AhsanAmin
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There has been a long standing debate in our nation's intelligentsia about changing the regular curriculum especially the way history and Islamic studies are taught in schools. Though there might be a need for changes in the above subjects, I see a far greater need for introducing a new subject called 'human studies'.
The purpose of the new subject would be to teach the children about good customs of other nations, and also inform them of a well selected list of inhuman deeds done by several nations in the past. Apart from knowing the good and the bad in different societies, the children will learn what are the great practices that good nations have and would be more willing to follow them throughout their life as citizens of Pakistan.
In Pakistan, even the graduates of some of the good schools do not have the right training to appreciate the good customs of many other nations and sometimes they can be counted among the category of bigots. Many times the reasons behind this phenomenon is that most of us might not have a moment in their life to critically analyze and appreciate so many foreign practices and only consider them in the light of national, cultural or religious obsessive biases. It would be good to invite our children to think more critically and methodically about different practices of foreign nations.
And I am not asking for a huge syllabus, we can keep the volume of this new subject very light. Taking the evil of sectarianism, we can teach about how different Christian sects/different ethnicities fought each other to death, but later started living peacefully. We could give examples of Britain and Rwanda here. We can teach our children how slavery was practiced and how it ended forever in other nations. We can teach them true stories about horrors of holocaust and other massacres in the name of religion, or nationalism. Only when children see the lack of dignity in inhuman acts of people and nations, they would recoil from horror when faced with expression of similar acts and make right and dignified human choices. We could also teach them stories of some leaders like Mustafa Kemal whose bravery and wisdom saved his nation from defeat in difficult times.
And everything in the curriculum of the new subject need not be about extremes of human good and bad. We could teach our children about some foreign folk stories and some foreign festivals and their relevance. For example Iranians make the best use of the longest night in the year with the whole families celebrating it together all through the night.
We can also teach our children about the nations who keep their cities perfectly clean and how they manage to do that and which nations are most disciplined that they automatically start a line when they feel the need for it. What is a nation where people would stop at red traffic light even at two in the morning. And so many other similar light things.
The purpose of the subject would be to appreciate good things of other nations and learn them into children of our nation. And learn to loathe the undignified acts of humanity throughout the history and never have to learn to hate them after doing them.
Also posted at my blog: The Need For A New Subject ‘Human Studies’ In Pakistan’s Schools. | ahsanamin2999
For all blog posts ahsanamin2999 | Smile! You’re at the best WordPress.com site ever
The purpose of the new subject would be to teach the children about good customs of other nations, and also inform them of a well selected list of inhuman deeds done by several nations in the past. Apart from knowing the good and the bad in different societies, the children will learn what are the great practices that good nations have and would be more willing to follow them throughout their life as citizens of Pakistan.
In Pakistan, even the graduates of some of the good schools do not have the right training to appreciate the good customs of many other nations and sometimes they can be counted among the category of bigots. Many times the reasons behind this phenomenon is that most of us might not have a moment in their life to critically analyze and appreciate so many foreign practices and only consider them in the light of national, cultural or religious obsessive biases. It would be good to invite our children to think more critically and methodically about different practices of foreign nations.
And I am not asking for a huge syllabus, we can keep the volume of this new subject very light. Taking the evil of sectarianism, we can teach about how different Christian sects/different ethnicities fought each other to death, but later started living peacefully. We could give examples of Britain and Rwanda here. We can teach our children how slavery was practiced and how it ended forever in other nations. We can teach them true stories about horrors of holocaust and other massacres in the name of religion, or nationalism. Only when children see the lack of dignity in inhuman acts of people and nations, they would recoil from horror when faced with expression of similar acts and make right and dignified human choices. We could also teach them stories of some leaders like Mustafa Kemal whose bravery and wisdom saved his nation from defeat in difficult times.
And everything in the curriculum of the new subject need not be about extremes of human good and bad. We could teach our children about some foreign folk stories and some foreign festivals and their relevance. For example Iranians make the best use of the longest night in the year with the whole families celebrating it together all through the night.
We can also teach our children about the nations who keep their cities perfectly clean and how they manage to do that and which nations are most disciplined that they automatically start a line when they feel the need for it. What is a nation where people would stop at red traffic light even at two in the morning. And so many other similar light things.
The purpose of the subject would be to appreciate good things of other nations and learn them into children of our nation. And learn to loathe the undignified acts of humanity throughout the history and never have to learn to hate them after doing them.
Also posted at my blog: The Need For A New Subject ‘Human Studies’ In Pakistan’s Schools. | ahsanamin2999
For all blog posts ahsanamin2999 | Smile! You’re at the best WordPress.com site ever
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