Character education
not only cultivates minds, it nurtures hearts
Swami Vivekananda on Character:
Pleasure is not the goal of man, but knowledge. Pleasure
and happiness come to an end. It is a mistake to suppose that pleasure is the
goal. The cause of all the miseries we have in the world is that men foolishly think pleasure to be the ideal to
strive for. After a time man finds that it is not pleasure, but knowledge, towards
which he is going, and that both pleasure and pain are great teachers, and that
he learns as much from evil as from good. As pleasure and pain pass before his
soul they have upon it different pictures, and the result of these combined
impressions is what is called man's "character".If you take the character of
any man, it really is but the aggregate of tendencies, the sum total of the bent of his
mind; you will find that
misery and happiness are equal factors in the formation
of that character. Good and evil have an equal share in moulding character, and
in some instances misery is a greater teacher than happiness.
If you really want to judge of the character of a man,
look not at his
great performances. Every fool may become a hero at one
time or another.
Watch a man do his most common actions; those are indeed
the things which
will tell you the real character of a great man. Great
occasions rouse even the
lowest of human beings to some kind of greatness, but he
alone is the really
great man whose character is great always, the same
wherever he be.
How to work?
A fool may buy all the books in the world, and they will
be in his library;
but he will be able to read only those that he deserves
to; and this deserving is
produced by Karma. Our Karma determines what we deserve
and what we can
assimilate. We are responsible for what we are; and
whatever we wish
ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If
what we are now has
been the result of our own past actions, it certainly
follows that whatever we
wish to be in future can be produced by our present
actions; so we have to
know how to act. You will say, “What is the use of
learning how to work?
Everyone works in some way or other in this world.” But
there is such a thing
as frittering away our energies. With regard to
Karma-Yoga, the Gita says that
it is doing work with cleverness and as a science; by
knowing how to work, one
can obtain the greatest results.
Man works with various motives. There cannot be work
without motive. Some
people want to get fame, and they work for fame. Others
want money, and they
work for money. Others want to have power, and they work
for power.
Others work as a penance; do all sorts of wicked things,
then erect a temple, or
give something to the priests to buy them off and obtain
from them a passport
to heaven. They think that this kind of beneficence will
clear them and they will
go scot-free in spite of their sinfulness. Such are some
of the various motives
for work.
Work for work's sake. There are some who work for work's
sake, who do not care for name, or
fame, or even to go to heaven. They work just because
good will come of it.
There are others who do good to the poor and help mankind
from still higher
motives, because they believe in doing good and love
good.
The motive for name and fame seldom brings immediate
results, as a rule. If a man works without any selfish motive in view, does he
not gain anything? Yes, he gains the highest.
Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the
patience to practice it
Love, truth, and unselfishness
are not merely moral figures of speech, but they form our highest
ideal, because in them lies such a manifestation of
power.
In the first place, a man who can work for five days, or even for five minutes,
without any selfish
motive whatever, without thinking of future, of heaven,
of punishment, or
anything of the kind, has in him the capacity to become a
powerful moral giant.
It is hard to do it, but in the heart of our hearts we
know its value, and the good
it brings. This self-control will tend to produce a
mighty
will, a character which makes a Vivekanand or a Buddha.
Foolish men do not know this secret; they nevertheless want to rule mankind. Even
a fool may rule the
whole world if he works and waits. Let him wait a few
years, restrain that
foolish idea of governing; and when that idea is wholly
gone, he will be a
power in the world. The majority of us cannot see beyond
a few years, just as
some animals cannot see beyond a few steps. Just a little
narrow circle — that
is our world. We have not the patience to look beyond,
and thus become
immoral and wicked.
Even the lowest forms of work are not to be despised. Let
the man, who knows
no better, work for selfish ends, for name and fame; but
everyone should
always try to get towards higher and higher motives and
to understand them.
If you wish to help a man, never think what that
man's attitude should be towards you. If you want to do a
great or a good work,
do not trouble to think what the result will be.
My thoughts:
What is character?
Character is the sigma of good and bad experiences. The
persons actions and karma decides his character. The person with who applies
his intelligence and knowledge to actions, both in good and bad experiences determines his character.
How to identify a person which good character?
A persons central theme decides his charater.eg. Mother Teresa
is compassionate.
In a Mirabai is devotion,many politicians today are
morally corrupt .
Why is character Education important?
Today educations only fosters education for livelihood
Character education empower students to think critically, feel deeply
and act wisely –
·
Society at large is with lot of hollow ,and scruples
people.
·
Television is the maximum time children spent
with rather than with parents therefore is exposed to lot of junk info.
·
Excess of
violent behaviours in society at large.
How to impart character education?
http://www.character.org/lessons/lesson-plans/
How to measure character development in a student?
·
student discipline;
·
student suicide rates;
·
crimes: assault, burglary, homicides;
·
prosocial activities.
Please Note:Swami vivekananda article on character has been produced from his complete works
