What is the importance of moral values in student life?

What are moral values?

Moral values are the key components of a person’s character. They are personality traits guiding people to make decisions and judgements according to their own sense of what is right and wrong, based on collective and individual experiences.

While moral values are essential in whatever stage of life we are in, the values that most adults have are the ones that were instilled in us during our childhood. They form the fundamentals in any student’s life.

It is said that students are the future of India, and this future of our country depends greatly upon the values imparted to them during their student life. Moral values pave the path for all their decisions in life, as without these values, children do not have any guidance and their life may seem directionless. In order to be accepted and respected by society, parents and caregivers should make sure of imbibing these strong moral values in children as a lifestyle itself.

At Sherwood high, we believe that moral values such as kindness, courage, humility, honesty, truthfulness, integrity, respect, hard-work, tolerance, compassion, empathy, and inclusivity are extremely important to be instilled from an early age, to build a child’s character, as it forms the very core of their being and becomes the foundation of their moral beliefs throughout their lives.

We strongly acknowledge the responsibility of the school, parents, and caregivers to provide this moral education to our children as early as possible to mould them into the person that we want them to be.

Therefore, we will look at the importance of moral values, which are the basic values that reflect integrity and humanity in a student’s life, in this blog.

Why are moral values important in a student’s life?

A student’s life is full of challenges, changes, growth, and evolution. A growing child imbibes a lot of lessons throughout their student years, most of which stick with them for the rest of their lives. Students with high ethical values become accountable, responsible, and honest people, while those without moral values to abide by becoming a threat to themselves and society.

While there are an innumerable number of benefits of teaching moral values to our children, below are a few points that show why it is important to teach moral values to students from a young age.

1. It helps in strong character building:

Being aware of values from an early age helps in developing the child’s character and forming the very core of their being. A strong character development happens because of the virtues and values that children learn during their childhood, which remains as a sound foundation for their moral beliefs in the future.

These moral values that children imbibe become their strengths, which they can rely on to decide their path in life. Therefore, the learning years are the time when special care needs to be taken to instill these core values, which further get polished at school and later on in life.

2.  It helps in distinguishing right from wrong:

Moral values serve as a guide in differentiating between right and wrong, right from the beginning.  While we see almost every day that students at times can contribute to undesirable behavior like bullying or cheating in exams, they usually do not understand the concept of right and wrong.

According to research, children who commit petty thievery or pilfer were missing a parent or did not have any adult guidance to teach them proper values.

Therefore it is important to correct children when they do something wrong because they are not really understanding what they are doing unless they are taught the difference between right and wrong. If a child is not corrected for their small mistakes, they tend to understand that it is perfectly fine to continue doing it again. While these small mistakes can later become a factor that will lead to poor personality development in children.

By teaching your children these virtues, you help them form a firm basis of right and wrong, so they can conclude scenarios as morally right or not. This will help them in making the right decisions in their lives.

3.  Boost self-confidence and positivity:

When children do something good, they tend to feel good about themselves, which further motivates them, while also giving them an ample amount of self-confidence.

This self-affirmation of being able to give back or help others, in turn, helps in boosting their self-confidence along with helping them develop positive feelings and positive relationships in their lives.

4. Shapes attitudes, beliefs and determines their adult behavior:

Today’s students are the ones that will become tomorrow’s doctors, business people, engineers, scientists, politicians, police, etc., and hold the most important positions that will either uplift or let down societies, communities, countries, and the world at large.

Moral values should be properly implemented right from a young age because the virtues you teach your children today will determine how they behave as adults.

5. Wards off negative peer influence:

All of us have experienced peer pressure at least at some point in our lives, and it is absolutely normal for young children and adolescents to feel pressured because of their friends. This peer pressure plays a significant role in most of their decisions, from something as simple as the choice of clothing to the way of life.

Good moral values act as a moral compass that helps children stay off the negative influences from their peers, social media, or, in general, as they grow into their teenage years or even adulthood. According to some health sites, children that feel good about themselves will resist negative peer pressure better.

6. Serves as a support in tough situations:

Moral values give children perspective, make them strong, and transpire firm beliefs in them, which makes them work hard and have courage when they are facing challenges in life.

It is almost every day that we hear about the pressing concerns youth face today, such as anxiety, stress, depression, and whatnot. While these challenging situations can throw some people down with struggle, teaching children to distinguish between right and wrong, good or bad, helps them make decisions quicker, better, and in a sensitive manner. 

Along with this, moral values give them a strong sense of self and strength in character, which will support them mentally to overcome any difficult situation with determination.

7. Helps them in their relationships with others:

While children are taught responsibility from a young age, they figure out their role and purpose in society. It is with the understanding that the world does not revolve around them and that they have a duty to follow towards their fellow human beings that will teach them to put the emotions and needs of others before themselves and see others’ perspectives.

Teaching values such as sharing, compassion, cooperation, acceptance, equality, generosity, and justice are extremely important for children to make everyday decisions in an unprejudiced and empathetic manner. From something as simple as showing courage to complain about a bully at school to showing perseverance in achieving goals at work will all help the entire society.

Apart from these, they understand how to form and maintain relationships and live by setting high standards of social living, which will, in turn, be a positive influence on others.

 To conclude:

Moral values are the building blocks of personality that help in building the better character of people.

It is absolutely important to teach moral values in students because it is then that they take their first steps towards life, and it matters that they do it right. These moral values shape their attitudes, beliefs, and ideas and help them develop into undeterred and morally strong individuals.

Remember that it is our role as parents and caregivers to put our time and effort into imbibing these values in our children, as it is from their parents and teachers that children are inspired the most.

Children are extremely good observers and they follow what they see, so it is by role modeling that you can pass on this priceless treasure of virtues to your children who will, in turn, pass it on to the generations to come, to ultimately make the world a better place.