Ever spiraling crime rate in the country and our drastically eroding image in foreign climes compels me to give vent to my opinion with the sole purpose of contributing even in a humble manner to find a long term solution to this perennial problem which has spread into our blood stream of social life.
The other day, I had to hide my face in utter despair when two foreigners were talking about our country’s status quo with regard to body politics, constitutional crisis and judiciary at Queensland railway station in Australia where at present I am on a one year visa. I came here with the purpose of making a deep study into the history of aborigines as an armchair study and to help my daughter in babysitting.
The supreme bliss of grand parenting has now badly spoilt due to various sentiments that have crept into my fragile mind among them the sorry state of affairs at home. I have always advised them to return to motherland as soon as finishing their studies and other undertakings. How can I answer their numerous questions now with a firm heart when the country is on the doldrums and sitting on a volcano? An old sage in India once said in Sanskrit, ‘mother and the native land are more excellent than swarga’.
Learning process
My concern here is to trace the true cause of the prevalent situation from a psycho-sociological point of view. In education, the teachers look at the child who comes to his feet as an innocent bundle of inherent potentials. He or she is duty bound to facilitate his learning process in such a way that the child would become a useful citizen for the country. How many of them have or would meet that set goal in education at the end of their learning process. Who is responsible for this crucial situation? The king once told Socrates to make his subjects controllable and in reply he asked the king to give all the children below five to honour the request. The king told him in angry words that he himself could control the toddlers without his help. During the good old days, a king’s request was tantamount to a royal command. The cardinal truth behind that is when a child reaches five his personality is moulded.
The above word would suffice for me to proceed along my train of thought towards finding a workable solution for this problem. Newspapers are laden with the latest news of broad day light killings without an iota of kindness to civil life. Bank robberies, drug trafficking, divorce, debauchery, bribery and corruption, santhosams for sweeping rackets and other nefarious activities under the carpet, diabolical offences committed by members of the clergy, to cap them all disgusting behaviour of some parents, teachers, and also of the officers of the arm of law seem to destroy the whole country and the nation. There is no way to come out of this treacherous bog of cultural decadence. In this backdrop law has become a lucrative profession.
In educational methodology and psychology person is divided into three categories namely cognitive domain, affective domain and psychomotor domain. The proportional development of these domains is basically the bounden duty of the teacher. For that they are given a profound knowledge at different colleges of education and teacher training and universities at government expense. The ongoing situation compels me to allege them as a party responsible for this chaotic situation.
The cognitive domain is the brain in plain language. The cognitive skills of the growing child have to be catered with surgical accuracy. The development of the brain is of paramount importance. Cognizance of the child could decide many an aspect of the overall development. The brain is sub divided into several faculties such as memory, thinking, creativity, decision making, attitude formation and mental balance.
The primary purpose of education according to Pearson is the development of thinking, creativity and attitudes. In other words, a balanced development of a child basically depends on the cognitive aspect according to educational psychologists such as Jean Piaget, Roosevelt, Pavlov. Pearson and other prominent educationists have devised time tested methods to develop these faculties of the children through hard labour and longtime experiments. Modern teachers should essentially become facilitators to meet this growing need of the young generation. Abraham Lincoln’s letter to his son’s teacher could be a constant guide for teachers.
Social outcasts and undesirable elements
Affective domain is the heart. Kindness, compassion, gratitude, feelings, and other much needed aspects of the population are catered to in the systematic development of this domain. Through different activities and projects, the aforementioned aspects could be projected into the heart of the child in his formative years. When there is a vacuum in the heart devoid of these qualities, the child at later stages behaves deadly against his own fellow men. Under the influence of liquor and drugs his behaviour could be more aggressive and dangerous. Eventually they become social outcasts and undesirable elements posing a formidable threat to the society.
The recent unforgivable scenes in the parliament at our expense and stabbing cases of the students vividly drive home the idea that most of the people in the contemporary society have big holes in their hearts, hole in heart I mean here a vacuum in heart and it has to be filled at the latest or else the whole society would be enveloped in a hellish situation.
Psychomotor domain is limbs. The development of the psychomotor aspect is of great significance for the physical development of the child. The old adage says that it is the healthy body that decides a healthy mind to a great extent. Nutritious food, stress free life, physical exercises, climatic conditions and hereditary factors decide one’s development of the psychomotor aspect of personality development.
Then only one can lead a god life. Ironically, the recent spate of unruly acts of children, adults and responsible citizens of the country display a lack of expected level of psychomotor development. The activities of the limbs should be essentially controlled by the brain and heart. The nation needs this monitoring for the wider interest of the fellow beings.
In my opinion, the leaders of the country together with the teachers and the clergy could devise a pragmatic approach to arrest the deteriorating social well-being of the nation before it would totally cripple in near future. Making prisons and enacting laws would not prove fruitful. In our forward march towards a global village it could be a great contribution.
Stitch in time saves nine.
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