sigmund freud and his contributions

SIGMUND FREUD AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

Biography
 

Childhood/Family Life  On May 6th 1856 Sigismund Freud was born in Moravian Hamlet of Freiberg, which today is Pribor in the Czech Republic . His name would later be changed to Sigmund when he was twenty-two years old (Schultz, 2004).  Freud was born into a wealthy Jewish family.  He was the first born of six children and had two older brothers from Freud’s fathers previous marriage.  His mother was quite found of Sigmund and she gave him the nickname “golden siggie” (Simon and Schuster, 1999).  Growing up, Freud was very bright and well treated by his parents, he was the only child in his family to have his own room to himself in order for him to get the ample study time that he needed.   When Freud was about five years old his family moved to Vienna after his father failed at a business adventure.  Throughout his young childhood and adolescence, Freud continued to excel in academics and in 1873 he graduated Summa cum laude from secondary school.  Upon his graduation he went on to study medicine at Vienna University.    Adult Life  In 1876, he was introduced to a physiology professor by the name of Ernst von Brucke.  Through his help, young Freud was able to get a grant to study with psychiatrist Charcot in Paris.  Freud later went on to work with Bernheim in Nancy (Boeree, 1997).  Both of these men were very interested in investigating hypnosis with people who suffered from hysterics. During his years in college he experimented with cocaine and subsequently used it for most of his life (Schultz, 2004). In 1881 Freud earned his doctoral degree in medicine at Vienna University.  During this time Freud met his future wife, Martha Bernay and in 1886 they married.  Following his marriage, Freud was able to set up a neuropsychiatry practice from the help of Joseph Beuer; however, Freud gradually discarded the practice.  Freud would go on to have six children and one of them, Anna Freud, later would create a name for herself in the field of Psychology.  It’s ironic to note that many of Freud’s ideas revolved around sex; however, he himself had grown not to like sex and at the age of forty- one vowed a life of celibacy (Schultz, 2004).   In 1902, Freud was appointed a professor at Vienna University (Public Broadcasting Channel, 1997).  Then in 1906, Freud and seventeen other men met to form the Psychoanalytic Society.  Among its members were Alfred Adler and Carl Jung.  The society eventually dissolved due to political infighting.  In addition, Alfred Adler and Carl Jung defected from Freud and his beliefs (Simon, 1999).  For Jung, a Swiss from a protestant background, Freud’s strong atheist belief and strong distaste for religion and mysticism was too much for him to take.  Stanley Hall, in 1909, invited Freud to present his theories in a series of lectures at Clark University in Massachusetts.  This was Freud’s first international presentation of his theories.  Freud, throughout his entire life, took a liking to smoking cigars which led to him being diagnosed with mouth and jaw cancer in 1923.  The last seventeen years of his life remained productive; however, Freud underwent over thirty surgeries for the treatment of his cancer (Public Broadcasting Channel, 1997).  In the 30’s when the Nazi’s started to gain power, Freud’s life in Vienna was threatened so his family moved to England were he would spent the rest of his life (Public Broadcasting Channel, 1997).  Finally on September 23, 1939, Sigmund Freud died of mouth and jaw cancer.  Professional Accomplishments             Freud throughout his life presented many books that are still respected today.  In 1895, Freud along with his mentor Joseph Breuer, published Studies on Hysteria this book for Freud was the start into looking into psychoanalysis (Schultz, 2004).  In 1900, Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams which initially sold poorly but had a major impact on his popularity (Simon, 1999).  In it Freud included his concept of dream analysis, theory of the mind and other information about himself and the history of Vienna were he spent much of his life.  In 1901, Freud published another book called Psychopathology of Everyday Life in which he describes his idea of the “Freudian slip” and about forgetfulness (Schultz, 2004).  In 1905, Freud published Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality which were based on lectures that he presented.  Finally, one other important book was The Ego and the Id which was published in 1923 in which he introduced his structural theory and concepts of the id, ego, and superego.     Contributions to Psychology             Sigmund Freud was the first to use the term psychoanalysis in 1896.  From that point his theories blossomed.  Freud did not invent the terms unconscious, conscious, or conscience; however, he was pivotal in making them popular.  Freud accomplished this through his theory of psychological reality:  id, ego, and superego.  Freud also drove a strong movement that sex drive is the most important motivating force.  He went on to identify that at times in our lives we find different areas on our bodies pleasurable (today these are called erogenous zones).  These ideas fused together to form Freud’s Psychosexual Stage Theory, which is still taught in textbooks today (Boeree, 1997).  This theory consisted of five different stages.  The first being the oral stage, in which newborns to eighteen month old infants find pleasure from the mouth, specifically, sucking.  The second stage, the anal stage, occurs eighteen months to three years of age; Freud believed that young children in this stage receive pleasure from holding in and letting go of their bowel movements.  Next is the phallic stage starting at age three and ending approximately around age seven.  In this stage children find pleasure from their genitals through ways of touching, Freud even suggested through masturbation.  The latent stage occurs in children ages seven to puberty, it’s suggested that children at this time suppress their pleasure in order to learn and grow.  Finally, the genital stage which begins at puberty involves finding pleasure in sexual intercourse.  Related to this theory was Freud’s Oedipus complex, this concept involves the idea that little boys love their mothers very deeply while they despise their fathers.  Freud proposed that if children do not leave these stage that later in life it will develop into abnormal behavior. Another contribution to Psychology was Freud’s psychoanalytic techniques.  Freud’s psychoanalysis had several features that are still used in clinical practices today.  For example the use of a relaxing atmosphere were patients lay on a couch and the lights are dimmed, this allows for total relaxation to the point were the unconscious may begin to emerge itself.  Freud was also a strong believer in free association; he encouraged clients to say anything, whatever came to their mind even if it was foolish or repetitive.  In psychoanalysis, resistance was also a key theme.  Freud suggested that changing the subject or falling asleep were ways in which the unconscious mind would express that a certain idea was threatening. In addition to resistance, Freud was very interested in dream analysis and believed that all dreams had meaning or clues into the unconscious.  Freud also believed that a therapist could gain insight from transference or the projection of emotions onto the therapist as well as parapraxes which is termed “Freudian slips” which was a client’s slip of the tongue.  In the final stages of therapy, Freud felt that catharsis, or when a client had a sudden and sometimes dramatic outpouring of emotion, was when a client could finally gain insight into their true problems.  Overall, Freud’s goal in psychoanalysis was to make the unconscious conscious.  Today, Freud still remains one of the most well known Psychologists; however, it’s still highly debated whether or not his theories and psychoanalytic practices are credible.       REFERENCES 1.www.iep.utm.edu/freud 2.www.freudfile.org

