Moral values as they are seen today.

Moral values as they are seen today.

Moral values are the object of much distrust and thorny debate. But most people would admit that they are in some way important. Even the Youth of Today (YOT) would tend to agree, though our idea of morality may differ from that of our parents/

Oscar Wild asserted: “Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike”. H.G.Wells wrote: “Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo”. These two gems highlight the one quality most commonly associated with the notion of morality since time immemorial: hypocrisy. Vary rarely, it seems, do you see one without the other? Of course, we all know that this is not what true morality should be. True morality is very simple: Love thy neighbour as thyself. Or, in more modern parlance, it is all about respect (man).

The question is, do children need to have morality passed on to them? Are human beings fundamentally bad? Or conversely, are human beings inherently wonderful, angelic beings, corrupted only by the evils of social conditioning and bad parenting?

The answer somewhere in between: human beings are both good and evil. A moral education should strive to bring out the good and redirect the evil.

At the heart of Moral Re-armament is a brief that each person can make a differenceto the world through a transforming experience of liberation in their lives and through their interaction with others. People long to be themselves to have a sense of worthand purpose of life, to be able to contribute of their time and talent, to know thatthey are needed and loved. In an age of information it's possible to fool ourselves,succumb to peer pressure and the spirit of the age. There are to be checks andbalances-moral standards of honesty, purity, selflessness which guide our motives.

It's time for all countries to take a long hard look at themselves. Many of them areembroiled in a public debate about standards in public life, ethics in businessvalues in education, values in the media and so on. It's because of the sort of thesociety we have created: a society which can produce the murder of a toddler: the massacreof infant-school children in Scotland and so on. Each of theseevents in isolation would have produced its own short-lived outcry.

But what can bedone?It would be easy to say it all began with the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Easybut wrong. It was the sweeping reforms of the politicians. Its catchwords were “doyour own things”. Morality was privatized. You could do what you wanted as long asyou did not harm anyone else.Underlying all of this violence and civil disorders is the me-first philosophy which justifies all actions in terms ofself-interest, rather than the common good. At the heart of these concernslies the great issue of our time the dilemma between and constraints, rights and duties. Most pundits sum clear what is needed.

A simple preposition might be for eachof us to start with ourselves. If each person began with what they could do, toput things right and to set standards, then we might soon see a difference.

 

Changes and rewards of voluntary work.

Voluntary work the things we put our heart into without asking for reward is a priceless asset to any country. Most voluntary work is held in people's spare time. But sometimes a grave need in national and global affairs calls for unusual steps and people abandon paid work to make her perspectives possible. Religious bodies through the ages have been upheld by such risk-taking people with a sense of vocation. And the current programmes of moral-re-armament are sustained by a partnership between people in a wide variety of jobs and other who make themselves wholly available. Moral re-armament seeks to liberate the initiative, creativity and depth of relationships that could make the world work.It takes all one's skills, stretches one's abilities and show up one's mistakes, sometime painfully, sometimes hilariously. Yet, it is satisfying to try to alter the fundamental motives of society.

Voluntary activities range from boxes in the street to sitting as a Justice of the Peace, from improving wildlife habitat to manning telephone helplines for children or parents.

So what makes people volunteer?
For the first group of people volunteer is a process of putting something into theplace where they are living. They can organize seminars on racial harassment, community relations and drugs; advice adults on issues such as housing and employment; help young people prepare CVs and application forms and advise them on interview techniques.

Others want to create a good environment for the teenagers in the most deprived area of the town.

Some people visits housebound people togive the main career a break. It's nice for them to know that they are bringing a little bit of happiness into someone's life and putting something back into the community. They get pleasure out of feeling that they are making life more pleasantfor people.

Many voluntary organizations help people from Asia and Africa. It’s very useful help, because the conditions of life of these people are bad. The water is dirty they haven't enough crops and animals to eat. They need clothes,medical equipment and so on. So such kind of organizations helps people to surviveand change the situation for future generation.

Many volunteers work with asylum seekers. But some of them say that it's not very pleasant work because if you'rebefriended someone and seen them every week it's depressing when the personis suddenly deported.

There is no doubting of the commitment of many volunteers, nor the value of much of their work. Yet, good will along is not enough for the work. One should avoid of thinking in the following way: “oh, I am just a volunteer and I’m not paid to do this, so I cannot be expected to do it well”. That is not so and mustn’t be so. So voluntary work is the matter of good will and faith heart and consciousness.

 

Children and TV.

Watching television over a long span seriously damages children's ability to think clearly and the exposure to TV sensationalism robs youngsters of childhood.

