Since Bangladesh named in the world map upon its independent it has been published many reports and researches in various media about the country. Analyzing reports and researches period to January 11, 2007 it clearly shows that Bangladesh political leadership was failing to sustain its democracy and its development. It revealed that Bangladesh is a nation at risk and the nation in an uncertain chapter. The effects of that reflect in our every life in social and national level.
It is true that every sector in Bangladesh, especially government and other volunteer institutions in every where people are involved directly and indirectly in such unlawful, corruptions, cheating, bribe, dishonest, injustice, distrustful, stolen, selfishness, and all the distractive behaviors and activities. These kind of unethical and unlawful activities are not only government institutions but also it finds in various non-government organizations as well. Many of the not-for-profit organizations have been doing business in the name of social welfare and services. The businessmen involved in cheating and dishonest business activities to make profit that they are not following any business code of ethics and so on. People are cheating each other however they can. None of the religious in the world teaches to think and behave like this way. Some people become richest within a short period of time. The other hand, some honest people are working hard, but never reach to their certain level of living standard and safe life that they deserve for. The result is that some people are going to richer and a large number of people in the country are going to be poor and poorest. Where does the nation stand after 39 years of its independence? However, some times, the stories and talking about development by the politicians that embarrassing all people in the nation and abroad. It is very true that if there were any noble prize given by somebody then Bangladesh suppose to win that prize five times in last ten years and more, no doubt. This praise and discredit ultimately goes to political leaders and they are the responsible person and accountable for it. It is very common question may raises that what kind of human resources produce by the national responsible leaders? Or what we think about human development? We have to think and prepare our citizens not only for Bangladesh but also to be competent citizens for the world. Our citizens should compete with other citizens in the world with their values, intelligent/knowledge, skills, and morality. To be competent citizens what we need to be done and need to be learned? Where is the right place to learn?
We know family is a non-formal education institution that children learn in every day. However, there is other important education center is “school.” The school is the workshop of human development. In school there is learning environment and also there are expert and skilled professionals. Many parents are not educated, even there are so many educated parents do not spend time educating their children. Therefore, parents always depend on school learning. People always carefully listen what teachers say about their children. But if there is lack of skilled, knowledgeable, and intelligent teachers in school and lack of learning environment then what a student should learn in school? There are many reports that that teachers helped students to cheat in exams and without preparation of particular subject and topic teachers teach in the class. Teacher means thinker and researcher, our teachers are going to forget this concept. We have to be remembered that why do we learn? What things we learn? And how do we learn? It is very few teacher can be model of students that student follow them in their life long as model. The result many students have their academic certificates but in a real world what they learned and they do not know what they know exactly. So, what are the curricular in school and who teach those curriculum, it is question to our nation? Those little learning educated people and unskilled people are taking the responsibility in our social and nation and taking our nation to sink in ocean. This way the nation is wasting money, time, and wise, intelligent, skilled, and honest people are disregarded.
It is quite appreciateable that the present government established new "Education Policy 2010" within the short time of taking their power. The policy emphasized modern education, skill-based, knowledge-based, and moral-based education. It is very important to educate citizens that the goals of education mush emphasize and prioritize not only academic achievement or learning, but also to develop and implement character education curriculum, which is necessary knowledge in order to teach and learn how to be a good and responsible citizen.
A progressive educational philosophy that states that character education and ethical disposition provide the foundation for students in a democracy to be able to improve their quality of life and their ability to respect, responsible, care, and work for highest happiness. Ancient Greece philosopher Socrates’ educational philosophy clearly considered that the educated person was precisely the person who knows himself or herself and his or her limitations. Socrates defines his philosophy as a virtuous life and true knowledge, and knowledge is the matter key of virtue. Plato’s philosophy is that education is a matter of leading a person from mere belief to true knowledge. The educated person uses the dialectical process to discover true beauty, goodness, and justice. In a similar manner, Plato’s
great philosophy in education is that it is the theory of forms (idea) that will enable people to lead good and productive lives. Another ancient philosopher, Aristotle, believes that a human being, through education, cultivates the natural desire to know and comes as close as it is possible in this world to actualizing the human potential.
It is important for human beings to seek highest good that can be found in human happiness. To know the good is to do good things. An educated person unites morality and reaction to virtuous action. Dewey one of the American educational philosophers he believed that a democratic society could exist and function well only if the citizens was well-educated and contributed to the success of the society. Dewey’s pragmatic philosophy advocates an education that provides meaningful experiences those that help citizens think, solve problems, communicate ideas, and develop an interest in improving themselves for their society. They learned that life is an educational setting, learned on tolerance and patience through a cooperative learning and living environment, developed interpersonal relationships as well as developed self-esteem and self-confidence. At this point obviously, the question may rise: what does “good citizen” mean? A good citizen is basically what a moral person should be like. A moral person should be marked by honestly, self-control, friendliness, selflessness, fairness, respect, responsibility, compassion, loyalty, empathy, and a cooperative spirit.
In short, those who are moral should be good people. The school is the best social institution for children to learn to be good citizens. As Dewey believes that the school is primarily a social institution. Children come to school to learn and share their values and home experiences. School is a learning lab where children reproduce activities in such way that the children will gradually learn the meaning of the subjects and be able to interact with others with their own ideas and thoughts. The school is a community life, not an individual life. The school is the heart of social change and individual development. Many psychologists said that by birth human beings are virtuous and the potential of virtuous need to be nurtured to be actualized. Aristotle also suggests that proper education, performing good acts, and developing good habits enable a person to achieve moral excellence and become ideal citizens ready and able to perform their responsibilities as rational members of society.