Human right education in secondary school level

NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE  OF HUMAN RIGHT EDUCATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL

Introduction

        Human rights are the result of humanity's increasing and persistent demand for dignity, respect, justice, protection and freedom--all needed for a decent human existence.

       The contemporary conception of human rights has historical roots. Rousseau, Socrates, and Plato in the West, and Manu, Vyasadeva, Gandhi, Aurobindo, and others in India have enunciated principles of human rights. Important milestones in the struggle for human rights are the struggle between the British crown and Parliament, the French revolution, the struggle for American independence, the Russian revolution, and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations on 10 December 1948. The Declaration symbolized the beginning of the international human rights movement. In 1959, children's rights to life, education, health, protection, and development were proclaimed in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child.
   The Universal Declaration of Human Rights embodies a set of guarantees enabling one

• not just to live but to live with dignity;
• to develop fully and use one's human qualities, intelligence, talents, and conscience; and
• to satisfy one's physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs.

   In other words, it asserts one's right to be human. The first sentence of the Declaration states that respect for human rights is the "foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world

Historic Events

It is universally accepted that education is the best source of social mobility, equality, and empowerment, both at the individual and collective levels. Further, it is considered as a precondition for a healthy democratic society. It is thus important that education include the study of peace, human rights, and democracy as essential to society's development.

 The Declaration states the following:
 Every one has the right to education. Education shall be free at least at the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit  Education shall be directed to the full development of human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups and further the activities for maintenance of peace (Article 26).

 Human rights education should include peace, democracy, development and social justice, as set forth in international and regional human rights instruments, in order to achieve common understanding and awareness with a view to strengthening universal commitment to human rights.

 Taking into account the World Plan of Action on Education for Human Rights and Democracy, adopted in March 1993 by the International Congress on Education for Human Rights and Democracy of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and other human rights instruments, the World Conference on Human Rights recommends that States develop specific programmes and strategies for ensuring the widest human rights education and the dissemination of public information, taking particular account of the human rights needs of women.

  Human rights education is defined as training, dissemination, and information efforts aimed at building a universal culture of human rights by imparting knowledge and skills, and molding attitudes.
   Human rights education has five dimensions:

• strengthening respect for the human personality and its dignity;
• fully developing the human personality and its dignity;
• promoting understanding, tolerance, gender equality, and friendship among all nations, indigenous peoples, and racial, national, ethnic, religious, and linguistic groups;
• enabling all persons to participate effectively in a free society; and
• furthering the activities of the United Nations to maintain peace (Guidelines for national plans of action for human rights education-UN-A/52/469/Add.1.)

The Indian Constitution and Human Rights

The Constitution shapes the country's concept of human rights. The Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties, and Directive Principles of the State policy are concrete steps toward the realization of human rights. Whereas basic objectives have been defined in the Preamble, the protection of human freedom and liberties are emphasized in Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy. The rights of the child have been given the greatest priority. Since rights and duties are inseparable, Fundamental Duties (Article 51) are also imperative. These provisions epitomize the collective will and aspiration of all Indians.
   The following provisions in Constitution safeguard human rights:

• equality before the law (Article 14);
• nondiscrimination on ground of religion, race, caste, sex, and place of birth (Article 15);
• equality of opportunity (Article 16);
• freedom of speech, expression, assembly, association, movement, residence, acquisition, and disposition of property, practice of any profession, carrying out any occupation, trade, or business (Article 19);
• prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labor (Article 23);
• prohibition of labor in case of children below 14 years (Article 24);
• freedom of religion (Article 25);
• no provision for religious instruction in any educational institution wholly maintained out of State funds (Article 28);
• conservation of language, scripts, and culture (Article 29 [1]);
• right of minorities to administer educational institutions (Article 30);
• State guarantee of social order (Article 38 [1], Directive Principles of State Policy);
• adequate means of livelihood, equal pay for equal work for both men and women, non-abuse of health of the worker, opportunity for children to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity (Article 39, Directive Principles of State Policy);
• right to work, education, and public assistance in specific cases (Article 41, Directive Principles of State Policy);
• provision for free and compulsory education of children up to 14 years of age (Article 45, Directive Principles of State Policy); and
• ensuring education and economic development of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and other weaker sections of society (Article 46, Directive Principles of State Policy).

Educational Policies and Human Rights

The reports of various Education Commissions and the statement of educational policy have articulated the importance of the right to education and education in human rights as part of the effort to reform and develop education. They assign special status in the national educational system to women, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, minorities, and the handicapped, and emphasize values education. They also define the basic components of the core curriculum, which reflects some important human rights concerns.
   The National Curriculum Framework is provided for by the 1986 National Education Policy. It covers core elements that cut across narrow subject boundaries and is designed to promote values such as India's common cultural heritage, egalitarianism, democracy, secularism, equality of the sexes, observance of small-family norms, and inculcation of scientific temper, among other things.