It's turning out to be a disastrous influence, at least as far as we can determine at present. Television appears to be shortening the attention span of the young as well as eroding, to a considerable extent, their linguistic powers and their ability to handle mathematical symbolism. Even more serious, in my view, is that television is opening up all of society's secrets and taboos, thus erasing the dividing line between childhood and adulthood.

I call television the "first curriculum" because of the amount of attention our children give to it. By now, the basic facts are known by almost everyone: between the ages of 6 and 18, the average child spends roughly 15,000 to 16,000 hours in front of a television set, whereas school probably consumes no more than 13,000 hours.Moreover, it is becoming obvious that there really is no such thing as "children's" programming. Between midnight and 2 in the morning there are something like 750,000 children throughout America watching television every day. There's a fantasy people have that after 10 p.m. children aren't watching television; that's nonsense.

Many parents, as well as educators, also have the mistaken belief that television is an "entertainment medium" in which little of enduring value is either taught by or learned from it. Television has a transforming power at least equal to that of the printing press and possibly as great as that of the alphabet itself.

Television is essentially a visual medium. It shows pictures moving very rapidly and in a very dynamic order. Although human speech is heard on television, it is the picture that always contains the most important meanings.

Television can never teach what a medium I like a book can teach, and yet educators are always trying, to pretend that they can use television to promote the cognitive habits and i the intellectual discipline that print promotes. In this respect they will always be doomed to failure. Television is not a suitable medium for conveying ideas, because an idea is essentially language - words and sentences.

The code through which television communicates - the visual image - is accessible to everyone. Understanding printed words must be learned; watching pictures does not require any learning.As a result, TV is a medium that becomes intelligible to children beginning at about the age of 36 months. From this very early age on, television continuously exerts influence.

For the reason, I think it's fair to say that TV, as a curriculum, moulds the intelligence and character of youth far more than formal schooling. Beyond that, evidence is accumulating that TV watching, hurts academic performance. A recent California Department of Education survey indicated that the more children sit in front of the television, the worse they do on achievement-test scores.

What emerges most clearly from the mass of figures of numerous surveys is that parents exercise little control over their children’s viewing, even when it worries them. They throw the onus on the programme makers, which is both cowardly and irresponsible. The people who make and schedule programmes should not be the ones who have to worry about little children being upset.

Much I am personally for some sort of indication given to parents as to the suitability of programmes. While children cannot be prohibited from viewing at home by anyone except their parents, as they can be an X certificate in the cinema, there is a precedent for guidance in another way. Adopting an R for Restriction recommended to be clearly attached to tricky titles in programme journals and in on-air trailers, would be immense assistance to responsible parents, and would encourage those who are less keen to take their job of guiding the young seriously.

I'm not criticizing television for that. I'm saying that's what television does; that is the nature of the medium. Television, after all, does have a valuable capacity to involve people emotionally in its pictures.

 

Radio in Great Britain.

Radio has a predominantly day-time audience with the peak listening hours at breakfast and lunch time, whlV portable and car radios encourage listening at other times during the day. Radio services provide a range of programmes for both national and local audiences and cater for widely differing tastes. There arc five national BBC radio stations: the BBC regional radio services for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and BBC local radio stations in England, and independent local radio services provided by stations throughout Britain.

BBC NATIONAL RADIO SERVICES

BBC Radio's five national radio services each have a distinct character and together provide for the listener a wide immediate choice throughout the day. Radio 1 is a rock and pop music station, catering for all tastes from the charts to new music, classic oldies, heavy metal, dance and world music There are also documentaries, comedy, quizzes, news, social action campaigns and live concerts.

Radio 2 prides itself on being a 24-hour entertainment network with a daytime mix of good music and conversation, complemented by Jazz, big bands, country, folk, blues and light classical music In the evenings and at weekends. The schedule is interspersed with some of the most popular quiz shows on radio. The network not only provides news summaries on the hour every hour, 24 hours a day, but also brings you the news an soon as It happens. Taken together, Radios 1 and 2 account for nearly 80 per cent of radio listening.

Radio 3 is the BBC’s classical music network. During the day, it also broadcasts Jazz and traditional music from around the world, and speech programmes about music. In the evenings,BBC Radio 3 becomes a mixed cultural network though still music led. Programmes Include drama, documentaries, science, poetry I and arts discussions. The network draws on the resources of the BBC's five symphony orchestras, commissions over 30 new works a year and broadcasts all the Proms.

Radio 4 is news and current affairs channel. It broadcasts news of the day, political discussions, traffic information, weather forecasts, topical plays and daily variety of special interest programmes and programmes for people with disabilities. There are plays every day and humour with sit-coms, quizzes and satire.

