In today’s world declining of moral values, attitudes and behaviour are issues of great concern in many societies and no doubt this has a strong correlation with rising crime levels, corruption and the other social evils which are threatening societal stability and harmony.
The reasons for this unfortunate trend are many and finding solutions in an increasingly complex human environment is by no means an easy task. But arresting this attitudinal and moral decline is an imperative if societal cohesion, peace and stability are to be maintained.
However, the best approach towards tackling this problem is to ensure that children are raised in the proper manner and are exposed to a healthy environment because this early training has a substantial effect on their attitudes and moral values as adults. And this is where parents and teachers play a key role because these are the people that children are exposed to most of the time, becoming their first role models and mentors.
Unfortunately in today’s world there is an increase of broken homes coupled with domestic violence, abuse, etc, and obviously an increasing number of children are raised in an unstable, and in extreme cases, a frightening environment. In addition, in order to cope with financial obligations and cost of living increasingly both parents have to work and as such many children are left without proper parental supervision making them vulnerable and susceptible to the many negative influences in society.
Of course one of the areas where many negative attitudes and behaviour injurious to the young mind are transmitted is through the electronic medium and concerns have been and are being expressed about the increasing violence, vulgarity, lewd music, pornography that are shown on television programmes and other electronic media. This is a headache for many parents because of technological advances it is very difficult to monitor and restrict what children view via the electronic media.
In the name of freedom too, the value system has changed and no longer for example respect for an elder is automatic. As one parent remarked: “Twenty or thirty years ago, children were taught that you respected and you listened to your elders. It didn’t have to be your parent; it could be your parent’s friend or an elder on the street. You knew that if you were out, you were supposed to behave yourself and conduct yourself in a certain way.”
It is clear that while the world has made tremendous progress materially, it has lagged with respect to moral and spiritual development. But the latter is just as important as the former, and in any case in order for society to get the optimum use of the material gains positive and morally upright behaviour and attitudes are essential.
Chinese President Ju Jintao alluding to the importance of spiritual development in one of his speeches said: “In the past 30 years, we have focused our efforts on not only the development of social productive forces but also the improvement of the cultural quality of the whole nation, attached equal importance to both material and spiritual civilization, and run the country by combining the rule of law with the rule of virtue. We have persevered in arming the people with scientific theories, guiding the people with correct public opinions, molding the people with noble minds and inspiring the people with superior works, redoubled our efforts to nurture citizens with lofty ideals, moral integrity, better education and a strong sense of discipline, consistently raised the ideological and ethical standards and scientific and educational levels of the whole nation, provided a powerful ideological driving force and strong intellectual support for reform, opening up and socialist modernization, and created sound public opinion.”