Polishing Gems

When we talk of polishing GEMS it would categorically mean the focused endeavour of committed individuals towards instilling good values, ethics, morality and spirituality. The early years are with concerted efforts to identify and minimize obstacles like insensitivity and callousness bred by circumstances and influences. As Plutarch is quoted to have said, “The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education”.

- Shanoor K. Mirza

Ethics would thus seem to be the medium to seek to resolve questions dealing with human morality — concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime — and its relevance to the time and generation of today. The importance of developing Culturally Competent Individuals today in this globalized village environment is the success mantra. One cannot initiate this process in the years of formal education as the imbibing of qualities like empathy, interpersonal skills, problem solving and decision making can be done as life skills education and training the young impressionable minds is easier. This knowledge and acceptance is a continuous process which cannot be initiated in the final years of formal education.

Schools and junior colleges can have a marked impact on students as teaching about different cultures can help students interact with people in a more cooperative spirit and respectful manner. Schools/junior colleges can continuously prod the students on by concerted efforts at role play/dramatization of stories or novels that depict culture and simulation sessions, library sessions groupwise, Skype conversations with students of different culture. Bringing about cultural sensitization through subjects like Social Sciences and Languages works wonders manifold.

During the Independence Day celebrations at our Junior College, it had to be seen to be believed that with just about 3-4 days of practice with teachers and a competitive edge the young girls of Standards XI/ XII came up with such innovative concepts of depicting and dancing with patriotic fervour, an ennobling experience when one sees so much of explosive cultural lapses in this WhatsApp and internet era.