Policies and Actions

Human rights education is significant as an instrument of raising awareness of human rights.  Of the world's school children, about 77% are in primary school, and of these, 68% are girls. As per the Annual Report of UNICEF (1999), 130 million primary-school-age children in the developing world are denied the right to basic and quality education; 70 million are girls (40 million of whom are Indian girls). It is lamentable that in the early 1990s, more than one quarter of the 95 million school children in developing countries did not reach the fifth grade. Most countries failed to achieve universal access to education by year 2000.
Human rights education is not a mere vision. It will become a way of life. It is necessary if nonformal education is to prepare millions of children to be good world citizens. A framework to support nonformal human rights education has to be developed.


Why Human Rights Education in the School Curriculum?

Schooling provides not only basic education but also, under the best circumstances, aids a child to explore the world and express ideas. The school can help establish an intellectual basis for teaching the historical development of human rights and their contemporary significance. This knowledge should ultimately extend beyond the pupils' immediate environment and culture. Human rights should be presented in the context of a society's moral and social traditions. The school is not just for transmitting a national ideology and a common historical memory through the curriculum. On a deeper level, like the political nation, the school forms a constructed place in which students, like citizens, are treated equally, irrespective of their background. The concept of the school is like the "concept of citizenship, impersonal and formal. By understanding the idea of school as a community, citizens will learn to understand and feel included in the political nation" (Osler and Starkey 1996). The school is a model of good society as John Dewey (1909) suggested. Schools are places where it is theoretically possible to operate a community based on social justice and human rights.

    The climate of a school should encourage open expression of views and dialogue between students and teachers. The school can work toward building a closer relationship between itself and the community. Human rights should permeate the whole school--from its ethos and organization to the content of its curriculum.

   The first National Curriculum Framework formulated by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in 1975 states: "The awakening of social consciousness, the development of democratic values and of a feeling for social injustice and national integration are extremely important.... All subjects should be taught in such a manner so as to foster the spirit of scientific humanism." The National Curriculum Framework for primary and secondary education (NCERT 1988) identifies and addresses some of these concerns such as promoting values of egalitarianism, democracy, secularism, equality, removal of social barriers, and creating a sense of common citizenship. It proposes that the school curriculum reflects some world issues and helps make children become aware of and appreciate different world cultures.
 Highlighting the need to strengthen national identity, the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCERT 2000) reaffirms the 10 core components identified in the National Policy on Education (1986):

• the history of India's freedom movement;
• Constitutional obligations;
• the content essential to nurture national identity;
• India's common cultural heritage;
• egalitarianism;
• democracy and secularism;
• equality of the sexes;
• protection of the environment;
• removal of social barriers;
• observance of small-family norms; and
• inculcation of scientific temper.

   It further emphasizes the need to include the fundamental duties as laid down in Article 51 A of Part IV A of the Constitution as common core components of the curriculum: "These core components need to be integrated in school curriculum in a suitable manner. It is envisaged that they would help in instilling a nationally shared perception and values and creating an ethos and value system in which a common Indian identity could be strengthened."


Curriculum Development

Curriculum development includes curriculum planning, formulation of curriculum policy, implementation, and evaluation. The process of curriculum renewal has to be continuous to accommodate new developments and changes in various subjects. The curriculum development exercises should be undertaken as a systematically planned improvement strategy based on accepted foundational principles. Human rights education should not only be incorporated into the formal curriculum as a separate subject but also integrated into the entire curriculum, including the hidden curriculum (i.e., the culture of schooling and teacher training institutions and programs). Human rights teaching materials should be produced in different forms. There should be no separate human rights curriculum. Rather, human rights dimensions can be integrated into the existing curriculum. The heart of human rights education is curriculum development for all stages of school education. The curriculum should incorporate valuable ideas from the Vienna Declaration--human rights, humanitarian law, democracy, rule of law, peace, development, and social justice. We can add many more to provide local color and to relate human rights with the needs of learners at different stages. Maybe some of these topics are already in the curriculum, but now the challenge is to make the topics the main agenda of learning.


Objectives of Human Rights Education

Human rights education aims to do the following:

• Enhance the knowledge and understanding of human rights.
• Foster attitudes of tolerance, respect, solidarity, and responsibility.
• Develop awareness of how human rights can be translated into social and political reality.
• Develop skills for protecting human rights.

   The design of the curriculum needs to be built on the philosophical, psychological, and sociological bases of curriculum planning and development. The school curriculum should work toward the holistic development of the individual.


Methodology, Approaches, and Strategies

   Human rights education can be incorporated into the school curriculum in several ways:

• The formal curriculum: Schools may choose to examine their present curriculums and identify areas where themes and elements of human rights education already exist. Human rights education is considered the most important part of the core curriculum of good general education.
• The informal curriculum: Human rights education can also be promoted through the extracurricular and co-curricular activities of the school.
• The hidden curriculum: Human rights education should also address the farreaching hidden curriculum of the school to create a school atmosphere that truly reflects respect for human rights. Values, attitudes, knowledge, and patterns of behavior should be integrated into the students' personal experiences in order to help them view reality critically.

Context and Approaches to Curriculum Organization

The contexts of and approaches to incorporating human rights education in the curriculum are the following:

• Direct context: This involves including specific topics or subjects that focus on human rights education into mathematics, science, or history subjects, for example. India has introduced human rights education at the higher education levels. Recently, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) started a certificate course in human rights education.
• Indirect context: This involves the use of all school subjects as vehicles for human rights education. Some examples are (i) creating "learning units in human rights" in order to integrate the content of different subjects toward solving a particular problem and (ii) including human rights elements in every subject.
• Implicit context: This involves the creation of a sociocultural ethos in schools that will develop students' understanding of human rights.

