Dr.B.Sree Jahannathan M.A.M.Phil.Ph.D. Director Friend, Guide and Philosopher-Counseling centre Coimbatore. www.friendguidephilosopher.net Values are roots of the culture of a nation and guiding principles of life. Values guard the society from degradation of culture. Human Values are related to divine not to the world. Every one of us is well versed with these values. But we apply them in our practical life with less interest. We have inbuilt values. But due to the material life that we lead, they are masked by ignorance. A value is a relationship between an individual and the society. In fact values are the pillars of humanity. Values take more significance. We can understand values in regard to both social and individual. Values are based on ethics. Such ethical values are essential to sustain societies and to generate members to the society with moral qualities. Values are classified broadly under two categories.     1. Moral Values     2. Social Values Both of these categories are inter-related, and one cannot exist without the other. Moral values are personal values, supported and guided by spirituality. Personal values are followed out of one’s own interest in order to achieve personal and spiritual development while social values are cherished and practice to keep the society in harmony. Let us further list out moral values and social values. Personal Values: Most of the personal values are towards the fulfilment of the evolutionary role in man and in life. A man who follows all moral codes becomes human. We can list out the personal values which are moral values based on spirituality. 1)        Morality 2) Justice 3) Compassion 4) Sympathy 5) Love 6) Tolerance 7) Equanimity  8) Self - discipline 9) Self - confidence 10) Self control  11) Faith  12) Cleanliness  13) Virtues  14) Duty  15) Simplicity  16) Sublimity  17) Spiritual wisdom, 18) Meditation. Social Values : Unlike moral values social values require more than one person to follow. These values are towards community, society, nation and the world.  These values are external relationships. These are also closely related with spirituality and morality. Social values are historically maintained, rearranged and modified as per the need of the time. Let us list out some of the social values as follows : 1) Freedom  2) Service  3) Sharing  4) Tolerance  5) Patriotism  6) Secularism  7) Equanimity  8) Universal brotherhood and 9) Environmental cleanliness. Education in Human Values means imparting a process, which inculcates moral, spiritual and social values to the students, while learning at schools or colleges. Value education has the capacity to transform a diseased mind into very young, fresh, innocent, healthy natural and attentive mind. The transformed mind is capable of higher sensitivity and a heightened level of perception. This leads to fulfillment of the evolutionary role in man and in life. Education in human values is based on teachings of moral, ethical and spiritual values, which are essential to develop an individual’s character. But it does not mean a mechanical teaching and learning but of a deliberate cultivation. The present education system is not enough to develop students with respect to moral values. Morality should not be conditional training to students. Moral education involves both making the students to think morally and behave morally in a natural way. It must be developed to cognitive level. A person who behaves morally knows of the moral values in his actions. Hence, moral education is complicated process of teaching values, to make value oriented and to make them emotionally truthful. Value education is an attempt to develop broad mindedness, tolerance and proper social and emotional qualities. It also develops sincerity and responsibility. It gives a chance to emerge with leadership qualities. Value education aims at training the young in the entire realm of values physical, emotional, intellectual, imaginative, aesthetic, democratic, scientific, social, moral and spiritual - which can be pursued by any individual irrespective of his practice of any religion or no religion at all. Value education does not have any religious barriers. It is common to all religious and in fact most of the values are taken from the famous beliefs of the various religions. Morality and spirituality are the two facts behind Value Education. These two do not require any rituals or ceremonies in which religions differ. Real education has to teach man how to live with happiness and peace. The lessons learned in classrooms are forgotten immediately after the student leaves the doorsteps, today.  We expect our children to learn to earn. But equally important is character. The Human Value programme is designed as a tool for the development of character. It is not a form of dictation to or brainwash of an individual, but rather to offer him a secure base from which he may take his own moral decision. Recently many Schools and Colleges have started showing much interest in value education based on human excellence and academic excellence. Let us hope for certain remarkable changes in our education system soon. Thanks to: VARAHA'S LIGHT/January 2006 varahaschool@yahoo.com www.varahaschool.net

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