HVPE MATERIAL

1. What is value education? Why there is a need of value education?
ANS. Character oriented education that instills basic values and ethnic values in one’s psyche is called ‘Value Based Education’.
The subject that enables us to understand ‘what is valuable’ for human happiness is called value education. Once, one has understood his/ her values in life he/she can examine and control the various choices he/she makes in his/ her life.
Value education enables us to understand our needs and visualize our goals correctly and also helps to remove our confusions and contradictions and bring harmony at all levels.
It also helps remove our confusions and contradictions and enables us to rightly utilize the technological innovations.
Values form the basis for all our thoughts, behaviors’ 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.
Q 2. What are the basic guidelines for value education?
ANS. The subject that enables us to understand ‘what is valuable’ for human happiness is called value education. In order to qualify for any course on value education, the following guidelines for the content of the course are important:
• 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.
Q 3. What is the need for value education in technical and other professional institutions?
ANS. The subject that enables us to understand ‘what is valuable’ for human happiness is called value education.
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.
Q 4. Define self exploration. What is the content of self – exploration?
ANS. Self exploration is the process to find out what is valuable to me by investigating within myself, what is right for me, true for me, has to be judged within myself.
Through self exploration we get the value of ourself. We live with different entirety (family, friends, air, soil, water, trees, etc.) and we want to understand our relationship with all these. For this we need to start observing inside.
The main focus of self-exploration is myself - the human being.
Self exploration is the process to find out what is valuable to me by investigating within myself, what is right for me, true for me, has to be judged within myself. Through self exploration we get the value of ourself. The process of self exploration is a follows:
First of all we have to keep in mind that, Whatever is being presented is a PROPOSAL.
This process is not complete. It will be completed when on verification on the basis of natural acceptance and testing in our living ultimately results in ‘realization’ and ‘understanding’ in us.
• Verify on the basis of your natural acceptance
• Live accordingly to validate it experientially
• If the proposal is true in behaviour with human leads to mutual happiness
• If the proposal is true in work with rest of the nature leads to mutual prosperity
• Results in realization and understanding
• On having realization and understanding we get
• Assurance
• Satisfaction
5. What do you understand by the terms svatva, swatantrata and swarajya?
ANS. This process of self exploration helps us to identify our swatva and through that acquiring swantantrata and swarajya. Swatva means innateness of self – the natural acceptance of harmony.
Swatantrata means being self- organized – being in harmony with oneself
Swarajya means self-expression, self- extension – living in harmony with others
The swatva is already there, intact in each one of us. By being in dialogue with it, we attain swantantrata enabling us to work for swarajya.
Living in contradiction, means we are not self-organized and living with pre-conditionings where we have assumed certain things, have accumulated desires without having first evaluated them, then it means we are partantra.
On the other hand, when we identify our innateness, what we really want to be and establish a dialogue with it, it enables us to start living with this harmony, it starts expressing itself through our harmonious behaviour and work, and it naturally extends to our participation with the surroundings. This is working towards swarajya.
Q 6. What is the meaning of prosperity? How can you say that you are prosperous?
ANS. The feeling of having or making available more than required physical facilities is prosperity. Almost all of us feel that wealth alone means prosperity and try to explain this phenomenon on this nonexistent or half fact.
We are trying to achieve happiness and prosperity by maximizing accumulation and consumption of physical facilities. It is becoming anti-ecological and anti-people, and threatening the human survival itself. For prosperity, two things are required-
1. Identification of the required quantity of physical facilities, and
2. Ensuring availability / production of more than required physical facilities.
We can be prosperous only if there is a limit to the need for physical facilities. If there is no limit what so ever be the availability the feeling of prosperity cannot be assured.
Secondly, just assessing the need is not enough. We need to be able to produce or make available more than the perceived need.