Understanding Value Education

Meaning of Value Education:

Value Education is the education which enables to understand ‘what is valuable’ for human
happiness. It is all about enabling a transformation in the human beings to help them move
from Animal Consciousness to Human Consciousness.

Need for Value Education:

 Correct identification of our aspirations: The subject which enables us to understand
‘what is valuable’ for human happiness is called ‘value education’ (VE). Thus, VE
enables us to understand our needs and visualize our goals correctly and also indicate the
direction for their fulfilment. It also helps to remove our confusions and contradictions
and bring harmony at all levels.
 Understanding universal human values to fulfill our aspirations in
continuity: Values form the basis for all our thoughts, behaviours and actions. Once we
know what is valuable to us, these values becomes the basis, the anchor for our actions.
We also need to understand the universality of various human values, because only then
we can have a definite and common program for value education. Then only we can be
assured of a happy and harmonious human society.
 Complementarity of values and skills: To fulfill our aspirations both values and skills
are necessary. When we identify and set the right goals and produced in right direction.
This is known as value domain, the domain of wisdom, and when we learn and
practices to actualize this goal to develop the techniques to make this happen in real life,
in various dimensions of human endeavor (struggle). This is known as domain of skills.
Hence, there is an essential complementarity between values and skills for the success of
any human endeavor. For example, I want to lead a healthy life. Only wishing for good
health will not help me keep my body fit and healthy and without having understood the
meaning of health, I will not be able to choose things correctly to keep my body fit and
healthy.
 Evaluation of our beliefs: Each one of us believes in certain things and we base our
values on these beliefs, be they false or true which may or may not be true in reality.
These believes come to us from what we read, see, hear, what our parents tells us, our
friends talk about, what the magazines talk of, what we see from TV etc. Value
Education helps us to evaluate our beliefs and assumed values.
 Technology and human values: The present education system has become largely
skill-based. The prime emphasis is on science and technology. However, science and
technology can only help to provide the means to achieve what is considered valuable. It
is not within the scope of science and technology to provide the competence of deciding
what really is valuable. Value Education is a crucial missing link in the present
education system. Because of this deficiency, most of our efforts may prove to be
counterproductive and serious crises at the individual, societal and environmental level
are manifesting.
 Basic Guidelines for Value Education
 Universal: It needs to be applicable to all the human beings irrespective of cast, creed,
nationalities, religion, etc., for all times and regions.Rational: It has to appeal to human
reasoning. It has to be amenable to reasoning and not based on dogmas or blind beliefs.
 Natural and Verifiable: It has to be naturally acceptable to the human being who goes
through the course and when we live on the basis of such values it leads to our happiness. It
needs to be experientially verifiable, and not based on dogmas, beliefs or assumptions.
 All Encompassing: Value education is aimed at transforming our consciousness and living.
Hence, it needs to cover all the dimensions (thought, behaviour, work and realization) and
levels (individual, family, society, nature and existence) of human life and profession.
 Leading to Harmony: The value education ultimately is targeted to promote harmony
within the individual, among human beings and with nature.

Process for Value Education

There can be many ways to impart knowledge to students. The process should be easily
understandable. There can be following four methods that can be adopted for value
education:-
 Individualized Learning:- This is the highly interactive way of learning the
values. This is very personal one to one interaction with the learner. The basic drawback of
this type of this type of learning as we are the part of a society and we should develop all
those values in student as well.
 Group Learning:- The group working is always different from individual working.
Some students are lack behind from interpersonal skills. The group learning helps these
students in overcoming these problems. This method teaches co-operation and coordination
among the members of the group.
 Project Learning:- This is one of the best methods of learning. The projects are
basically real life problems and students needs to find out the solutions on the basis of their
value system. This teaches the concept of self- explanation and Self- verification to do best
in their respective field.
 Open Learning:- Open learning is a teaching method i.e. among others, founded
on the work of ‘Maria Montessori’. Open learning is supplied to allow pupils self-
determined, independent and interest-guided learning.

Scope of Value Education:

 It should include all dimensions of thought, behaviour, work and realization.
 It should include all the four levels of human living namely – individual, family, society and
nature.

Content of Value Education:

 To understand myself, my aspirations, my happiness
 To understand the goal of human life
 To understand the other entities in nature, their inter- connectedness and co-existence and
role of human being in nature
 To understand harmony at the four levels of human living
 Self- Exploration As The Process Of Value Education
It is the process of finding out what is valuable to me by investigating within myself.

