Role of a Teacher in Value Education

Mere academic knowledge without deep ischolar_maining in moral and spiritual values will only fashion lop-sided personalities who may become rich in material possessions, but will remain poor in self-understanding, peace, and social concern. Emphasizing this fact, Swami Vivekananda said, "Excess of knowledge and power, without holiness, makes human beings devils." In order for values education to become part and parcel of mam stream schooling, the closest possible links need to be found between it and the world of teachers and schools. Teaching has undergone a revolution over the past decade or so. Updated research into the role of the teacher has uncovered the true potential of the teacher (and, through the teachers, the school) to make a difference. Much of this research insight is captured in the notion of 'Quality Teaching', a perspective that speaks of intellectual depth, inter-relational capacity and self-reflection as being among the factors that characterize the kind of learning that makes a difference. There are important synergies between these perspectives and those of values education. Making these links has potential to release the true power of values education and to elevate it to a mainstream issue for all schools. The address will explore these links and demonstrate how other frameworks and resources available to teachers can be incorporated into a comprehensive and powerful values education for all schools Students are led to believe that by developing the ability to gather, store, and retrieve vast information, they stand educated. But, Swami Vivekananda points out, "Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs not there, undigested all your life. We must have life-building, man-making and character-making assimilation of ideas."