Personality, education and discipline

President Mahinda Rajapaksa participating in the Annual Prize Giving of Nalanda College, Colombo on Monday stressed the importance of personality development and discipline in the education process.

There is much to be desired in the discipline in today's society. To put it in another way, there is much indiscipline in society. Whether it is a work place, educational establishment, civic organization or private families, there is an over abundance of indiscipline. Take the motorists. How many of them are indisciplined? There is scant respect for road manners and traffic rules and regulations. Take the Universities. Indiscipline reigns.

The widespread practice of ragging in the Universities shows that there has been something wrong in their upbringing at home and in school. The ugly practice of ragging has now proliferated to schools.

Discipline comes through two means. One is by understanding the necessity for it. The other is through regimentation, practice and drilling. It is the latter that one finds among members of law enforcement authorities or among school children. Among adults and in society at large discipline should come from understanding and awareness.

It is natural for discipline to be instilled in the formative years of a child. That is at home and at school. Hence, the importance of discipline among the students and the youth. An indisciplined student would not be able to absorb what is taught for his attention would be somewhere else during study time.

More important is the inculcation of ethical values including respect for others and their rights. The school should prepare the child for the society. He should learn that he is not alone and that he does not live in a vacuum.

Discipline makes the learning process much easier and contributes to faster acquisition of knowledge. The absorptive power of a disciplined mind is much more than that of an undisciplined unruly mind.

How much the present education system contributes to the development of a cooperative, friendly individual is a moot point, since it encourages not cooperation but competition and promotion of self interest above group or common interest.

As far as the development of personality is concerned the child must be nurtured to meet challenges both foreseen and unforeseen. For that he or she must be creative, innovative and enterprising. How far do teaching methods presently employed promote creativity or enterprise, innovation? There is too much spoon feeding or unimaginative mechanical teaching.

For example, many children fail in their Mother tongue and Mathematics at the G. C. E. Ordinary Level Examination. Since the rate of failure is too high one must find fault not in the student but in the teacher. These are two subjects that could be taught in a manner that inspires students to think, be creative and enterprising.

The teacher-centric education system makes children submissive instead of being independent.

It is common practice to sideline those who ask embarrassing questions from teachers. Perhaps the pedagogues too have not mastered anything other than cramming and book learning.

Less attention is also paid to extra-curricular activities either due to lack of resources or negligence. The role played by them in the upbringing of the child, especially in developing his or her personality could not be overemphasized.

Our students are also relatively less exposed to participatory community events or programs. They are at times over-protected with the result there is no scope for them to develop their talents, face challenges and hold responsibilities on their own.

Love's labour lost

The course of true love never did run smooth, said the bard. This was once again confirmed by the example of a lovelorn Sri Lankan lass whose pursuit of her lover had landed her in double trouble.

Forsaken by her lover who stranded her in Kuwait and returned to Andhra Pradesh, India, our young Juliet dared to enter India on a false passport to pursue her love. Unfortunately, instead of being united with her lover she only found herself landed in jail for contravening the law.

That was not all. Having won parole, she was put on board a flight to Colombo. But emotion taking the better of her senses, she refused to leave the land of her lover and is in trouble again. We could sympathize with her plight but pray that she regains her senses to start afresh in life and love.