National Academy For Moral Development

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     The year was 1863, on a spring day in Northern Pennsylvania. A poor boy was selling goods door-to-door to pay his way through school. He realized he had only a dime left, and that he was hungry. So he decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a woman opened the door. Instead of a meal, he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry and so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, "How much do I owe you?" "You don't owe me anything," she replied. "Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness." He said, "Then I thank you from my heart." As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strengthened also. He had been ready to give up and quit. Years later, that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in spe

“Show me a culture where honesty is considered ridiculous, where nobody's ever accountable for anything, where anger gets admired as a sign of strength, and I'll show you a place where misery is permanent” ―  Anthony Steyning      I am writing this article in the turmoil when there are disturbances among two neighboring states; Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. This struggle and violence is about sharing of very vital water resource. One strong reason for me to write this article is; there is deteriorating scope for political consciousness with the decline of ‘Arts Education’ stream in our country, which is a back bone for key educational streams such as, History, civics and sociology. These are the streams which have shaped the world. Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of 32nd President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt says, “Our children should learn the general framework of their government and then they should know where they come in contact with the government, where it t

UBUNTU - A very nice story from Africa ... The motivation behind the Ubuntu culture in Africa ... An Anthropologist proposed a game to the African tribal children ... He placed a basket of sweets near a tree, And made the children stand 100 metres away. Then announced that whoever reaches first would get all the sweets in the basket. When he said 'ready steady go!' ... Do you know what these children did? They all held each other's hands, ran together towards the tree, divided the sweets equally among themselves, ate the sweets and enjoyed it. When the Anthropologist asked them why they did so,   They answered 'Ubuntu'. Which meant - 'How can one be happy when the others are sad?' Ubuntu in their language means - 'I am because we are!' A strong message for all generations. Let all of us always have this attitude and spread happiness wherever we go. Let's have a Ubuntu Life ... I AM BECAUSE WE ARE! Source: Whatsaap message

      T he highest form of morality is said to consist of judgments that are based on internalized principles of justice, and the central question of moral development theory is how individuals develop internalized controls over behavior  (Wilson, 1983) . In the world of psychology, the tests of the stage concept have shown that morally mature people generally show greater consistency and greater ability to disregard situational factors than do amoral individuals. And on the other hand the inhibitions with regard to cheating are greater for the morally mature, less for those who are highly allegiant, and far less for the amoral, whose behavior is clearly contingent upon punishment, rewards, group status, and obligations  (Wilson, 1983) . There is a study which is undertaken by Professor Adrian Beck and Matt Hopkins from the University of Leicester in England  (Deccan Herald, 2016) . The study says that the use of self-service lanes and smartphone apps to make purchases generated a lo

A  small  story  which  beautifully  illustrates that  what  you  sow,  you  reap. " Once  upon  a  time  there  was  a  small time  business  man  from  a  small  village who  used  to  sell butter  in  the  nearby town.  A  big  shop  owner  in  the  town  was his  regular  customer. The  villager  used  to  deliver  every  month the  shop  owner  the  required  butter  in  1 Kg.  Blocks  and  in turn  he  used  to  get grocery  items  like  sugar,  pulses  etc  from the  big  shop  owner. Once  the  shop  owner  decided  to  weigh the  butter  and  to  his  surprise  every  block of  butter weighed  900  gms.  instead  of  1kg. Next  month  when  the  villager  came  to supply   Butter,  the  shop  owner  was  very angry  at  him  and told  to  leave  the  shop, to  this  the  villager  replied  him  courteously " Sir,  I  am  a  very  poor  villager, I  don't  have  enough  money  to  even  buy the  required  weights  for  weighing  the butter,  I  usually  put t

How much resource are we accumulating, and actually how much of it we really need it? Just think. It is important to remember that, we share the resources in the world, we do not own any of them. I have 400 channels in my TV, but I manage to look at only 30 of them. My note book has 200 pages, but I could use only 120 pages. My bike can accelerate to 140 speed, but I am able to zoom at 100 speed. My car can accelerate to 200 speed, but I am able to zoom at 120 speed. I have 5 pockets in my dress, I could use only 2 of them. My phone has 32 GB memory, but I could use only 10 GB. I have 80 GB of internet pack per month, I could use only 50 GB of it. My phone has 800 audio tracks, but I could listen to only 200 of them. My phone has 10,000 hours of video, but I could manage to see only 2000 hours of it. I have three mobile sims, but I could use only 1. I order 200 plates of food for my party, but I could use only 160 of it. In my life, in an year I could find 5 special vacati

     Moral science is one of the extra curricular subjects most of us study in schools. The moral stories are explained to us and at last we were told about the moral of the story. But the moral is not about teaching rules and distinguishing 'Good vs. Bad'. It is more than that. It is about developing a cognition, thinking ability and decision making capacity of a person in order for him to take decisions in various situations which involves dilemma. Below is the incidence reported in June 2016 in times of India Bangalore edition. This parent is stuck in a moral dilemma on religious practice vs. Social practice. In this situation both are vital for him. Have a look on a below article and discuss with some of your fellow folks. Discuss what decision each of you would take and what are reasons behind each step. BENGALURU: A private school in the city has expelled a kindergarten student allegedly because he has a ponytail. When Manjunath BC went to pick up his son, Vishnu BM, f