Radio 5 (launched In 19907) is Britain’s newest national network and combines sport, education, programmes for young people and a selection of BBC World Service broadcasts. Radio 5, is the sports network with live coverage of all major "national and international events. It also offers a range of programmes for the whole family with children’s stories, playa and magazines, programmes for young adults every evening and family magazines, plus education from pre-school to Open University.

In addition to the five national BBC Radio networks, services exist for listeners in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and are available to moat of the population of these areas. The BBC local radio station provide programmes of local news and information.

BBC EXTERNAL SERVICES

The BBC broadcasts by radio to most countries overseas (in38 languages Including English) for a total of 705 hours a week. The main objectives are to give unbiased news, to reflect British opinion and to project British life, culture and development In science and industry.

She BBC English by Radio and Television Service is the moat extensive language teaching undertaking In the world. English lessons are broadcast weekly by radio with explanations in other languages, and recorded lessons are supplied to the stations in about 90 countries!

 

ST DAVID’S DAY

On the 1st of March each year one can see people walking around Londonwith leeks pinned to their coats. А leek is the national emblem of Wales. The many Welsh people who live in London like to show their solidarity on their national day. The day is actually called Saint David’s Day, after а sixth century abbot who became patron saint of Wales.The saint was known traditionally as “the Waterman”, which perhaps means that he and his monks were teetotallers. А teetotaller is someone who drinks nо kind of alcohol, but it does not mean that he drinks only tea, as many people seem to think.

In spite of the leeks mentioned earlier, Saint David’s emblem is not that, but а dove. No one, not even the Welsh, can explain why they took leek to symbolize their country, but perhaps it was just as well. After all, they can't pin а dove to their coat!

TROOPING ТНE COLOUR

During the month of June, а day is set aside as the Queen’s official birthday. This is usually the second Saturday in June. On this day there takes place on Horse Guards’ Parade in Whitehall the magnificent spectacle of Trooping the Colour, which begins at about 11.15 а. m. This is pageantry of rаrе splendour, with the Queen riding side-saddle on а highly trained horse.

The colours of one of the five regiments of Foot Guards are trooped before the Sovereign. As she rides on to Horse Guards’ parade the massed array of the Brigade of Guards, dressed in ceremonial uniforms, await her inspection. For twenty minutes the whole parade stands rigidly to attention while being inspected by the Queen. Then comes the Trooping ceremony itself, to be followed by the famous March Past of the Guards to the music of massed bands, at which the Queen takes the Salute. The precision drill of the
regiments is notable.The ceremony ends with the Queen returning to Buckingham Palace at the head of her Guards. The Escort to the Colour, chosen normally in strict rotation, then mounts guard at the Palace.

Midsummer's Day

Midsummer's Day, June 24th, is the longest day of the year. On that day you can see a very old custom at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, England. Stonehenge is one of Europe's biggest stone circles. A lot of the stones are ten or twelve metres high. It's also very old. The earliest part of Stonehenge is nearly 5,000 years old. But what was Stonehenge? A holy place? A market? Or was it a kind of calendar? We think the Druids used it for a calendar.They used the sun and the stones at Stonehenge to know the start of months and seasons. There are Druids in Britain today, too. And every June 24th a lot of them go to Stonehenge. On that morning the sun shines on one famous stone - the Heel stone. For the Druids this is a very important moment in the year. But for a lot of British people it's just a strange old custom.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween means "holy evening" and takes place on October 31st. It is particularly connected with witches and ghosts. At parties people dress up in strange costumes and pretend they are witches. They cut horrible faces in potatoes and other vegetables and put аcandle inside, which shines through their eyes. People play different gamessuch as trying to eat an apple from а bucket of water without using their hands.

In recent years children dressed in white sheets knock on doors at Halloween and ask if you would like а “trick” or “treat”. If you give them something nice, а “treat”, they go away. However, if you don’t, they play “trick” on you, such as making а lot of noise or spilling flour on your front doorstep.

GUY FAWKES NIGHT (BONFIRE NIGHT) — NOVEMBER 5 Guy Fawkes Night is one of the most popular festivals in Great Britain. It commemorates the discovery of the so-called Gunpowder Plot, and is widely celebrated throughout the country. Gunpowder Plot Conspiracy to destroy the English Houses of Parliament and King James I when the latter opened Parliament on Nov. 5, 1605 engineered by а group of Roman Catholics as а protest against anti-Papist measures. In May 1604 the conspirators rented а house adjoining the House of Lords, from which they dug а tunnel to а vault below that house, where they stored 36 barrels of gunpowder. It was planned that when king and parliament were destroyed the Roman Catholics should attempt to seize power. Preparations for the plot had been completed whenone of the conspirators wrote to а kingsman warning him to stay away from the House of Lords. On November 4 а search was made of the parliament vaults, and the gunpowder was found, together with Guy Fawkes,an English Roman Catholic/ Fawkes had been commissioned to set off the explosion. Arrested and tortured he revealed the names of the conspirators, some of whom were killed resisting arrest. Fawkes was hanged. Detection of the plot led to increased repression of English Roman Catholics. The Plot is still commemorated by an official ceremonial search of the vaults before the annual opening of Parliament, also by the burning of Fawkes's effigy and the explosion of fireworks every Nov. 5.

