Securing a better future

While the world has made tremendous progress materially, it has lagged with respect to moral and spiritual development. But the latter is just as important as the former, and in any case in order for society to get the optimum use of the material gains positive and morally upright behaviour and attitudes are essential.
In today’s world declining of moral values, especially amongst children, attitudes and behaviour are issues of great concern in many societies and no doubt this has a strong correlation with rising crime levels, corruption and the other social evils which are threatening societal stability and harmony. The reasons for this unfortunate trend are many and finding solutions in an increasingly complex human environment is by no means an easy task. Add to it, two years of pandemic. But arresting this attitudinal and moral decline is an imperative if societal cohesion, peace and stability are to be maintained.
However, the best approach towards tackling this problem is to ensure that children are raised in the proper manner and are exposed to a healthy environment because this early training has a substantial effect on their attitudes and moral values as adults. And this is where parents and teachers play a key role because these are the people that children are exposed to most of the time, becoming their first role models and mentors.
Unfortunately in today’s world there is an increase of broken homes coupled with domestic violence, abuse, etc, and obviously an increasing number of children are raised in an unstable, and in extreme cases, a frightening environment. In addition, in order to cope with financial obligations and cost of living increasingly both parents have to work and as such many children are left without proper parental supervision making them vulnerable and susceptible to the many negative influences in society.
Of course one of the areas where many negative attitudes and behaviour injurious to the young mind are transmitted is through the electronic medium and concerns have been and are being expressed about the increasing violence, vulgarity, lewd music, pornography that are shown on television programmes and other electronic media. This is a headache for many parents because of technological advances it is very difficult to monitor and restrict what children view via the electronic media.
In today’s society where academic achievement and performance is at prominence, the importance of character building seems to have been forgotten. We acknowledge kids’ achievements more than we acknowledge their characters. We are more engrossed in finding out our kids’ academic performance than imbuing them with positive values, which will build their character, and which can enable them to make the right choices in their future lives. To counterbalance against something harmful and destructive from the environment the child may experience, instilling good human virtues and moral values is of paramount importance. And, early age is an ideal time to do so. The onus lies with the parents and the teachers.