 Exploration = Observing Outside

 Self-Exploration = Observing Inside

Purpose of Self-Exploration:

 It is a process of dialogue between ‘what you are’ and ‘what you really want to be’.

 It is a process of self evolution through self-investigation.

 It is a process of knowing oneself and through that, knowing the entire existence.

 It is a process of recognizing one’s relationship with every unit in existence and

fulfilling it.

 It is a process of knowing human conduct, human character and living accordingly.

 It is a process of being in harmony with oneself and in harmony with entire existence.

 It is a process of identifying our innateness (Svatva) and moving towards Self-

Organization (Swantantrata) and Self-Expression (Swarajya)

Content of Self-Exploration:

It involves finding answers for the following –

 My Desire (Aspiration)

 My Program (Process to fulfill my aspirations)

Process of Self-Exploration:

The following points are to be kept in mind regarding the process of Self-Exploration:

 Whatever is stated is a proposal

 Don’t start by assuming it to be true or false

 Verify it on your own right

 Don’t just accept or reject it on the basis of scriptures, instruments or on the basis of
others.

 The following two steps are involved in the process of Self-Exploration:

- Firstly, verify the proposal on the basis of your natural acceptance

- Secondly, live according to the proposal to validate it experientially.

Natural Acceptance: It is the process of seeing and observing attentively and then using
your inner conscience to get the answer from within. It is a way to bring out the goodness in
everything naturally.

 It does not change with time/age

 It doesn’t depend on place

 It does not depend on our beliefs or past conditioning

 It is always there within us

 It is the same for all of us.

Realization and Understanding:

The process of Self-Exploration results in ‘Realization’ and ‘Understanding’ in us. This

realization and understanding leads to the following answers –

 Assuring

 Satisfying

 Universal with respect to Time, Space and Individual.

 The Basic Human Aspirations – Continuous Happiness and
Prosperity

All human beings basically aspire for/ want the following in their life:

i. Continuous Happiness

ii. Prosperity

 If all of us happen to prepare a list of our aspirations, we will find that all our
aspirations have an underlying basic desire – the basic aspiration to be happy.
Through his life, every human being is continuously trying to do things that make
him/her happy. In other words, we always look for continuous happiness in our life.
 In addition to happiness, we also aspire for adequate fulfillment of our bodily needs
i.e. the need for physical facilities. These Physical Facilities are the material things
we use in order to fulfill the needs of our body. Having enough physical facilities
gives us a feeling of prosperity. We want to have a continuity of this feeling too.
Hence prosperity is another basic aspiration of every human being.

Exploring Happiness and Prosperity:

Happiness: Happiness may be defined as being in harmony/ synergy in the states/ situations
that we live in. Happiness is being in a state of liking. Unhappiness is a lack of this synergy
or harmony. To be in a state of disliking is unhappiness.

Happy situations comprise of feelings such as trust, respect, confidence etc. All these
feelings carry an element of harmony in them. Hence they make us feel relaxed and happy.

On the other hand, feelings like failure, disrespect, lack of confidence, doubt etc. lack the
element of harmony and hence make us unhappy.

Prosperity: It is the feeling of having more physical facilities than required. Prosperity
creates a desire to share what one possesses. However, since the need for physical facilities is
limitless, the feeling of prosperity cannot be assured.

Wealth: Wealth is a physical thing. It means having money, or having a lot of physical
facilities, or having both.

Prosperity Vs Wealth: Wealth means possessing more number of physical things while
Prosperity is a feeling of possessing more than required physical facilities.

Following are the possibilities:

 A person may not possess required physical facilities, so he may not feel prosperous.
 A person may accumulate more and more wealth but still he may be deprived of the
feeling of prosperity.

 A person may have required wealth and feel prosperous.

Prevailing notions of Happiness and Prosperity: In the modern world, the desire for
physical facilities has become unlimited. The physical facilities are no longer seen as objects
fulfilling bodily needs but as a means of maximizing happiness. This unlimited desire for
physical facilities has become anti-ecological and anti-people endangering human survival
itself.

The false notions of happiness and Prosperity have affected human living at all four levels:

At the level of Individual: Problems of depression, psychological disorders, suicides, stress,

insecurity, psycho-somatic diseases, loneliness etc.

