The Missing Pillar in our Education System

In my Opinion, it is the system which is responsible for teaching the Basics of Life, Discipline, Livelihood, Guidance towards undertaking larger responsibilities. It is about living and applying those learned values that were taught to oneself as a Child or as an Adolescent.

The Education System before the Digital Era. Does anyone remember it???

The Education System before the 21st Century was the age where Students recognized the authority of the Teachers and the Teachers recognized his/her responsibility towards their Students. Teachers knew that exposing the children to tougher situations will help them to survive and tolerate Life at its worst. Such was the concept of Education.

Our Modern Era now hardly accepts the concept of toughness shown by the Teachers or the concept of raising their voice to teach them discipline. Being one among the Youth crowd, I could see what this system is doing to our present generation. And it is to be taken very seriously.

To me, I feel this is the time where Parents now truly feel more afraid for their children and the trouble they could get into because of poor Judgement.

The present World we live in is filled with chaos. Every day we hear tons of news of man-made tragedy and I am sure most of you know the causes or if not the whole picture, at least some of it from the bits and pieces of the news.

From West to East, intolerance, poor Judgement, improper bringing up, lack of control, degrading moral values and two most important:lack of mannerism and being disrespectful towards one another. You name it, its there.

Most of these could have been avoided if the education centers took the responsibility of instilling the principles of Life.

So what do you think is missing in our current Education system??

Of course, I am all for Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics etc. But I also strongly feel there is still something that we are missing, which even though is there, is not being given the right amount of importance and sadly not properly taught to our current generations. Everything that is taught nowadays is followed by the attitude of taking it or leaving it. And this is where most things go wrong. But the question remains: what exactly should be taken and what is to be left out? Something which the students keep asking themselves over the years and are often left to find out for themselves.

It would be better if the students were guided in these aspects too. After all the different schools in different countries have different disciplinary system. And different countries have different cultural traditions.

So back to our question - What exactly are we missing or forgetting?

When a Child is born into a Family, Parents have high expectations for them, way before the baby begins to crawl.

Nowadays expectations are so high (sometimes way beyond a Kindergartener's capability), that they just want their children to excel in more activities, become smart and clever, somewhat called as a rat race. More surprisingly, the parents are eager to compare their child with another (what pleasure do they get from that, I will never understand) and in the process forget what their child is more capable of.

But alongside academics, aren't we still forgetting a crucial, basic foundation that these kids should be building their future upon.

Parents are said to be the first teachers. Some of the parents feel their kids will learn while communicating with people around them as time goes by and there are also some parents who undertake the responsibility of teaching to their kids at a very young age.

I am sure after mentioning this much, some of you may have already guessed it. But for those of you who haven't yet got a clue, I would like to say its all about discipline and moral values.

As Jim Rohn, an Entrepreneur and Speaker once quoted:

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment."

"We must all suffer one of the two things: the pain of Discipline or the pain of disappointment or regret."

In most Asian schools, discipline is taught for the first 2-3 years of a student's life. This is done to help them apply and incorporate them in their lifestyle which they do throughout their life.

When I and my siblings was young, I remember my elders trying to discipline us. It was tough and painful. As I grew up, I am thankful I learned it. Years later, I moved to another country for my higher studies. I learned that it is illegal to either hit, spank or use any sort of physical means, however small or big it may be to discipline the child or else one would be sued or separated from them. I wondered, then how do you discipline these kids? Raising the voice may help up to a certain extent. But what do you do if the child is so out of control? In such cases, voice control does not always help.

A few days ago as I was boarding a train, I observed a group of youngsters in the opposite platform looking and laughing at a sick old man who was struggling to walk but at the same time trying to carry his belongings. Neither of those youngsters moved a muscle to help him. I remember asking myself, where these youngsters might end up. Would they end up failing miserably in life or causing misery to other's lives?

As I had mentioned before that the present world is in chaos, I believe due to some laws it is high time that the world does not hold parents accountable for their ward's misbehavior.

Discipline and moral values are one of the significant pillars of the education system and go hand in hand with accomplishment. The modern world consists of many temptations that can lure the students away from their main objectives in life. Teaching and helping the students maintain those values and discipline is one of the major challenges of not only the teachers but also the parents and who I believe should be given the freedom to instill discipline to their children.

They have their jobs cut out for them and walk a thin thread between disciplining their kids and trying to protect them from a cruel world.

To sum it up, it is high time schools give equal importance to implementing strong discipline among students as it does for academics.