Human Values in the Classroom: A Talk to Teachers

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The teaching profession is one of the best professions. It is also a very big responsibility. As a teacher you have to set an example because the children watch you carefully. Children’s values are only half learned from their parents, the rest comes from their teachers. Children observe much more than adults. They observe everything that you do and they pick up on it. When you are calm and when you’re composed, then they observe that; if you are tense or if you are not smiling, then they watch and imitate you.

You may have noticed how children imitate their mothers. If the mother has a serious face, they look very serious. If the mothers are smiling, the children start smiling. Their own behavior patterns to a great extent depend on the parents and to the same extent on the teachers also.

Parents may have to deal with only one or two children but teachers have a couple of dozen in the classroom. The situation is more testing and stressful.

To handle that, you need to center yourself a few times every day. Just before lunch, sit and calm yourself and have a deep trust that everything is being taken care of, or will be taken care of.

You have been assigned a job that you can handle. First of all you need to have trust in yourself. If you think you have a very big task that you cannot handle, then you will really not be able to handle it. You need to know that the task you have is appropriate for you and that you will handle it the best you can. A lot of patience is necessary. It would be good to sit and relax and just be with nature a short time every day. Start meditating regularly to increase energy. A few deep breaths here and there will also help.

Basic human values need to be encouraged in the classroom. Basically a child is born with these values, and teachers need to uncover them. Children have these values within them. What are human values? Compassion, cooperation, friendliness, smiling, laughter, lightness, wanting to help, sense of belongingness, caring for each other, all of these qualities are there and they need to be nourished and brought out. Often teachers need to deprogram some of the programming or behaviors that children have learned at home. Sometimes in the school itself children start exchanging their programming. This we need to attend to.

Teachers need to know that the human physiology or human nature is very similar to the atomic structure. Like in an atom, the central part of the atom is positive — a proton. The electrons, or negative charge, is on the periphery. Any negativity you find in a child is really only on the periphery. Negativity is not the real nature of the child. With loving attention and care you can bring out the positive human values in the child.

This is true even with a rebellious child. A rebellious child needs more physical contact. In a sense, a rebellious child needs more encouragement, more pats on the back. Make the child feel that they are loved, that they belong, that you really care for them. On the other hand, children who are very timid and shy can use a little irmness to help make them stand up and speak out. You can be a little strong with them, but it is very delicate how a teacher should handle them. With love and at the same time some firmness would be good.

Often we see people do the reverse. With the rebellious child we are strict and with the shy child we pat them more. Because they are used to being treated that way, they remain that way. The shy child is being patted too much, so he needs a little stiffness, firmness; whereas a rebellious child needs a more soft hand.

Involving children in active games is helpful. Restless children especially need a lot of exercise. In ayurvedic medicine there are three types of personalities. The first type is called vata. Vata type children tend to be thin and very restless. They are quick to learn and also quick to forget. They need a lot of exercise to reduce the vata tendencies.

The second type is called pitta. Pitta type children have a medium build, are steady and sharp in learning, they remember well, but they have a hot temper.

The third type, kapha children, tend to be physically bulky, they are slow in learning, but they don’t forget what they learn. Each type needs a different kind of attention. Usually you can look at the body structure and see what is their appropriate type.

Food plays a big role in a child’s development. Often children eat heavy, hard to digest food, and when they come and sit in the classroom, their attention and retention capacity is very low. Their attention is not in the classroom and they cannot retain what they learn. When designing classes, it is better to not have something like a history class in the afternoon session immediately after lunch. After lunch it would be good for them to do some work where they are not just listening. After a big meal their listening capacity goes down and if they are asked to sit and listen, they would rather sleep. If you have a craft session immediately after lunch, they will be busydoing something and they won’t fall asleep. The mathematics or science subjects which need their full attention and listening would be best held in the morning sessions before lunch. Also it would be good if you advise the parents to give them a lighter breakfast in the morning.

