Excerpts from book teaching ethics, values and morals to youngsters

Virender Kapoor, author and educationist, has created value education books for class 1 to 8 which adhere to the National Curriculum Framework (NCF). This seeks to nurture ethical development, inculcating values, attitudes and skills required for living in harmony with oneself and with others including the environment. Kaapoor, who has written several books on motivation, leadership and emotional intelligence realised there is a big gap between what we have and what we should have in the society. Schools are the space where values can be best talked about.

Earlier, the better. Therefore, he embarked upon writing school books for children which can inspire them and motivate them to seek value based life style. Values can’t be taught and forgotten, these must be adopted by people as part of life and therefore making it a lifestyle.

Close to ninety chapters spread across eight books -- Life with Values -- the entire spectrum of morals, value-based leadership, emotional intelligence, life style disorders, general awareness and personality development are covered. Use and abuse of social media, internet, mobile phones and how to handle these effectively -- which has hit us like a sledge hammer -- have been given due coverage across eight chapters in these books.

Illustrations and graphics are the heart of school books. “Pictures stick to the mind more than text,” says Kapoor.

Meaningful graphics have a great recall and are with you for life. Four colour pictures and graphics have been created for every chapter so as to appeal to young readers. The author believes that if you can make the content as interesting as comics and equally convincing, value education books will be lapped up by kids. These books have world class illustrations.

Virender Kapoor, former director of management institute Symbiosis, feels students must learn to self asses themselves. Hence at the end of every chapter, there are ten self assessment questions (personal score card) with score interpretation to give children an idea as to how they fared in the understanding and implementation of chapter learning. Every chapter has home assignments, activities and several question answers.

Each chapter has stories of people whom the children can relate to. Virender kapoor believes that we should use ‘visible role models’ who are seen on TV and media every day so that children can relate and also get convinced about the point being illustrated. These books are so motivating that children should get excited while reading these books as they do while reading story books.

Parents play a very important role in building values. These can’t be left to the schools alone and hence at the end of every chapter there is a detailed note for the parents to guide them as to how they should take these values being taught at school forward with their children on day to day basis.

Every book has a teacher’s manual, which helps the teacher understand the purpose and philosophy of each chapter and how to effectively teach the children from every chapter.

These books are designed with future citizens in mind, who can deal appropriately with the world that is moving so fast. Content is top of the line and entire spectrum as envisaged has been covered, each being illustrated by examples of very relevant role models.

Excerpts from the series, Life with Values:

Class 5

Chapter 9

Failure is a part of life

“I have not failed. I have just found 1000 ways that won’t work”

-- Thomas Edison

Let us think and discuss

Every successful person goes through hard times and encounters failures and disappointments in his or her journey to name and fame. Failure teaches us several lessons, which help us, succeed the next time.

Failure therefore can also be seen as a stepping-stone for success and victory. Therefore, when you see a successful person, don’t think that success came to him easily and he had never faced a failure.

Failures and set backs are very common and in many ways essential because each failure teaches us something for the future.

* Successful people do not take a failure personally. They look at a failure as an event and then take actions so that same failure is not repeated in future.

* Bouncing back after failure is one of the greatest virtues a man can possess.

Did you know?

* Walt Disney, who created Mickey Mouse and Donald duck and whose company earns in billions of dollars a year had a bad start in his life. He had joined as an artist in a news paper from where he was thrown out of the job. He started a number of businesses that also failed. He kept working hard despite the failures and finally made it big in life.

* Albert Einstein did not get a teaching job and worked as a Patent office clerk for several years before getting into Princeton University as a professor.

* Thomas Edison who invented the bulb was declared “Too stupid to learn anything” by his teachers. He made, 1000 unsuccessful attempts before he could finally get the design right for a light bulb.

Story of Kentucky Fried Chicken

Harland David Sanders popularly known as Colonel Sanders is best known by his world famous Kentucky Fried Chicken.

He faced a number of failures and rejections before he achieved fame. By the time he was 25, he was already fired from two jobs. At 26, he got a job as an insurance agent but was fired from that too. At 30 he runs a ferry business but it ran into trouble when a bridge was built near it. At 33 he starts a gas lamp agency but that becomes obsolete when the rural area is electrifed. At 34, he is fired from a tyre company, after which he is offered to run a gas agency. After three years the gas agency is wiped out by the Great Depression.