   The question is how to introduce the new curriculums at various levels. It is obvious that one more subject cannot be added to an already overloaded curriculum, as it would constitute a violation of human rights of sorts. Human rights education should be integrated into existing curriculums. The question, however, is what and how much is to be integrated. The answer requires a selection of issues. Teaching the basic rights may be done under the umbrella of ethics. At the secondary level, basic and other rights may be introduced into existing foundation courses.


Content and Core Values

The first question in curriculum building is in what way human rights issues can be structured and elaborated upon at different levels.
   The curriculum, among other things, stresses the following core values:

• Issues of human rights and democracy: (i) dignity; (ii) equality; (iii) justice; (iv) protection of rights; (v) freedom of participation; (vi) freedom of speech and expression; and (vii) freedom of religious belief.
• Values and attitudes:(i) human rights and democracy; (ii) cooperation and solidarity; (iii) preservation of culture; (iv) self and others; (v) internationalism; (vi) protection of the environment; and (vii) spirituality.

   These values are deemed universally acceptable and desirable in such documents as the Declaration, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, etc.
 Human rights education is interdisciplinary. The central area may be outlined as follows: (i) education for tolerance; (ii) democracy and national understanding; (iii) protection of human rights; (iv) violation of human rights and democratic freedom; (v) economic rights; (vi) civil rights; (vii) critical thinking; (viii) scientific temper; (ix) intellectual honesty; (x) justice and empathy; (xi) legal awareness; (xii) equality of educational opportunity; (xiii) gender equality; (xiv) political economy and humanism; (xv) minority rights; (xvi) local government and civic rights; (xvii) constitutionalism and legitimacy; (xviii) history and philosophy of human rights; (xix) world citizenship; (xx) role of the UN; (xxi) human rights and national and world histories; (xxii) international understanding; and (xxiii) environmental protection.
   Human rights education should focus on attitudes of tolerance, respect, and solidarity, and develop individual awareness of how human rights can be translated into social and political reality.


Basic Approach

The basic approach to human rights education in schools is to integrate it into various subjects and not treat it as a separate area of study. It also requires a multidisciplinary approach. The issue of human rights is inextricably linked with other major curricular issues. The National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCERT 2000) recommends the integration of various curricular concerns:

   The curriculum development process is often influenced by a 'panic approach' in which the local, national or international developments with some socio-economic and political bearing influence the decisions concerning the curriculum without prior, careful and structured planning. This 'panic approach' of including new and temporal curricular concerns may often lead to an overloading of the curriculum. At a time when concerns such as 'literacy', 'family system', 'neighborhood education', 'environmental education', 'consumer education', 'tourism education', 'AIDS education', 'human rights education', 'legal literacy', 'peace education', 'population education', 'migration education', 'global education' and 'safety education' are making a case for separate place in the school curriculum, the best approach would be to integrate these ideas and concepts, after a careful analysis in the existing areas of learning. Appropriate strategies for this integration may be suitably worked out in the detailed subject curricula.

   It is vital to examine the learning opportunities available when designing new curriculum or introducing specific changes so as to avoid a disparity between expectation and reality. This should constitute a realistic approach --meaningful, responsive, and result oriented. Human rights is itself an educational conception involving human interaction inside and outside school.


Human Rights Education and Curriculum

Human rights education is not treated as a separate area of the curriculum but is integrated into various subjects at different stages:

• the Indian political system and Constitution;
• problems and challenges of contemporary life--political, economic, social, cultural, educational--that have direct or indirect bearing on human rights;
• diversity and variety of Indian culture, its composite and non-monolithic character;
• the Indian social system and dynamics of social change;
• major events in Indian and world history relating to the struggle for political and civil rights as well as economic and social rights, and the role of the people and outstanding leaders in these struggles;
• the world human rights situation with regard to gross violations in the form of colonialism, racism, and apartheid; and
• literary works that reflect human rights concerns and the quest for freedom and rights.

   Major historical documents such as the American Declaration of Independence, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, the UN Charter, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be discussed. It is imperative to discuss the human rights curriculum as a cross-curricular approach at the elementary and secondary levels.

Human rights education and the elementary-level curriculum

   The major subject areas relevant to human rights at the lower-primary stage are social studies, environmental studies, and languages.

• Human rights issues are integrated into environmental studies, starting with the child's immediate environment and gradually taking the child to the study of the district, state, country, and the world.
• Narratives and biographies of men and women from the history of India and of the world, India's freedom struggle, and certain aspects of the Indian Constitution should be included in this course.
• The language curriculum should focus on the development of compassion, tolerance, and sympathy, through stories and poems.
• Environmental studies dealing with family, neighborhood, relations, food, clothing, shelter, religious festivals, and national heroes expand the knowledge of and respect for diversity and human equality.
• Children also develop an understanding of independent India as it evolved during the freedom struggle. Learning about the nation's goals and the main features of the Constitution--fundamental rights, directive principles of State policy, and fundamental duties, as well as secularism and democracy--may help promote human rights.

   In the upper-primary stage, the major subject areas relevant to human rights education are social studies, science, and languages.

