Honesty in the face of corruption, how to educate on different fronts
Corruption continues to be a major concern for 68 percent of society as reflected in a survey by the Center for Scientific Research. To tackle this situation it is important to change the mentality from the education of children. It is up to the family, the school, the media and society in general to make a change that makes us better and these could be some of them.
Honesty in the family
Children look in their parents' mirrors. Our children look at us constantly out of the corner of our eyes, they watch us, they scrutinize us, they see how we act and they are shaped like people, if a child sees that his parents lie, falsify, shout, he will do it too. If a child sees that his parents are honest, they tell the truth, they deliver they will learn to do it like that. Many times we have plenty of speeches, they need examples, with a look they understand many things.
For Carmen Sánchez Maíllo, academic secretary of the Institute of the Family, of CEU San Pablo University, it is fundamental that education in virtues -prefer the term virtues to the term values- begin at home. "Virtues are personal qualities that children learn and become habits that make them feel happy to act well." That is why it is fundamental to educate in the small details, "showing that it is worse to lie than to recognize an error that is forgiven, and also to be fair, respecting the things of his brothers, his friends, etc., returning things that have lent him, for example. "
Something has changed in the family that has transformed aspects of education. "In the past, the entire society (extended family, grandparents, uncles, friends, neighbors) contributed better to educate people, children had more models of austerity, work, honesty, exemplariness. Today we live in a more individualistic and self-centered society, focused on the success of the economic. "The transformation of the models is key:" Those who are presented as more attractive are those who earn a lot of money and it seems that they have a lot of social success " .
But Sánchez Maíllo is confident that this trend can be changed: "it is possible to show our children that true joy occurs when we act at the height of our heart, who wants the true, not the false, the beautiful, not the ugly, the company and not the loneliness. That company is learned as a family. Our children only believe it if they see what is possible in their parents' lives. "
Honesty in education
Sonia Rivas, professor of the Department of Learning and Curriculum, of the Faculty of Education and Psychology of the UNAV, defends that education inhonesty has to be transversal and proceed from all areas in which the child is being trained. But the main responsibility rests with families and school and society only act in a subsidiary way. "If this work in the family is not carried out and left to third parties (the school, society), the subsequent assumption of individual responsibilities is much more difficult to achieve."
In his opinion, the problem of the current generation lies in a question of "fads in the family vocabulary", rather than the values that are taught. "Families continue to educate in what entails the value of honesty: they try that their children do not tell lies, that they comply with the given word, that they trust in the other, that they know what is good or bad for one and for the others and that they behave coherently, etc. Instead, the word "success" or "triumph" is fashionable in the "family vocabulary." In itself, it is not bad to pursue success, although logically not at any price and without evaluating the how. When these words, which are not bad in themselves, are accompanied by positive values (coherence, honesty, honesty, loyalty), you will be on the right path in the education of your children. "
In order to achieve educational success, the essential is the example because children learn "through the experiences of these values in the family, therefore, parents should not forget that they must be the first to take care of the value they want to convey" .
Honesty at school
The schoolyard, the behavior in line to go to class or in the classroom, are small-scale experiments in social reality. There the characters of the children are forged. The scenes are repeated throughout history, and the first examples of loss of honesty and respect begin in the figure of the bully child that, on a small scale, extorts the weaker companions to snatch the snack or the cards. If the school society makes it the strongest, in the model of success, it will have generated a problem.Along with that child, there are the other models of action: those who allow themselves to be mistreated without opposing themselves, those who encourage the bully, those who remain silent out of fear. In all of them there are reflections of the behaviors of the adult society.
Inés Albánchez Garrosa, director of the CEU Montepríncipe School, explains how the educational community acts in these cases: "In our center, we have permanent staff of the orientation team, in addition to the teachers, who analyzes the attitudes in the playground. they work both from orientation and in the classroom and through tutoring.When problems are detected in the attitude of children, they work in a very coordinated way.With the children, the best way of acting so that they understand the value of the Honesty is teaching them to put themselves in the place of others".
For Albánchez, there is an interesting social analysis applicable to recent years that has simplified education in the field of Honesty and honesty. "The crisis has been good for us to rethink things from the point of view of success, the culture of pelotazo influenced a lot socially, particularly in the culture of adolescents and young people, that is over".
But the family and the school can not forget that these values are taught to children "from the day they are born and, of course, from the moment they start school." Honesty is already working in the assemblies of the stage If young people have done a good job, it will be easier in adolescence, but contrary to what is usually thought, older students tend to recognize their problems, their mistakes, the attitude necessary to be honest. "
María Solano
