There has been a shortage of character education in schools and this is becoming more evident from the increase in the crime rate and violent incidents taking place all over the world. Studies those have been made in different countries and the subsequent research done by experts and NGOs go on to show that there is a dramatic “moral decline” in the western world including America and Western Europe as well as Australia.
Much of these destructive trends are a direct result of the modern day social ideologies and thought processes that perpetuate self-indulgence and gratification of ones own being. Modern day thought processes deeply believe in the statistical data and is therefore obsessed with the massive growth in the mass media, the online world and the social networking sites like Face book, Orkut, Twitter etc. Modern day kids often try and look for solving their problems on the net which results in utmost confusion and wrongful decision making by them.
Why is Character Education so important for modern day children? Children these days do not feel the necessity of seeking the advice of their parents and other elder and experienced people who are much more mature than they are. This is also true because most of the families have become nuclear families and parents working hard for long hours and they have very little time to spare for their children who are left in the lurch to fend for themselves in their lives of lonely solitude, grappling to find a solution to each and every problem they encounter all by themselves. Children these days are losing faith in the concept of the absolute truth which every young individual is keen to find out. Therefore, because of this, the kids come to the conclusion that whatever works out for them in the short term is the right thing to do and things that do not work for them well is rejected by their subconscious minds to say the least.
With the growing disrespect for their parents and other elders who are seldom available, there is a shockingly overindulgence in sexual activities, increase in the number of abortion cases, there has been a big rise to self destructive habits and tendencies which manifest themselves in the form of suicidal attempts, taking recourse to drugs and alcohol thus resulting in their abuse and addiction, and many other types of destructive human behavior in modern society mostly in the big cities which emphasizes that there is a major concern and an urgent need for the introduction of moral education and in the school curriculum of every educational institution.
With rising competition in schools for getting better grades, moral science and character education as educative subjects have been losing its sheen and are being ignored. It is a subject that develops a person’s character traits and personality and yet it has not been made a compulsory subject. Because of this, we have seen a dramatic rise in the cases of instances in school violence, which are fatal and non-fatal crimes like rape, sexual predators, break in burglary etc. as well as serious assaults and racial discrimination’s as seen with the Australian students in recent times.