some of the best global leaders.
5. Equality and Justice:
Equality refers to the equal treatment of individuals in terms of opportunities, rights, and status. It plays an essential role in eradicating the idea of supremacy. Why must students be taught values like equality and justice? Among the most optimum reasons for this is that all the other values stated above are interrelated and make an integral part of most of them. Equality and justice belong to the most fundamental set of values that tries to explain the difference between fair & unfair, just & unjust, and right & wrong. All you need to do for this is to set examples before them that teach a precise idea of equality and justice in a practical sense.
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Apart from the values mentioned above, courage, acceptance, generosity, responsibility, cooperation, compassion, self-control, and perseverance are also fundamental moral values that must be taught to students.
How to inculcate such values in students?
Moral values are significant in the development of positive character in the students, and tutors and parents equally share the responsibility to provide competent learning practices among the students. Character development is a prolonged process and cannot be accomplished in a short time, especially when you deal with the most fragile souls. However, certain tips discussed below will assist you in making a well-developed notion of how to develop such values in your child.
Try to practice such moral values in your life to better understand their real meaning before teaching them to the kids. Children learn very fast from the person they admire. So, try to be their role models.
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Assignments associated with personal development can also be a good choice for teachers. Online assignments help students to engage with the subject in a better way.
A practical yet exciting method of sharing your personal experiences and relevant stories to the child can help them grasp the entire idea that surrounds moral values. Bedtime stories on honesty, sharing, kindness, and integrity can make valuable changes in your child.
Try to boost their self-confidence and appreciate their actions so that they can stick to the moral values learned from their surroundings.
Way forward:
An undeterred personality is one who makes choices based on moral values and a robust belief system. Child’s moral development at a young age remains with them throughout their life and allows them to make the right choices.
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It is apparent that nurturing can eliminate some innate traits of the human personality that can bring them down at tough times. A well-researched strategy based on moral development in children must be emphasized to develop a generation full of morally strong and undeterred individuals.