• History courses deal mainly with Indian history and, in general, with the history of world civilization, stressing an understanding and appreciation of India's cultural heritage and composite nature, its richness and variety. They focus on understanding diversity and consideration for other's rights.
• The human rights dimension lies in providing a critical understanding of Indian society through the ages, with focus on the position of women and the inequalities created by the caste system.
• Children should be made aware of legislative reforms and the role of international organizations in uplifting women and children.
• The course in geography helps children develop an appreciation for different ways of living, interdependence, and sharing of common values by diverse cultures. Civics helps promote values of democracy, secularism, socialism, and national integration. It also includes the study of issues relating the environment, arms race, and human rights. Children develop a perspective of these problems in an international context. It is possible to introduce the student to a more comprehensive view of the concept of human rights and the interconnection between the ideals of secularism and democracy.
• The thematic and ideational content in language help to promote awareness of human rights, international understanding, and related issues of global significance. The subject of language similarly lays the foundation for an appreciation of the underlying humanistic values conveyed through folk tales, legends, poems, essays, and dramas.
• Science is an undiversified subject. Stress is on inculcating a national outlook and thereby helping to combat obscurantism and prejudice based on narrow consideration of caste, sex, or religion. The course guidelines also emphasize promoting understanding of the processes and problem areas related to agriculture, health and nutrition, environmental protection, energy, material resources, and, more important, developing a scientific attitude.

Human rights education and the secondary curriculum

   Secondary schools offer a much wider and varied range of opportunities to teach human rights and to practice and observe rights and duties.

• A literature course may offer the opportunity to study the rights of children and young people. Literature and language classes can be used to promote cultural exchanges with schools in other countries as well as to promote social relations, peace, freedom, and justice.
• At this stage, "the global perspective" and "major concerns" are integrated into the social sciences. Human rights can be taught in the context and understanding of the following:
  • "small" society--family life, school, and community;
  • the "big" society--community, country, and State;
  • forms of government--democratic, dictatorship, parliamentary;
  • the United Nations;
  • the world today--East-West problems, armaments, events, and personalities in international affairs;
  • the world around us--studies of individual countries;
  • the family and society--economic, political, and cultural interdependence; and
  • religion and philosophy of life--What do we believe in? Analysis of different religions, traditional beliefs, and practices.
• History allows the study of human rights as it covers topics such as the growth of democracy, development of trade unions, social reforms, and independence movements. The Industrial Revolution, and its impact on countries outside Europe, might be linked with the study of the International Labour Organization and its efforts to ensure just and equitable conditions for all workers, and to abolish child labor and other abuses of human dignity. It also introduces the students to some of the significant declarations on human rights, from the American Declaration of Independence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• Geography stresses environmental and pollution issues and the study of international ecological problems.
• Civics focuses on Indian democracy, including topics such as the individual and society, democratic citizenship, the Constitution, the judiciary, democracy, foreign policy, the UN, world problems (human rights, disarmament, new international order, etc.).
• Economics focuses mainly on the study of the Indian economy--economic development and social justice--by covering content areas such as the rights of consumers, and consumer protection.
• Science stresses the development of scientific temper; cultivation of social, ethi-cal, and social values; and the possible misuse of science. Biology can explore the scientific bases for human rights and social prejudice. Science can also include teaching of health, diseases, and the contribution of the World Health Organization.
• Mathematics can teach the skills related to elementary statistics and graphing, which may be used to interpret data on food and population, agriculture and industrial outputs, expenditure on armaments and on education, and other topics that have a bearing on basic human rights. Natural science and mathematics also reflect the modern scientific and technological work that may either benefit humankind or work to its detriment.

Teaching Human Rights through Co-curricular Activities

Human rights education goes beyond subject teaching to organization of other activities and should be considered as an integral part of the whole education process.
   Activities that promote cooperation and group living can include human rights content. Teachers can involve elementary-school children in creative tasks such as paper cutting, drawing, collage, and work related to science, environmental studies, and social studies. Exhibitions, displays, and debates on human rights issues should be considered as core elements of human rights education. The activities themselves lead to an understanding of human rights as the children learn to cooperate and respect each other.
   Theater and literacy activities should be part of human rights education. Role play is an important strategy for inculcating values in children. Even the study of major literary and artistic works may promote human rights education, international understanding, and peace.
   International-relations clubs, art, music or drama circles, and UNESCO and United Nations clubs promote international understanding. Activities such as putting up wall newspapers and posters on current events, holding debates, writing essays and poems, celebrating special days such as Human Rights Day and World Health Day, and activities relating to population, apartheid, literacy, etc. inculcate human rights values and generate awareness of human rights.
   Human rights education projects can be taken up in any discipline--history, geography, civics, literature, and science, etc. Since co-curricular activities complement human rights teaching in the curriculum, appropriate materials such as references and activity books are needed.


Methodology

As discussed earlier, human rights teaching should permeate not only all school subjects but also every aspect of school life. There is no denying the fact that human rights can be taught more effectively through various cocurricular activities. The methodological issues are relatively more important than the content as far as human rights education is concerned.
   Teaching methods are crucial in sensitizing and changing attitudes and creating a human rights culture. As the current teaching methodology may reduce human rights education to a mere academic exercise, it is important to bring field experiences into the classroom and take students to the communities.
   Teacher attitudes and assessment methods are important in conveying key messages to students. It is also important that the practices adopted in schools and the classroom reflects a climate and culture of human rights. The flesh and blood of schooling--the relationship among students, teachers, and school administrators, and teaching strategies--need to be rebuilt on the basic philosophy of human rights.


Central Importance of Teachers and Teacher Education

Teachers are clearly important in human rights education. Can they teach with uniform proficiency? What about teachers who are not even aware of their rights and duties in the classroom? Simply, they are to be trained in content as well as pedagogy, material preparation, and curriculum development as they have to be role models. It is the most effective way to improve the quality and effectiveness of human rights education programs. They should be provided with the knowledge, skills, and understanding to inculcate human rights as part of their teacher education courses at both the pre- and in-service levels.
   Empowerment of teachers and parents is also a key issue that should be tackled and worked out at all levels of government. Education should be considered a duty not a right. Otherwise, the Declaration will become a mere subject of academic study.


