Education in human values - The search for the third millennium

FOLHA DIRIGIDA

Reportage: Ricardo Westin
issue 885

Once a week the parents replace teachers in the classroom. This was the routine in the last school year in the small town of Palotina, Parana. More precisely at the Municipal School Joaquim Monteiro. On this day, teachers gather to study human values and exchange experiences. The discipline that integrates the content of traditional subjects, is part of a new teaching which begins to be applied in various schools around the world. In Brazil, its adoption was facilitated by the new Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB), which gives more freedom to compose their own colleges currículos.Na Paraná school that has classes from kindergarten to 4th grade, the principles of human values - truth, right action, peace, love and non-violence - are applied at all times and in all subjects. The guidance counselor of the Department of Education Palotina, Judith Sendtko told that teachers constantly seek to include the topic in their classes. "Teaching division, we can modify the problem formulation: a loving father who had two sons and wanted to divide equally among them ten apples ..." exemplified.

So they can teach students the five human values, teachers need before putting these teachings into practice. Be aware that they are setting an example to their students is critical to the educational process. "A teacher can even teach well, but if his behavior does not agree with what you say, no one will follow," summarized Professor Gonçalo Medeiros, coordinator of the Sathya Sai Educational Institute, in Rio de Janeiro, and is responsible for training human values teachers Palotina. "It is a misconception of the schools teach only what is in the books. Noble sentiments do not come only from the crib. They can also be learned."

England is one of the countries that have adopted the model of teaching preached by Indian educator Sathya Sai Baba. The national coordinator of the Institute of Sathya Sai Education, Carole Alderman, told SHEET DIRECTED that the British method does not differ much from the Brazilian and stressed that "we need to have vision and great courage" to apply such a new program. "It also represents a major challenge because it reveals the weaknesses of the teachers, who must practice the values before you teach them," added Carole.

For her, human values are even more important than the traditional school subjects. "They are inherent in us. It is these values that make us human beings. Without stimulate them within children, as we do with any other talent, they can even develop the opposite of human values."

The English teacher Margaret Taplow, which works with children from 4th grade at a school in Middlesex, near London City, said he usually ask students at the beginning of the class to close their eyes for a few moments and fix the breath. "This will cause them to become calm during the lesson. Over time, this improves their memory so that they can better retain what the teacher teaches," he explained.

Trying to relate human values and Mathematics, Margaret is writing a book on the subject entitled "Maths and Human Values". As an example, he cited the positive and negative numbers. "In our behavior, what positive qualities we practice? What negative qualities we see? The negative outweighs the positive? How can we change our negative ways in order to make them positive?" lists as questions that can be asked to the students.

Margaret Taplow Carole is also helping in editing three books on the subject that will be republished earlier this year, with the goal of ensuring the requirements of the new Curriculum Citizen of the United Kingdom (the Brazilian equivalent LDB) are met. Books, each suited to a particular age group, are gaining new lessons, linked to other curriculum subjects such as Geography. ". We may study earthquakes in California and Afghanistan Students compare the costs and impact as a family in each place should have handled the situation," thought Margaret professor, explaining: "Children can go on to have aspirations and help serve society. For example, I can stop buying chocolate and send the money to them I pray for them when I grow up, I can use my love of geography to develop a mechanism that can predict earthquakes "??? Thus, she said, children are formed for life, not for a living.

In Uberlândia (MG), the Municipal School of Early Childhood Education (Emei) Barrio Luizote, the principles are transmitted primarily through literature, puppetry and music. The outcome in 820 children, from birth to six years is visible. "The care that they have with each other is much greater. If a classmate has a problem, will soon go to. They are more supportive and participatory," said the coordinator of Emei, Zeila Rocha Costa, adding that they now have an easier concentration. "They are quieter. They are ten o'clock at school without any problems."

Zeila said parents also felt the changes in students who take home their situations in the classroom. "In a situation of aggression, the teacher stops what it is doing and calls all students to remember the history of goldfish, for example, that has to do with forgiveness and repentance," he explained.

Parents, incidentally, also play a major role in teaching human values. "Inside the house, the children are taught to have peace?" Asks Professor Goncalo. Coordinator for the Institute of Sathya Sai Education, example is that more educated. "As parents want children not to lie? How many times have you asked your children say to someone on the phone that they were not?"

Gonçalo teacher uses the same argument to explain that education in human values not to be confused with religious teaching, though common principles. "Many Christians know what the Bible says, but not all put their teachings into practice. Talking does not mean living," he says.

The teaching of human values took a big step in October, when Sathya Sai Institute of Education was invited by DREM-9, one of the school districts of the Municipal Secretariat of Education of São Paulo, to teach two workshops to about 80 educators state capital. "We want to rescue the humanization of school work, which must not reproduce content by rote," explained Professor Eden Silverio de Oliveira, delegate teaching DREM-9. From these workshops, teachers now have the freedom to revise their teaching plans and adopt education in human values in the classroom.

The application of these teachings of Sathya Sai Baba is a return to the roots of education - educare means "taking from the inside out." "The emotional not learn from books. If you learn from experience," says Professor Gonzalo. "Only then can we have a world of love, peace, truth, non-violence and right action."

Founded in 1993, the Institute of Sathya Sai Education in Rio de Janeiro aims to teacher education based on the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba. The institute has trained over 10,000 educators through seminars and conferences around the country.

Sathya Sai Baba is the chancellor of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, the Indian city of Prashanti Milayam. The pedagogy of education in human values developed for it involves no religion, just want to stimulate individuals in the pursuit of self-realization.

The biggest challenge is the integration of human values into educational curricula. The program, which is already used in more than 100 countries, an educational theory that merges concepts - and mainly practices - truth, right action, peace, love and non-violence to traditional curricula, to bring harmony to all mankind through education.