Educating a child should be holistic, not just a process of stuffing their head with information. Just coming to the class and learning a few lessons is not really bringing up a child. We have to see the needs for complete development because body and mind are linked. The body and mind are so linked that what we put in the body reflects in the mind and what is in the mind reflects in the body and in their actions. Human values need to be cultured for the sake of the mind and the body. These principles are the basics on which you can start building your idea of human values.

The other day I was happy to see that there is an award for being very friendly which is given to children in Canadian schools. That is very nice. The child who is the most friendly in the classroom gets an award. I think this is the first country that has instituted such an award.

This would be a very good program for schools all over the world. The children are encouraged to be friendly with all the other children in the classroom. I usually ask a child, how many friends do you have in the class? They usually say, 4, 5, 3, or 2. I tell them to make one new friend every day.

Usually children have their place and they sit in the same place every day. This is very bad I think because they sit in the same place and they get so attached to that place. Some other kid comes and sits in that place and they fight for it. They think of their seat as “my place”.

They don’t feel they own every seat in the classroom, they own just their own chair and they become so possessive about the chair. You can tell them to sit in different places every day and with different children next to them every day. Very young children do this. They don’t want to sit in the same place. The teachers are responsible for disciplining them to sit in the same place for their own convenience, but then the children don’t have a sense of belongingness in the whole classroom with all the kids and all places. For the teachers this makes things a little more difficult because the teacher will not see who is where and what they are doing, but for the children’s growth it is better to make them sit in different places each day and with different kids.

Also, place the child who gets the highest ranking with the least intelligent child in the classroom. Ask them to help that child. Usually all the intelligent kids in the classroom form one cluster and the unintelligent, dull children, form another cluster. This is also not healthy for the growth of the classroom atmosphere.

Once the more intelligent child starts relating to the unintelligent group, they immediately develop a feeling of belongingness outside their usual friends, and a greater sense of love and caring for others. Tell them, “You have to take care of this boy.” The first rank child is asked to take care of the least rank children and be with them, help them. This would really help to build a bond of human values. Another thing to develop is a sense of sharing in them. There are many ways to develop a sense of sharing.

Around the world we do a program called ART Excel (All Round Training for  Excellence) that includes all of these principles. In this 5-day ART Excel course, often taught in summer camp, we give the children some processes and exercises to reinforce their values and strengthen their sense of self. We inculcate in them nonviolence.

The program makes such a big difference in them. When they finish, they are not the same kids. If you find a child who has gone through 3 or 4 of these ART Excel training weeks, you see how their smile stays with them. When someone insults them, they smile. Of course, sometimes parents have a problem with that. They say the children don’t mind any scolding. After doing ART Excel, when the parents get annoyed with them, the children just smile and greet them. Then the parents are unable to keep their grim face because they also start smiling with them.

For example, suppose someone is insulted. Usually what happens? With any large group of kids, one will say something to hurt or insult another. You can’t expect a classroom of kids to be goody-goody all the time. Even adults don’t do that. What we say is, “If someone has insulted you, you just smile at them.” We teach them to smile. “If someone says, ‘You are a fool,’ okay, what do you do? Usually you feel like crying. Now instead just smile.” When they do that, they come out of this programming of reacting.

Another technique we encourage is just greeting the person who has insulted us. Suddenly, the person who insulted feels a shift. “Somebody greets me when I have insulted them.” Instead of getting mad, angry, and shouting at the person who insulted us, we just greet them. This creates a sense of nonviolence. With children this causes a big change. The sense of nonviolence grows in them. The root of violence is eliminated right there. When I was studying in school in India, anyone who even talked about guns was supposed to feel a sort of shame. Every child deplored that. “Oh, he said gun.”

Today that shame for guns has gone away. Also in the past if someone shouted in the classroom or lost their temper, everyone would look at them. Such an outburst was so abnormal that the person would feel ashamed. It was automatic. Nowadays those values have gone. The same thing is true with the teacher. A teacher giving a stern look at a child was something very uncommon because so much respect was there, that love was there, the love for the student, the connection between student and teacher. There was a tradition in the class that every day, or once a week, you had to take something for the teacher, a flower, or fruit, or sweet that had been made at home. Every class would have a table that was filled with the flowers. I think many cultures did that.

These values, these habits, are not there these days. To bring these values back we may have to educate the children in programs outside of school. Having teachers enforce these traditions as new rules will not work. Some other person will have to educate the parents and the children on how to respect the teachers more. One way we can do this is in summer camps. When someone else is taking care of the children in summer camp, new ideas, new values can be taught. We have to teach children how nice it is to have a sense of belongingness with an adult, with one’s father, a friend, to have a sense of personal feeling and connection with one’s teacher.

Students used to take pride in their teachers. That sense of belongingness with the teacher and the teacherstudent relationship would be established. If this was not important they could just learn their lesson from the computer. No need of human presence. Why do we need a human teacher in the class? Children can go and punch any keyboard and get whatever information they need. The presence of teachers is to create the human touch. That is what we need to keep and develop in the classroom and see in whatever manner possible we can advance this human touch, this human connection.

Question: I work in a rotating situation and see the same child­ren only once each weekday for one hour. It’s difficult to establish a connection because of the time lapse between classes and the short classes.

It is not the length of time, it’s the quality of time that matters. I sometimes meet my students just two days maybe in a whole year and that is enough. Quality time. Whatever time is there, establish a personal connection with them. Give them each some work to do or some exercise to do and next time when they come, attend to that. As teachers you have to tell them the mistakes they did, yet not make them feel guilty. This is a skill. If you make them feel guilty, they become your enemy. At least they think you are their enemy. At the same time you have to make them aware of their mistake. This is really a big skill. You have to make them aware of their mistake and yet not feel guilty about it. That creates the sense of belongingness. When you have a sense of belongingness, you are able to tell them without creating a sense of guilt in them. Then the love is felt there. Why do you want to tell someone their mistake? Because you love them. You don’t tell strangers on the street what mistakes they are making. You don’t care enough for someone you don’t feel love for to tell them their mistakes. You want to point out someone’s mistake because you feel for them, you want to help them. If they do not understand it, you have to say it in such a manner that they can understand it and yet not feel guilty.

Question: What is the key human quality a teacher must embody to create the best learning environment?

Belongingness. A smile, but don’t expect an ideal situation. It may not be possible every day.

Question: What is the most important aspect for the student tto focus on when you wish to motivate them?

Encourage them to have dreams and fantasies. Tell them stories that inspire them. Give them ideals to strive for and moral values to live by. When they have an ideal in front of them they have a role model. There is an advantage and a disadvantage to this. Sometimes when a person idealizes someone, they think it is not possible that they might also achieve that level of accomplishment.

They think it is too difficult or they think they do not possess the same abilities. This becomes an excuse to shy away from working toward that ideal. Worship helps overcome this. In this sense, worship means idealizing with a feeling of gratefulness. Worshiping is expressing gratitude, it is a wonderful quality that enriches you and it shows an expanded awareness of your own consciousness. Just idealizing can take you away from reality, but having no ideal can make you depressed and leave you groping in darkness. Kids in schools and colleges are often depressed today because they have no ideal, no worthwhile role model. If you can’t identify an ideal, you can’t move forward. They don’t see their parents and other elders as having the qualities worth idealizing. Like a river needs a direction to flow, life needs a direction to move. Children and young adults look for someone to idealize and often look to celebrities — rock stars, movie stars, basketball stars, and other such people. They find their role models on MTV. Unless you have some ideal to look up to, life does not seem to move. It is natural for people to look for that. And there will be advantages and disadvantages.

Teachers can be a living example to their students. Not that teachers should look for students to idealize them. One who is worth idealizing does not care whether others idealize them or not. Everyone needs to see that you not only teach human values but you live them. It is unavoidable that sometimes you will be idealized but it is better for children to have a role model, or goal, because then the worshipful quality in them can dawn.

Worship means you feel something inside. And that deep feeling of gratefulness, love, confidence, and trust wants an expression outside. It is good to express the gratitude. Without respect, without regard for each other, this world would not be a very nice place to live. Today what we need is to bring out that gratefulness in people, respect in people, worshipfulness toward each other, toward everyone. For many years in the West the idea of worship has been discouraged. This has been spreading to the East also. Instead of stopping worship, we need to increase the worship. Because we have stopped adoring people and respecting people, it has led to more violence in our societies. Just imagine that if all the people who move around using guns today had some respect in them, some worshipfulness in them, some regard for people around them, they would be different people, all together different people.

It doesn’t matter what people choose to worship. Whether it is trees, a cross, this person or that symbol, it doesn’t matter. The feeling of worshipfulness is what is essential. It doesn’t even matter if it is a pop star, but that emotion has to arise genuinely from within. This is important. Do not discourage people from idealizing, respecting, and adoring others. In the East, the tradition every day is for children to worship mother like god. Then the father is worshiped, then the guru, then any guest in the house. The children might have arguments with the parents during the day, but every morning they have to make up because they have to bow down to them again to begin the new day. If they again fight, at least they are starting out afresh.

Life has many different colors. We have to take life in all its colors and flavors. Today we need to educate people to adore more, worship more, appreciate more. Don’t be paranoid about worshiping. Instead you have to be paranoid about violence, arrogance, about abuse, abusive language, anger, frustration, not about worship, gratefulness, love, and appreciation.

Question: Where did we learn to be afraid of making mistakes?

There are many people who have no fear of making mistakes. Many students who have no fear drop out of school and are involved in violence. Recent statistics say as many as 30% of the children in North America are resorting to some form of violence. This is a very big number. They resort to violence because they are not afraid of making mistakes. There must also be another 30% who are afraid to make mistakes, who are not interested in taking risk, who shy away. 

Ideally we need to keep a balance. We are afraid of making mistakes because of the consequences, because we think we will be punished or the consequences will be very bad. Often those who have been punished several times are no longer afraid about the consequences. You cannot totally eliminate fear, nor should we. Fear is like salt in the food, it keeps one on their toes. Fear keeps one’s feet on the ground, but fear is essential to some degree only. Like salt in the food, if there is too much salt, the food is not eatable, but you cannot eat the food without any salt. A little bit of fear is essential in the process of growth. Nature has built you like that. You drive on the right side of the road because of the fear you would get in an accident. You walk on the sidewalk, you drive only when there is a green light. These actions happen out of fear. If you’re totally without fear, you could do anything and violate all the laws. Laws are always followed with a pinch of fear, and it is not a bad thing, but if there is too much fear, then it cannot be helpful. You have to keep a degree of fear like a little bit of salt in the food.

Question: Can motivation be taught?

Motivation is something from the outside. Inspiration comes from the inside. You can motivate a person, but the motivation is short-lived. To motivate maybe you give some prize but that motivation does not last. Inspiration can last for the whole life.  

Question: When I teach my students I’m mostly dealing with their behavior towards each other, which they tell me is acceptable, but I find it to be very degrading and the language very foul.

Such children, if they are involved in more physical activity, their rage or abuse of words will lessen. You find the children who are involved in a lot of physical education, who do a lot of physical play, they are not as verbally abusive. The problem is more with children who play soft games in which a lot of physical work is not needed, they are more abusive in their words. This is one thing. When dealing with their verbal abuse, when they show disrespect to you, what you can do is mimic them.

You show them, “This is what you do. Does it look good?” Immediately they know they don’t like what they see and then they stop doing it. Mimic them, or create a sense of fun in it, a game at that time gets everyone laughing. Then what happens? If one person is behaving disrespectfully and you make fun out of it, instead of scolding them and telling them they shouldn’t do this, or shouldn’t do that, you can have all the other children laugh. Then the whole atmosphere, instead of getting tense and unpleasant, now becomes a game or play or joke.

Then, immediately you have to put a stop to it. Now you have a more effective ability to say stop it. Then you will see the whole group will say yes to you. Now they will come back to you. Otherwise if you are in some way scolding the child, making that one student separate, the rest of the class goes to their side. They are not with the teacher. Always involve everyone and just imitate the child. With a sense of humor you can change the whole atmosphere to your favor. This is a skill in handling the class. You will find all the students are with you because they are all joined in laughter. Humor is the only turning point that can change disrespect into respect. No other advice or wisdom will work.

With adults, playing games will be more of an annoyance. If someone is disrespectful and you try to make it funny, it will become more annoying with adults you cannot act like teachers. With adults, silence is golden, just keep quiet. What disrespect can they do to you? Non-reaction in the case of adults who are disrespectful turns them back on themselves, but with the children silence won’t help.

Sometimes there are some very thick-skinned students where humor doesn’t work,  then you must act, not react. Then silence can work along with a little indifference. Don’t pay attention to it. If that doesn’t work, then raise your voice. The more centered you remain, the less likely you will have to go beyond that point.

Question: What do you do when a child has behavior problems and the other children are avoiding them?

Make all the children sit in a circle and put the child with the problem in the middle and have everyone shake hands with the child, dance with the child, or have them write a nice card for the child. If the teacher talks to the other children like a friend on the same level with them, the way you might share a problem with a friend, and then asks them what they think they could do to help the child, this brings out the compassion in them. Tell them how the child doesn’t feel good about being avoided. Ask them if they would do you a favor and go talk to the child and give them a flower or something.

This will give the child you have asked for help a feeling of pride that they could go and help the child who is being avoided. A child who needs help may not be willing to listen to the teacher, but can take advice from one of his friends. The friend who is teaching or telling something to the child also feels that he is important because he is doing an important job. The process is an elevation for both the child who is helping and the one needing help. This is like peer tutoring, not just in lessons but also in behavior. This generation needs to culture more of these human values of helpfulness. We are responsible. The children of today will create the society of tomorrow. Teaching human values is not just our desire, it is our obligation.

Society today has been planting the seeds of violence in children. Everywhere they look, the toys, the games, are violent. That violence gets ingrained in their system. I would say today’s toys and games are very ugly because they create violence in the system. Children are not feeling the refined qualities within themselves. Television has made children so insensitive to violence. The movies, even the cartoons, are violent. Everyone is banging against each other, hitting, or breaking into pieces. This violence is stored in the child’s conscious and subconscious mind. There is nothing about uniting and bringing together, only violence. It’s not that there can’t be any banging and breaking things, but having too many such influences in the mind creates a subtle unconscious tension in children. As they grow ten or fifteen years old, you can see the tension on their faces. They are not like bubbles of joy and bliss, they seem to be cramped up inside.

We have to do something, it is essential that we create an atmosphere for the growth. The teaching of nonviolence is totally absent. Tell them stories of Jesus, of Buddha, of compassion, of service. These will help. When we were children, I remember we used to capture butterflies and we would say, “See this butterfly has a life, it’s like a human being. It can suffocate and it will cry.” A child sees life and emotions in every animal. This is natural.

The elephant talks, the bear talks, the bees talk. Recognizing life is inborn in them. Any child anywhere in the world sees life and the emotions in all the species. As children we were told, if you kill a lizard, you will be born as a lizard. Killing was a sensitive issue; if you cut down one tree, you had to plant five trees in that place. If you didn’t, it would cause problems in your own life. Such belief systems were there.

The classroom can be a very good place to instill these values. It is also very important because they spend so much of their time in the classroom. Teachers should tell inspiring stories about nonviolence and tell them violence is a shame. Compassion is a sign of dignity. This can really bring about a change. Create a sense of dislike for violence by bringing out more positive and inspiring human values. Teach children to honor and respect all life. If you teach them to be sensitive with a  butterfly, their respect for all life grows. Give children a broad vision of sharing. Encourage them to share with everybody whatever they have. Very young children often have a tendency to hold onto things. We train them when they are young to have a habit of coming from a space of sharing. Give a child a basket of candy and ask them to distribute it to everyone. Sharing is a natural tendency, we have to see that it is cultured and maintained.