Three years after that he runs another gas agency which doubled as a restaurant. It was here that he discovered the recipe of his famous, ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken’. Nine years later, he has to open another gas agency as fire razed the first one. The next year he is commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel in recognition of his contribution to the state cuisine.

Two years later, when he is 52, the US joins the war and his second station is affected. At 62, he starts all over again, and faced 1009 rejections, before opening his first franchise in Utah.

At 69 he is forced to sell his service station to pay outstanding bills. He starts travelling all over the country to sell franchise rights. Within five years, 600 restaurants sell his chicken. At 74, he sold KFC for $2 million and stayed on as the brand ambassador.

Today KFC is available in more than 100 countries across the world.

Class 4

Chapter 2

Imagination Is More Important Than IQ

‘Logic will take you from A to B.Imagination will take you everywhere’

-- Albert Einstein

The Power of Imagination

Why do you think that imagination is an important part of our intelligence?

Reflect on the quote of Albert Einstein given at the top of this chapter.

Our imagination can take us to a different world in an instant. Close your eyes and imagine that you are in a garden; and you will instantly see yourself in the garden. You can imagine different types of trees and flowers. See how powerful our brain is that it can transport us into a different world immediately.

That is the power of our mind and imagination. And of all the living creatures that God has created, human beings are the only ones to be blessed with that.

Did you know?

One US Air force officer, during war was captured by Vietnamese and put in a dark box. To torture him, they kept him in that box for seven years. To kill time and remain mentally alert he played a full game of golf everyday in his imagination. After he was released, he entered a Golf tournament and could beat many at the game.

Class 4

Chapter 7

Faith, Trust and Truthfulness

Have you seen trapeze artists performing? Why are they able to do such acts?

How important is it for the trapeze artists to trust and have faith in their partners? Discuss in class.

Let us think and discuss

1. A friend takes your notebook to copy notes for a day and then he doesn’t return the notebook for the next ten days.

(a) How will you feel?

(b) What will you tell him

(c) Will you give him anything next time?

2. Your mother asks you to get milk from the shopkeeper next day in the morning. You keep sleeping till late and don’t get the milk from the shop. How will your mother feel? Should she not scold you for this?

3. When some friend repeatedly tells you lies, do you think you will ever have faith in him?

Discuss in the class, how people stop trusting others. If some wrong actions of others build mistrust in you, similarly if you do wrong things repeatedly, then others will also stop trusting you.

Class 4

Chapter 10

Be a responsible citizen

Responsibility and responsiveness is the key to individual success.

‘You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.’

-- Abraham Lincoln

When Do You Start Becoming Responsible?

Young children become responsible when they realise that they are accountable for their actions. You start becoming responsible the moment you start owning up your actions. For instance, if you have lost your pen, you stop saying, ‘It got lost’ and instead you say, ‘I lost it.’

Being responsible is one of the main pillars of good character. Sometimes people refuse to be responsible for it will mean that they have to be accountable too. Being responsible sometimes could force us to do things that are we don’t want to do. But in the long run being responsible has far more benefits. Our life does not get easier when

We avoid responsibility. In fact when we are irresponsible, we limit our capacities and potentials.

Responsibility is about our ability to respond to a situation or to circumstances and to act on it or to find a solution for it.

Responsible people not only depend on themselves, but show others that they can be depended on.

This leads to trust, and trust is a key that opens many doors.

If you want more control over your life and power of freedom and independence, all you have to do is be responsible.

Empowerment without responsibility

Empowerment means, ‘to give authority to someone’. Can there be empowerment without responsibility?

And can we give empowerment to someone who is not yet responsible?

Why do you have to wait till you attain the age of 18 to get a driving licence? A car is a big machine and all your senses should be alert. You should be mindful of not only your life but of the lives of the other drivers and pedestrians. This means that you should be matured enough to take firm decisions and stable actions. Studies show that children who are still growing at times gets distracted. Hence, the Regional Transportation Authorities/Offices have decided that the appropriate age to obtain a driving licence should be 18.

When people don’t behave in a responsible manner, it causes inconvenience to others and a loss to the country. Therefore we ourselves must behave in a responsible manner.

If we have to progress as a nation we should all start being accountable for our actions. We cannot shrug of our duties. If we don’t do our work we are failing ourselves and our nation.

The series has been published by S Chand.