Conclusion

Over the last five decades, the process of internationalization and globalization of the concept of human rights has generated the movement "All Human Rights for All." In a complex country such as India, violations of human rights at all levels necessitate human rights education at all school levels in general and teacher education in particular. Hence, human rights education should find its rightful place in the school curriculum, teacher training courses--pre- and in-service, textbooks, supplementary reading materials, educational policies, and school administration. Human rights education must exert its influence from early childhood education onward and through a broad range of disciplines to build a human rights culture. Hence, greater commitment from all sectors and preparation of a sound, realistic plan of action can help us achieve human rights education for all and transform the human rights movement into a mass movement to achieve a better social order and peaceful coexistence. Indeed, this is one of the greatest challenges in the 21st century.

References 
1.http://en.m.wikipedia.org>wiki>human rights.
2.www.unesco.org//human rights education.

International understanding

Topic 

        International understanding

Introduction

          It is more than two thousand years since christ said :"thou shall love thy neighbour as thy self".How many years more it wil take before people begin to think that this is a sound advice!
internationalism is the feeling that the individual is not only a member of his own country,but also a citizen of the world.internationalism inspires the people of the world to live together in peace with one another as a good neighbours,to take effective measures for bridging  the gaps created by issues and to develop friendly relations among nations.international understanding is the ability to critically and objectively observe and appraise the conduct of people everey where and thus make valid judgements leading to healthy interation.to do this once must be able to detach oneself from one's own particular cultural and national prejudices and to view people of all nationalities,cultures and races are equally important

 Meaning and cocept  of International Understanding

 Dr. Radhakrishnan has rightly said

"It is essential for us not to live apart but to live together, understanding one another's fears and anxieties, aspirations and thought. We must work for racial harmony. we may be American, we may be Russian but we are essentially human beings. Let us learn to live in a world community."

 Education for International Understanding means a cosmopolitan education which will produce a loyalty to world citizenship.

It also refers to international efforts at co-operation and harmony in the exchange of teachers and students, rehabilitation of backward cultural areas, mutual understanding through school instruction and the like.According to Oliver Goldsmith "International Understanding is a feeling that the individual is not only a member of his State, but a member of the World".According to Dr. Walter H.C. Lewis "International Understanding is the ability to observe critically and objectively and appraise the conduct of man everywhere to each other, irrespective of the nationality of culture to which they may belong. To do this one must be able to detach oneself from one's own particular cultural and national prejudices and to observe men of all nationalities, cultures and races as equally important varieties of human being inhabiting this earth."

 In the words of Dr. Radhakrishnan, "The world once divided by Oceans and continent is united physically today but there are still suspicions and misunderstandings. It is essential for us not to live apart but to live together. Understanding one another fears and anxieties aspiritions and thoughts that are what we are expected to do. We must not claim a racial extermination, enslvement or segregation but work for racial harmony. We may be German, we may be American, we may be Russian but we are essentially human beings. Let us not overlook fundamental fact that let us learn to live in a World Community."

 The following two important aspects are necessary for the creation of International Understanding among the people of different nations.

1. Respect to each other's Culture:

 Understanding of the various cultures and countries with their conditions and problems is essential for international understanding. This can be promoted if every national and international problems and issues can be situated in right prospective.

 National arrogance and traditional bias or prejudice against any country or countries go against the spirit of internationalism. Dr Radhakrishnan has therefore remarked, "If human race is to survive. We have to subordinate national pride to international feeling.

 2. Love to humanity:

 To love others is an innate good nature of the human beings. "Live and let others to live" is the fundamental principle of peaceful co-existence which is also the basic foundation of international understanding. No body and no nation should think itself superior to others.No discrimination against anybody or any nation on the basis of caste, creed and colour etc. should be developed in the people. Adequate knowledge and understanding of the cultures of different countries should be given to every body. Critical thinking and clear outlook towards the different issues of the world's basic needs for effective international understanding.

Ways and Means for education for International Understanding

 Education for international understanding implies the promotion of democratic citizenship etc. The following are some of the ways and means of organising education for promoting the feelings of internationalism 

1) Aims

i) Promotion of world citizenship

ii) Promotion of world peace

iii) Promotion of independent and critical thinking

iv) Promotion of construction rather than destructive feeling

v) Developing the student's faith.

vi) Eradicating of racial, religious, cultural and national prejudices

 2) Redesigning the curriculum

 The traditional curriculum followed in our schools and universities does not fulfill all the possibilities of internationalism. The redesigning curriculum should enable our students :-

i) To learn that the earth is the home of man and other living things

ii) To gain knowledge about the world we live in

iii) To learn how to promote better understanding of the interdependence of the world

iv) To inculcate respect for all major religions of the world

v) To know something about the long strength of mankind to replace conflicts with co-operation

vi) To develop a desire and the simple skills

vii) Knowledge of various cultures of the world

3) Instruction in various school subjects

 i) Literature

A UNESCO publication states,"Extracts from the works of the writers such as Dickens, Gorkey, Tolstoy, Tagore and Isben can be used to illustrate stages in social progress. So the best of literature of other nations must be included in the curriculum.

 ii) Art

True art should be included in the curriculum. The true hape of human feelings should be depicted and shown in art. It is beauty involved in the art that is significant.

 iii) Language

it can play a vital part in the peaceful intercourse of the people of the world. The study of modern languages should be the study of modern people.

 iv) Science

Students should be told how the scientists of various nations have contributed in fighting against disease. He nourishes in his heart goodwill to the whole of mankind.

 v) History

The field of history should be wide enough to enable the students to cultivate international outlook. History should be taught objectively and with a cultural bias. students should be encouraged to study newspapers and magazines.

 vi) Economics

The knowledge of consumption, production, taxation, human resources etc can be given our international level.

 vii)Philosophy

Philosophers throughout the history of the world have been stressing mental peace as the human goal.

 vi) Mathematics

The language of mathematics is universal, with largely the same symbols, through out the world. It should be impressed that almost all subjects and problems lend themselves to mathematical treatment.