Moreover, students in school need to learn civic knowledge; citizens ought to know about their rights and responsibilities. Students should know about their civic life, politics, government, political system, and the roles of citizens in constitutional democracy that each citizen is a full and equal member of a self governing community endowed with fundamental rights and entrusted with responsibilities. Citizens should understand that through their involvement in political life and in civil society, they can help to improve the quality of life in their communities and nation. Most important is knowing the civic dispositions which refer to the traits of private and public character essential to the maintenance and improvement of constitutional democracy. Traits of private character include moral responsibility, self-discipline, and respect for the worth and human dignity of every individual is imperative.
Schools must provide opportunities for students to discover what is most worth knowing, as they prepare, not only to be citizens, but also good workers and good private individuals. Therefore, schools choose to engage in character education in hope for any sort of peaceful coexistence that would allow students to learn and thrive. Character education that enhanced the universal values in an education program focused on teaching students specific universal values that help them think and behave in an ethical way, such as caring, courage, love, equality, freedom, peace and justice, generosity, hard work, honesty, kindness, tolerance, relationship building, and respect. In regards to performance, a focus is placed on teaching values, such as hard work, to provide students with a greater awareness of their skills and abilities.
School is an agent of socialization that can also be an effective way of addressing students’ needs through the development of a school environment that is focused on caring and community. Administrators and teachers must strive to establish a learning community that treats students as developing human beings rather than as commodities; an environment that emphasizes and models ethical behavior and promotes academic success. Teachers, educators, administrators, and parents need to work together in an informal manner to provide students with a caring learning environment and an interlocking support system that addresses their moral, physical, psychological, social, and academic needs. Collaboration and cooperation provide bonding, a type of social capital which promotes a sense of harmony and respect between educators and parents. It can also facilitate a sense of shared responsibility for student character development.
Character education must be integrated in the fabric of the curriculum and into extracurricular activities. To create a moral climate within schools, we must train teachers in character education, both those in pre-service and those currently in service. Recently, character education is defined by such things as: positive perception of school, emotional literacy, and social justice activism. It is also defined by being respectful, fair, tolerant, self-oriented, virtue, and self discipline.
In addition, to help students and educators construct meaningful, administrators need to have personal integrity, knowledge and understanding of the purpose of education, an understanding of the role of leadership in modern society, belief in the values of character education, a commitment to using the influence of his office constructively and productively in the service of all students and their families, and the ability to treat people fairly, equitably, and with dignity and respect. Administrators must demonstrate a personal and professional code of ethics, respecting the rights and dignity of all, and thus inspiring integrity and ethical behavior in others.
Respect and responsibility are the two foundational values that are worth knowing to be good person. Of course, many other values corresponding to be good citizens—such as honesty, fairness, tolerance, prudence, self-discipline, helpfulness, compassion, cooperation, courage, and host of democratic values. In a democracy society, patriotism does not mean my country is right or wrong, it means loyalty to the great democratic values on which the country was founded. Building on the philosophic character development understandings, it is essential that schools offer a way of thinking about character that is appropriate for the values of education that character consists of operative values, or values in action. We progress in our character as a value becomes a virtue, a reliable inner disposition to respond to situations in a morally good way. If our children and citizens can practice all these values in real life then there is possible to promote a whole developmental process of an individual. To educate children with those values every religious educations are very important. Religious institutions have a vital role for the nation. It is not necessary to teach religious education in school, rather applying and practicing character education in teaching and learning environment, when teachers teach subjects, which are belongs to religious values. In addition, religious education can be taught through each religious institutions out side the school. A morally educated persons develop relationship with God, develop strong faith on God, pray daily, respect human beings, love, care, and serve human and nature, work honestly, and be loyalty to the nation. Though private schools have certain hidden character education curriculum, question may raise- how much does it gives importance and what kind of character education curriculum apply in the private and government schools? What is most impressive is that learning to become a moral or character person, according to Lickona has three interrelated parts: character involves moral knowing, moral feeling, and moral action.
A model of good character: (1) Moral Knowing: Awareness, Values, Reasoning, Decision-making, and Self-knowledge; (2) Moral Feeling: Conscience, Self-esteem, Empathy, Loving the good, and Self-control; (3) Moral Action: Citizenship, Competence Community service, Good discipline, and habit.
Good character consists of knowing the good, desiring the good, and doing the good—habits of the mind, heart, and action. All these values are very important and necessary for leading a moral life; all three make up moral maturity. A good citizen is one who knows about, cares about, and acts upon core ethically values such as respect, responsibility, fairness, compassion; values learned through the contributions of people from a variety of cultures, races, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds, and abilities in the school and community.
Down through history, in countries all over the world, education has had two great goals: to help children to know and understand so that they become smart, and to help them become good people. Realizing that smart and good are not the same, wise societies since the time of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle have made character/moral education a deliberate aim of schooling. They have educated for character as well as intellect, decency as well as literacy, virtue as well as knowledge. They have tried to form citizens who will use their intelligence to benefit others as well as themselves, who will try to build a better and just world. True education proved that character educational knowledge, skills, and ethical disposition provide the foundation for students in a democracy and improved quality of life and for life-long learners who are able to love and work. I argue that our schools and colleges/universities need to look towards creating good citizens through teaching character education as regular part of the curriculum in order to help students and teachers in the decision-making process of any dilemma. It is important and essential to know the elements of good character and to bring them in action. Our nation needs good citizens and good leaders to establish a democratic society and nation.
(Author is a specialist in Educational Admin. & Policy Studies, Int'l Scholar Winner- recognized by the Center for Global Education, the Catholic University of America (CUA), Washington, DC, & Freelance Journalist).
Email: Nirmalgomes@aol.com, Gomes@cua.edu
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2010 by Nirmal L. Gomes
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment