EDUCATION AND BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE
By RTN OLALEYE ALAO, SECRETARY GENERAL, UPF-NIGERIA
UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE, ABUJA, NIGERIA, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013
Since the focus of the Day of Peace event is on Education and Building a Culture of Peace, I’ll touch some vital areas concerning education based on the thoughts of UPF Founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
The Need for Moral and Ethical Education
There is great need for moral and ethical education generally in today’s society, particularly in our nation, Nigeria. Why this is so can be understood by reflecting briefly on current social conditions and then more specifically the manner in which education has contributed to them. While not a panacea, education has an important responsibility in fostering the health of any society (spiritual health, mental health, material health and economic health). Erasmus once said, “The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth.” Modern science and technology have helped raise our material living standards. Advances in transportation and communication have created opportunities for people to interact more easily than ever before. Advances in the fields of health and medicine have eliminated many diseases that once plagued humankind. This extraordinary development in the areas of science and technology is the bright side of the twentieth century.
At the same time, it is also evident that expertise in human relations -- the ability to get along with each other -- has not kept pace with these external achievements. This dark side of the twentieth century is apparent in its bloody conflicts of unprecedented scale. More people have died in war during this violent century than in all previous centuries combined.
The Center of Our Problems: Family Breakdown and Its Social Consequences
Without any hesitation there is an even more insidious war going on -- the war within the family. This war is devastating virtually every nation in the world today. No power has been able to curb the breakdown of the family. The family is in crisis. Spousal and child abuse, infidelity and divorce are rampant. Youth grow more distant from their parents, and respect between husband and wife is on the decline. People are becoming ever more individualistic.
Family breakdown has increased most sharply in affluent countries and nations experiencing their greatest period of economic expansion. Thus, the common assumption that economic prosperity and political freedom would bring the solution to social problems has not proven to be true. Looking at the divorce rate in the United States, Sweden, France, and Japan, there has been a phenomenal increase from the 1960s to the 1990s. Certainly, one cannot attribute such increase in family breakdown to the pressures of poverty or social discontent. The problem exists apart from the new-found prosperity.
Associated with family breakdown is an increase in youth problems. Without the civilizing influence of strong families, young people are taking advantage of their increased affluence and freedom to experiment with drugs and engage in free sex. As a result, the epidemics of AIDS and STDs are particularly widespread among youths. The last 30 years have also seen an alarming increase in crime and violence among young people. Young people have less respect for their elders. They are less diligent in their studies, resulting in a significant decline in academic performance. Academic malpractice is seriously undermining students’ true academic capacity and aptitude. More and more are getting involved in suicidal crimes or committing outright suicide, when not having the capacity to face and contain the challenges of life as a result of lack of true personal morality and family-based values and character education.
Family breakdown and the youth crisis take their toll on society, leading to greater alcoholism, drug abuse, crime and violence. In Western nations, there has been a decline in civility and trust that threatens the very social fabric.
Family breakdown contributes to the tenor of crime as well. The cruelest and most remorseless criminals often share a common factor in their backgrounds: as children they were institutionalized or shunted from foster home to foster home and never had the opportunity to develop humanizing relationships with family members or surrogates. Not having enjoyed a proper family life, they are severely crippled in their ability to identify with the pain and distress of others -- a process normally facilitated by loving interaction with a mother, or mother-figure. Hence, they can more easily believe their own justifications for their crimes. Rapists, for instance, almost always convince themselves that their terrified victims not only asked for but also enjoyed the rape experience. This shows a definite misreading of emotions, a blindness and insensitivity toward the hearts of fellow human beings due to a lack of good family training.
The issues to be faced in the new millennium -- from the relations between nations to the relations within families and inter-personal relations -- are internal problems, involving the mind and heart. They involve discerning what is beneficial for human beings and what is not beneficial; good and bad; right and wrong. They are moral issues.
Indeed, one might say the heart of the human problem is in the human heart.The solution to today’s social problems cannot come primarily through new technology or government programs. A good society can only be formed by forming individuals of good character.
The Traditional Role of Education
Two institutions have central roles in the moral formation of individuals. The first is the family. The second is the educational system (schools), because it functions in loco parentis, in the place of the parents. Children should be given a consistent message between the home and the school. In other words, the parents’ role is to set clear standards and a good example at home, and the school’s role is to reflect and amplify those standards. When good standards are absent from the home, the school can play a remedial role.
Traditionally, education has always had a preeminently social purpose: to prepare good citizens. This requires imparting knowledge that can make for a productive life and passing on the cultural values that bind society together. This also requires teaching moral standards, in order to prepare citizens who will fulfill their social responsibilities.
A Balanced Education
We can thus summarize a total picture of education. Education’s purpose is to elevate and develop the whole person. Thus conceived, education has three components and three goals. The three components of education are: cultivation of heart, education in ethical standards, and education for mastery. The three goals of education are to foster individuals of matured character, ethical and loving familial and social relationships, and productive citizens who contribute to a prosperous and peaceful community, nation and world. The three components of education correlate with each of the three life goals; at the same time, they function cumulatively to achieve these goals:
When an individual has cultivated a loving heart and the moral habits to practice love, he or she realizes the goal of mature character. (He or she is described as a man or woman of character and integrity; a person of virtue and personality).
When an individual is trained in ethical precepts, he or she can realize the goal of loving relationships, a happy family life, and good relationships with others in society.
When an individual has mastered skills for productive work, he or she can contribute to society.