 4) Co - Curricular activities

 Co - Curricular activities which go in the school from time to time can be geared to educating for international understanding. The following activities are suggested :-

i) Celebrating birth anniversaries

ii) Celebrating international week

iii) Celebrating days of international importance

iv) Organising and running UN societies

v) Organising pen friend's club

vi) Arranging exhibitions

vii) Dramatic representation

viii) School assembly

ix) International games

x) News of other countries

 5) Face to Face contacts

 Face to face contacts are of great help in broadening outlook, breaking rigid isolation of individual nation's and in removing imaginary fears and grievances. The following activities are useful in this regard :-

i)International Camps

ii) Cultural and study tours

iii) Arranging visits and excursions to foreign students

iv) International youth festivals

v) Exchange of teachers and students

Role of teacher

The teacher is even more important than the curriculum because he is medium through which the curriculum is implemented and its goals are achieved. A teacher can make the following contributions towards international understanding:-

 i) Broad Outlook

The teacher must have broad outlook among his students. He must have international outlook and world - mindedness to promote international understanding among his students.

 ii) To understand man as man

The major objective of the teacher should be to enable children to "understand man as man", first then as a Indian, American, Jew, Hindu or any other

 iii) Wedding out the idea of violence and war

The teacher has to keep in mind that , "since war begins in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that defence of peace must be constructed." Every person should grow up with faith in man and courage in himself.

 iv) Emphasizing peace

The teacher must emphasize that the maintenance of peace is the only panacea for all the ills of the present sick world and to build that peace in the minds of man is our major task.

 v) Cultivating right values

The teacher should inculcate among children the right values of life, like co-operation, friendliness, love for justice, love for truth and love for humanity.

 vi) Educating adult society

The teacher should make an all out effort to educate the adult society for peaceful co-existence and international understanding.

 vii) Correct Interpretation

The teacher should not give a biased view of other countries. He should give correct facts, correct knowledge and correct interpretation of history, culture, life style etc.

 viii) Use of effective methods of teaching

The teacher should teach in such a way that ideal of 'world citizenship','live and let live' may be developed.

 Conclusion

 'One World or None' is a challenging statement to the humanity. In the twenty first century, with the development of the supersonic means of communication and transportation, all the countries of the World have come closer to each other.Consequently no country can remain all of from other countries, because whatever is happening in one country inevitably has its impact felt in other countries as well.The World has already tasted the consequence of mistrust and misunderstanding among countries in two World Wars in the past.

 However there are several problems of global concern like Pollution, Poverty, Unemployment, Terrorism and Proliferation of nuclear armaments to be tackled through mutual understanding and co-operation. The outbreak of a third World War may eclipse the survival of the Human and animal species from the face of the World.So International peace and mutual understanding is the need of the hour. The International Organizations like UNO and UNESCO are doing their best to promote brotherhood, peaceful Co-existence among the people of the Globe.

References

1."Education in the emerging indian society " -Dr.k.sivarajan

2.www.unesco.org//international understanding.

uses of standard deviation

 Topic :uses of standard deviation

 Introduction:

The standard deviation of probability distribution,random variable, or population or multiset of values is a measure of the spread of its values. It is usually denoted with the letter σ (lower case sigma ). It is defined as the square root of the variance.

To understand standard deviation, keep in mind that variance is the average of the squared differences between data points and the mean. Variance is tabulated in units squared. Standard deviation, being the square root of that quantity, therefore measures the spread of data about the mean, measured in the same units as the data.

          Real-life examples

The practical value of understanding the standard deviation of a set of values is in appreciating how much variation there is from the "average" (mean).

1 Weather

As a simple example, consider average temperatures for cities. While two cities may each have an average temperature of 60 °F, it's helpful to understand that the range for cities near the coast is smaller than for cities inland, which clarifies that, while the average is similar, the chance for variation is greater inland than near the coast.

So, an average of 60 occurs for one city with highs of 80 °F and lows of 40 °F, and also occurs for another city with highs of 65 and lows of 55. The standard deviation allows us to recognize that the average for the city with the wider variation, and thus a higher standard deviation, will not offer as reliable a prediction of temperature as the city with the smaller variation and lower standard deviation.

3.1.2 Sports

Another way of seeing it is to consider sports teams. In any set of categories, there will be teams that rate highly at some things and poorly at others. Chances are, the teams that lead in the standings will not show such disparity, but will be pretty good in most categories. The lower the standard deviation of their ratings in each category, the more balanced and consistent they might be. So, a team that is consistently bad in most categories will have a high standard deviation indicating it will probably lose more often than win. A team that is consistently good in most categories will also have a low standard deviation and will therefore end up winning more than losing. A team with a high standard deviation might be the type of team that scores a lot (strong offense) but gets scored on a lot too (weak defense); or vice versa, might have a poor offense, but compensate by being difficult to score on - teams with a higher standard deviation will be more unpredictable.

Trying to predict which teams, on any given day, will win, may include looking at the standard deviations of the various team "stats" ratings, in which anomalies can match strengths vs weaknesses to attempt to understand what factors may prevail as stronger indicators of eventual scoring outcomes.

In racing, a driver is timed on successive laps. A driver with a low standard deviation of lap times is more consistent than a driver with a higher standard deviation. This information can be used to help understand where opportunities might be found to reduce lap times.