At the level of family: Breaking of Joint families, mistrust, conflict between older and
younger generations, insecurity in relationships, divorce, dowry tortures, family feuds,
wasteful expenditures in family functions etc.

At the level of Society: Terrorism, naxalism, communism, casteism, racial, ethnic struggles,
wars between nations, genocide, nuclear genetic warfare.

At the level of Nature: Global Warming, pollution, depletion of mineral resources,

deforestation, loss of soil fertility.
 Right understanding- relationship and physical facilities

ACTIVITY:

 Prepare a list of everything you want in your life

 Underline all the physical/material things

 All the other wants can be classified under Right Understanding and Relationship
with humans

Right Understanding: Right Understanding helps us to maintain proper relationships with

other human beings and also helps us to make a proper choice of physical facilities. Hence
the needs of all human beings consist of the need for – Right Understanding, Relationships
and Physical Facilities in the right order.

Following is a set of three Proposals based on the need for Physical Facilities:

 Physical Facilities are necessary for human beings

For e.g. : Human Beings need food, water, TV, bike, MBA degree, Relationships with
family and society etc.

 Physical Facilities are necessary for human beings and they are necessary for animals

For e.g.: Animals need food, water, shelter from extreme climatic conditions etc.

 Physical Facilities are necessary and complete for animals, while they are necessary but not
complete for human beings

For e.g.: Animals need food to survive. Once an animal receives the necessary grass or
fodder, its need is complete. But for human beings, the needs are incomplete. If they are
hungry they want food, but they look for something tasty. Once their hunger is satisfied, they
need some recreation/ physical facilities, followed by the need for relationships etc. This list
of human needs is almost endless and mostly incomplete.
Solution to Our Present State – The Need for Right Understanding:

The three basic requirements to ensure happiness and prosperity for human beings are –

i. Right Understanding
ii. Relationships
iii. Physical Facilities

(Living only with Physical Facilities is Animal Consciousness and living with all these
three is Human Consciousness)

In the modern times, we are mostly not paying attention to(i) and (ii) and are focusing largely
on (iii) most of the time. As human beings, all the three are needed for us.

Importance/ Need for Right Understanding:

Right Understanding helps to create harmony at all four levels of human living. Right
Understanding enables us to –

 Resolve the issues in human relationships

 Be prosperous

 Enrich Nature

 Work out our requirements for physical facilities

 Correctly distinguish between wealth and prosperity

 Understand the harmony in Nature

Right Understanding forms the basis on which we can work for relationships and also
acquire Physical Facilities.
 Two kinds of people in the world today:

1. SVDD – Sadhan Viheen Dukhi Daridra

(Materially deficient, unhappy and deprived)

2. SSDD – Sadhan Sampann Dukhi Daridra

(Materially affluent, but unhappy and deprived)

These two states are unwanted by all human beings. With the help of Right Understanding,
human beings can move to a third category:

3. SSSS – Sadhan Sampann Sukhi Samridh

(Materially affluent, happy and prosperous)

Priority Order:

Hence for a continuous happy living, we need to work for all the three in the given order:

i. Right Understanding
ii. Relationships
iii. Physical Facilities

Right Understanding + Relationship = Mutual Fulfillment

( gives a feeling of satisfaction and happiness)

Right Understanding + Physical Facilities = Mutual Prosperity

( leads to enrichment of our lives as well as enrichment of Nature)

Living in Harmony at all levels of living with the help of Right Understanding:
1. At the level of Myself: Self-Exploration with the help of Natural Acceptance and
Experiential Validation helps to develop a sense of Right Understanding. This right
understanding helps me to understand myself clearly, and helps me to develop a feeling of
Satisfaction , Prosperity and Happiness(Harmony) in Myself.

2. At the level of Family: Right understanding helps me to understand others feelings and
expectations in a better way. This ensures harmony in family.

3. At the level of Society: Our family is a part of a large group of people called the
Society. As we understand our relationships with others in our family, we also start
understanding others in the society and can maintain fulfilling relations with everyone.

4. At the level of Nature/ Existence: We live in a large eco-system called Nature.

Existence refers to all the things that exist in Nature. Once we learn to maintain harmony
with the society, we also develop a feeling of concern towards the plants, trees, animals etc.
in Nature. Hence right understanding leads to mutual fulfillment with Nature.

Role of Natural Acceptance for developing Harmony at all Levels of our Living