Education, In What Values?

 

Educating in values ​​is a more indeterminate expression than the Roman "bonus pater families". At the end of the day, we all intuit that a good father of a family exercises authority without authoritarianism, seeks the physical, psychological and spiritual well-being of his family, has the capacity for sacrifice to achieve this end, and governs his family in order to do well. However, educating in values ​​is an ambiguous term, because it will depend on what values ​​are those that mark the educational line and what are the assessment scales. Saying that we educate in values ​​is as empty as saying that we have a progressive political project, or that we fight for peace and freedom.

Because in the words of Saint Thomas, to educate is to "lead man to the state of virtue." That is, to lead the student in the sense of justice, prudence and temperance in judgment, and in the search for the Truth that allows him to locate himself in life. Accompany him on the way to answer his basic vital questions: who am I, where am I going, what is the meaning of my life. Because only from the ground of vital certainties is it possible to build moral certainties. The anthropological reality allows us to know and exploit the infinite potentialities of our human nature. Intellectual restlessness makes us become "curious" with the will to advance on the path of Truth. Control of our will makes us masters of ourselves rather than slaves of our fleeting desires.

And more. Only the following of the risen Christ is the Way of Hope, Truth and Life. Everything else is "rubbish", in St. Paul's terms. Therefore, it is difficult to understand why we Christian educators insist on "hiding" the risen Christ in exchange for preaching solidarity, tolerance or social justice. Deep down, Christians are still billionaires who live in need.

Because Christ does not annul the values ​​of solidarity and social justice. On the contrary, he magnifies them. In the same way that religion does not annul man, but rather exalts him, it offers him his true dimension because he responds to our true desires. Because our heart is made for infinite love and is not content with contingent mediocrities. Only God is capable of satisfying the deep longings of the human heart. "You made us Lord for You, and our heart is restless until it rests in You", said Saint Augustine.

Without a doubt, an ambitious plan, which will remain halfway. Will the family model of the single contemplate, the one who has decided to live with himself? And the model of the one who lives with his faithful cat or a dog to whom he leaves all his inheritance?

In conclusion, the UN agencies have joined with an enthusiasm worthy of a better cause to this project of "education in values", which at heart aims to educate without God and, therefore, without values. By the way, what a coincidence that those who promote this education in values are the mainstays of the culture of death. I think the cause is a "weak faith", it is this weak faith that leads educators to adopt the new secular religion of values. Values from which the transcendence has been voluntarily taken away in a new attempt to deify man.  

Life and Death

"Death is only important to the extent that it makes us reflect on the value of life." Andre Malraux

The human race knows that its existence is ephemeral, it is aware of its temporality. We know that biologically our passage through the planet is seasonal and that life is a flower that with the passage of time tends to wither. Life is fleeting, it is a fragile sigh that lasts as long as fate considers pertinent, its ecstasy leads to knowing its beginning and never its end. Life is only a part of us that cannot define itself, but needs a counterpart to delimit itself, life is the light that needs darkness to know its value and even know if we are in its presence. We cannot give content to life without first defining death.

The relationship between life and death is a close bond that tends to deny itself. It is a difficult relationship because we avoid and deny the departure from this earthly plane and at the same time, we try to make lasting what by nature is temporary. We are terrified of death and we rejoice in life, for death is the world of the unknown and life is the terrain of the accredited. We know that we die because we live, we know that we exist because we depart, and therefore, life and death are two concepts that must be understood by seeing each other head-on, only by looking into each other's eyes can they give value to themselves. This crossing of eyes means that each value they give to this diffuse relationship depends on the cultural burden that is assigned to it, however, necessarily the value given to life has repercussions on death and vice versa.

Moreover, death has lost its mysticism, it has neglected its intrinsic purpose that gave it its raison dies. We die just to die, death is an empty concept that only happens because it is part of a biological process, but there is no mysticism because death is worthless. Unlike the cultures of our ancestors, death today is meaningless.  

 

Respect for life is disrespected when it is taken away from a person the joy of having it because it is known that death is only a fact that comes to put an end to it, Death has no value that prevents it from hastening it nor enjoys a purpose that manages to prevent it from happening just by happening. When in reality life and death should be a singular nucleus that defines us, both must have a mystic, since we live to complete our cycle with death and die to ecstatic life. We must seek meaning from death to add value to life.

In addition to this, we must stop looking at death as a count of figures, which make invisible the unrepeatability of life lost, the trickle of deaths prevents us from observing the mystique of death and with it, the value of a person's life. Death is not a number because we do not live for it, on the contrary, we live for a reason to highlight our unique and unrepeatable identity. Life is an unrepeatable and unique good that only the mystic of death manages to complete, both death and life complement each other. The mystic of one endows the other with mysticism.

 By NSINGA., Robert