Moral dilemma is a conflict in which you have to choose between two or more actions and have moral reasons for choosing each action. Now it is for us to decide on the extent to which morality is important. If it is important, then how it could be taught. If it has to be taught, it should be taught at home or school, or both. Now morality is not a subject on the curriculum of most schools, at least in the sense in which mathematics is. And the only specialists in its structure are moral philosophers. It is often said, too, that willy-nilly every teacher is a teacher of morals. A teacher could teach the child how 'borrowing', is distinct from 'stealing', with classroom experiences, and considerable amount of instruction and explanation.  (Peters, 1974) . For this a regular subject teacher could also play a role to imbibe this cognitive ability in the children. What, then, is to be said about learning the content of morality? Do we have to be concerned only with the

One day, I was so angry, that I left home, swearing not to return, till I became a big guy. Parents, who can't even buy me a Bike, have no rights to dream to make me an Engineer. In my fit of anger, I didn't even realise that I was wearing my father's Shoes. I even stole his wallet, which had some papers, torn as well, which my mother won't seen... While, I was rushing on foot towards the bus station, I realised some prickly pain in my foot. I also felt dampness inside the shoe. That is when I realised the shoe had a hole underneath. There were no buses around. Not knowing what to do, I started to look in my Dad's wallet. I found a loan receipt of Rs. 40,000, which he taken from his office. A laptop bill (he had bought for me). To my utter shock, also found a letter from his manager to wear a neat looking shoes, henceforth to the office. I remembered my mother pestering him to buy a pair of new shoes, but he would convince her that his shoes would last another six

Below write up is from colloquium event poster by professor Janaki Nair. Its theme is written at this blog's  header. To what extent has the school classroom been witness to, or the site of, some of the most important churning in Indian democracy over the last four decades, a time before elementary education was made compulsory? A wide range of recent writings by Dalits, women and members of other oppressed sections of Indian society have allowed us a glimpse of the systematic and violent ways in which generations of Indians had been denied the most basic of rights. Even more revealing are the ambiguous results of the gradual participation of such marginalized groups in the process of education, which has generated new desires and fears, experiences of liberation and humiliation. Perhaps the longest standing expectation of education, since the colonial period, has been its function as a gateway to a job. Again, a very particular colonial inheritance has been the expectation of not

A King with a defect in one eye and in one leg asked all the painters to draw a beautiful portrait of his...! But no one was ready to draw, as how to show him beautiful with a defect in one eye & a defect in a leg. One painter however agreed and draw a classic one. It was such a FANTASTIC painting that every one was surprised. He painted the King aiming for a deer in a hunt, targeting with one eye closed & a leg bent for it Why can't we all paint others like this, "hiding their weakness" & "highlighting their strengths May we learn to hide other's weakness & bring their virtues to light. Source: whatsapp message

One night when the whole world was sleeping, a thief broke into the house, the washer man was fast asleep but the donkey and the dog were awake. The dog decided not to bark since the master did not take good care of him and wanted to teach him a lesson. The donkey got worried and said to the dog that if he doesn't bark, the donkey will have to do something himself. The dog did not change his mind and the donkey started braying loudly. Hearing the donkey bray, the thief ran away, the master woke up and started beating the donkey for braying in the middle of the night for no reason. Moral of the story: One must not engage in duties other than his own. Now take a new look at the same story. The washer man was like a typical top management corporate guy. He had the fundas of looking at the bigger picture and thinking out of the box. He was convinced that there must be some reason for the donkey to bray in the night. He walked outside a little and did some fact finding, applied a res

Man is superior to all the creations of Allah. A man can think, reflect, decide and act upon and execute various duties. The education makes man understand various paths in life. Allah says in Quran that he has created things in pairs- Male and female, Day and Night, and likewise Allah has created two paths for a man- one is good and other one is bad. The good way is Allah’s and the bad way is Satan’s. Thus it is our responsibility as a student to understand what is good for us and what is bad for us. Holy Prophet has shown us path for success in every situation of life. Thus we as a student should take the responsibility of following the teachings of Holy Prophet. We as a student spend at least 30 to 40% of our life time in education institutions. And it is our responsibility to build our character as per the commandments of Allah and the teachings of Holy Prophet. Holy Prophet has taught us the lessons for all the state of affairs. Let us see two traits of a good student- (1) T

The children are very matured, able and intelligent than we think. Its our responsibility to give our children an environment where they can grow in a natural way. In a cartoon channel called DisneyXD there is a cartoon series called 'chorrpolice'. Where thief wins and the police man fails most of the times. In rational societies stealing is considered as immoral and an act of harm on others. Through these kind of cartoons if we target our young brains with these kind of entertainment and messages, what kind of influences and impact will they have in their lives. Some studies reveal that for most of the human activities 95% of backing is done by our subconscious and only 5% is driven by our conscious. And it is said that even when we are asleep, our sub consciousness will still be active recording things. We need not move mountains, we just need to make way through it. It is an easy job of just changing our perception and attitude. In this case if the same cartoon is shown i

     I was returning from an assignment from Maharashtra state in India. On the way in the Dound railway station a young and shabby looking person came across the window asking for Alms. He was covering his body with a blanket. It looked like he was hiding something under the blanket. Out of curiosity I asked him what was that. He just took off the blanket and there was a plastic sheet. I asked him what was that, he said this was his bed sheet to sleep in the dark cold nights. After this dialogue between us, I for sure believed that he is a very fit man. Then I asked his name. He uttered his name. I asked him where he is from. He said that he belongs to a village in Maharashtra. And he does not have shadow of his parents on him anymore. He has a brother back in the village who works on the agricultural field. The turning point of our discussion is when he said that he had reached 12th standard in his education. I asked him why does not he work somewhere. He said he does know work rel