Dear Friends,
Almost everyday we come across people in our country who:
-Spit/urinate/defecate/litter in public
-Violate traffic rules with impunity
-Show no concern for others/specially neighbours/don't care for society
-Do not Que up anywhere; bus stand, railway station, payment counters et al
-Do not respect anyone/senior citizens/authorities (Like Police/Govt Officials etc)
-Use disrespectful foul language, often times expletives, openly
-Are badly groomed; dressed inappropriately/disrespectfully, shabbily, provocatively, filthy footwear etc.
-Have not only no respect for our country, but indulge in criticizing our country incessantly. No nationalism or patriotism at all.
- Lie and/bribe or threaten and/or indulge in violence for just about anything
-Ill treat people of lesser economic class
- Have no gender sensitivity, let alone respect for girls/ women
-Discourteous, often times worse, rowdy behaviour
-Have no sense of social or ecological responsibility
-Are undisciplined, ill mannered
-Are showing cheating/criminal tendencies
- Are tolerant of defiance/violation of law (afraid to be whistle blower
-Do not know how to deal with foreigners
.........and so on and so forth........this list is woefully endless.
So what can we do about it? Complain? Criticize? Crib that India is a lousy country? Banana republic? Or give it a deep thought and do something about it?
I have attempted to do something about it within my limitations. After Googling for several hours & protracted discussions with many academicians (Including School Teachers) and also studying the Japanese and Israeli models of Civic education education in particular, my research reached a conclusion that what we lack is quality of CITIZENSHIP.
Most parents expect things to happen in the school. For Eg: If the child is abusive or telling lies or just lazy, not dutiful, they will promptly blame the school, the teachers, the type of students in the school. This is very unfair. All parents want their kids to become AIIMS, IITs, IIMs or IAS. So the schools HAVE to produce Doctors, Engineers, Corporate Managers, Govt.Officers(Entrepreneurs?).
But who is going to produce good citizens for our country?
Do You Want THIS for Your Children?