3.1.3 Finance

In finance, standard deviation is a representation of the risk associated with a given security (stocks, bonds, property, etc.), or the risk of a portfolio of securities. Risk is an important factor in determining how to efficiently manage a portfolio of investments because it determines the variation in returns on the asset and/or portfolio and gives investors a mathematical basis for investment decisions. The overall concept of risk is that as it increases, the expected return on the asset will increase as a result of the risk premium earned - in other words, investors should expect a higher return on an investment when said investment carries a higher level of risk.

For example, you have a choice between two stocks: Stock A historically returns 5% with a standard deviation of 10%, while Stock B returns 6% and carries a standard deviation of 20%. On the basis of risk and return, an investor may decide that Stock A is the better choice, because the additional percentage point of return (an additional 20% in dollar terms) generated by Stock B is not worth double the degree of risk associated with Stock A. Stock B is likely to fall short of the initial investment more often than Stock A under the same circumstances, and will return only one percentage point more on average. In this example, Stock A has the potential to earn 10% more than the expected return, but is equally likely to earn 10% less than the expected return.

Calculating the average return (or arithmetic mean) of a security over a given number of periods will generate an expected return on the asset. For each period, subtracting the expected return from the actual return results in the variance. Square the variance in each period to find the effect of the result on the overall risk of the asset. The larger the variance in a period, the greater risk the security carries. Taking the average of the squared variances results in the measurement of overall units of risk associated with the asset. Finding the square root of this variance will result in the standard deviation of the investment tool in question. Use this measurement, combined with the average return on the security, as a basis for comparing securities.

Uses for Standard Deviation

Some examples of situations in which standard deviation might help to understand the value of the data:

A class of students took a math test. Their teacher found that the mean score on the test was an 85%. She then calculated the standard deviation of the other test scores and found a very small standard deviation which suggested that most students scored very close to 85%.

A dog walker wants to determine if the dogs on his route are close in weight or not close in weight. He takes the average of the weight of all ten dogs. He then calculates the variance, and then the standard deviation. His standard deviation is extremely high. This suggests that the dogs are of many various weights, or that he has a few dogs whose weights are outliers that are skewing the data.

A market researcher is analyzing the results of a recent customer survey. He wants to have some measure of the reliability of the answers received in the survey in order to predict how a larger group of people might answer the same questions. A low standard deviation shows that the answers are very projectable to a larger group of people.

A weather reporter is analyzing the high temperature forecasted for a series of dates versus the actual high temperature recorded on each date. A low standard deviation would show a reliable weather forecast.

A class of students took a test in Language Arts. The teacher determines that the mean grade on the exam is a 65%. She is concerned that this is very low, so she determines the standard deviation to see if it seems that most students scored close to the mean, or not. The teacher finds that the standard deviation is high. After closely examining all of the tests, the teacher is able to determine that several students with very low scores were the outliers that pulled down the mean of the entire class’s scores.

An employer wants to determine if the salaries in one department seem fair for all employees, or if there is a great disparity. He finds the average of the salaries in that department and then calculates the variance, and then the standard deviation. The employer finds that the standard deviation is slightly higher than he expected, so he examines the data further and finds that while most employees fall within a similar pay bracket, three loyal employees who have been in the department for 20 years or more, far longer than the others, are making far more due to their longevity with the company. Doing the analysis helped the employer to understand the range of salaries of the people in the department.

 References

1.https:///en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/standard deviation.
2.mathematics education -Dr.k.sivarajan

values and education

 Topic :values and education

Introduction

Modern education has neglected concern for human values.It has become a mere professional ground to convert man into a money making machine.It triggers the sense of competition to a acquire position and money.The result is the erosion of moral values in the society.The present day education system has to bear the responsibility for restlessness in man,terrorism,corruption,social irresponsibility,and related such evils.Education should reassert its great responsibility of inculcating values in man.

The concept of value

values are virtues,ideals and qualities on which actions and beliefs are based.they are guiding principles that shape our world outlook,attitudes and conduct.

Meaning and definitions of value

the term value is derived from latin word "valere" which means 'to be worth'.the term value stands for intrinsic worth and it relates to one's moral attitude to certain objects,acts or conditions.In general values refer to important and enduring beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture about what is good or desirable and what is not.They are the ethical principles of behaviour and human conduct.whatever is actually liked,prized,esteemed,desired,approved or enjoyed by anyone, is valuable.A value is a principle or quality intrinsically precious or desirable to an individual or group.

·         The oxford english dictionary defines values as worth,utility,desirability,and the qualities in which these depend.

·         Webster's dictionary defines values as the social principles,goals,or standards held or accepted by an individual,a class,a society, etc.

·         According to Dewey ,value means to price,to esteem,and to estimate something in order to hold it dear and desirable.

·         In the view of Brightman , valaue means whatever is actually liked,prized,esteemed,desired,approved or enjoyed by any one at any time.

·         Mukerjee defines values as socially approved drives and goals that are internalized through the process of socialization and that become subjective preferences,standards and aspirations.

·         Halstead and Taylor consider values as the principles and fundemental convictions which act as general guides to behaviour,the standards by which particular actions are judged as good or desirable.

·         According to Triandis,values are principles that guide our lives.

Examples of values

Ambition,Individuality,Equality,Responsibility,Accuracy,Respect,Dedication,Improvement,Honesty,Teamwork,Excellence,Empathy.Courage,Dignity,Wisdom,Independence,Security,Learning,Discipline,Optimism,Flexibility.etc.

charecteristics of values

1.       A value has its worth and importance

2.       value is the result of the interaction between personal and impersonal elements.

3.       value is a means as well as an end.

4.       value is a desired preference

5.       it is a cherished or esteemed idea

6.       value is a strong belief put to action

7.       it is an internalized idea or thought

8.       values are related to attitudes and behaviour

9.       values are deep seated and remain constant over time.

10.   value is belief upon which man acts by preferences.

References

1.www.unesco.org/education

2.http://en.m.wikipedia.org