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS

Christmas Day is observed on the 25th of December, it is the most widely celebrated festival in all its parts except Scotland. The reason for this is clear. With its numerous, often rather quaint social customs, it is undoubtedly the most colourful holiday of the year, and, moreover one that has always been, even in the days when most people were practising Christian, а time for eating, drinking and making merry.

However, despite the popularity of Christmas, quite а number of English people dislike this festival, and even those who seem to celebrate it wholeheartedly, have certain reservations about it. The main reason for this is that Christmas has become the most commercialized festival of the year. The customs and traditions connected with Christmas, for example giving presents and having а real spree once а year, made it an easy prey to the retailers, who, using modern methods of advertising, force thecustomer to buy what he neither wants nor, often, can reasonably afford. An average English family sends dozens and dozens of Christmas cards, and gives and receives almost as many often practically useless presents. As much of this spending is forced upon people and often means that аfamily has to do without things they really need, it inevitably leads to resentment towards the festival. Needless to say that it isn’t the old customs and traditions that are to blame, but those who make huge profits out of the nationwide spending spree which they themselves had boosted beyond any reasonable proportion.

 

MULTICULTURALISM

The third reason for caution about generalizations relates to the large-scale immigration to Britain from places outside the British Isles in the twentieth century. In its cities at least, Britain is a multicultural society. There are areas of London, for example, in which a distinctively Indian way of life predominates, with Indian shops, Indian clothes, Indian languages. Because in the local schools up to 90% of the pupils may be Indian, a distinctively Indian style of learning tends to take place.

These 'new British' people have brought widely differing sets of attitudes with them. For example, while some seem to care no more about education for their children than people in traditional English culture, others seem to care about it a great deal more.

However, the divergence from i ndigenous British attitudes in new British communities is constantly narrowing. These communities sometimes have their own newspapers but no have their own TV stations as they do in t United States. There, the numbers in such communities are larger and the physical space between them and other communities greater, so that it is possible for people to live their whole lives in such communities without ever really learning English. This hardly ever happens in Britain.

It is therefore still possible to talk about British characteristics in general (as the rest of this chapter does). In fact, the new British have made their own contribution to British life and attitudes. They have probably help to make people more informal (see below); they have changed the nature of the corner shop the most popular, well-attended festival in t whole of Britain is the annual Notting Hill 'Carnival in London at the end of August, which is of Caribbean inspiration and origin.

Strong Families

In a perfect world, families would have no problems. Parents would know how to rear their children to be responsible adults. Americans and others throughout the world are trying to learn what makes strong families. Perhaps families can learn how to solve their problems. Researchers at the University of Nebraska have found some answers. Strong, happy families share some patterns whether they are rich or poor, black or white.

Strong, happy families spend time together. After dinner, for example.

happy families may take walks together or play games. Strong families also talk about their problems. They may even argue so that problems can be resolved before they get too big. Members of strong families show each otheraffection and appreciation. Members of strong families are also committed to one another and they tend to be religious. Finally, when problems arise, strong families work together to solve them.

The values that Americans cherish, such as democracy and economic and social freedom, are values that Americans want for their families. Americans work hard to make their families successful. Today, however, families are changing, but they are not disappearing. Americans accept that strong, happy families come in many sizes and shapes.

 

The power of the media.

The press...

Everywhere, everyday exiting things are happening. Each day is filled with news. How are people kept informed?

The press, radio and television keep people informed on all topical issues of the day. The press has great political influence. You can get a lot of useful information from newspaper reports. If you are a regular reader of the press you will be well informed about all matters. Newspapers publish articles on home and foreign affairs. Reports by political observers and commentators help us to get useful information on international and domestic issues. Most newspapers come out daily. The reader's questions, opinions and suggestions, which they send in letters to the editor, help to improve the newspaper and make it more interesting.

The British are great newspaper readers. Newspapers are often thought of as either "qualities" or "populars". The "qualities" give serious accounts of the news and reports on business matters, industry and culture. They are usually large-sized.

The "quality" papers, like The Times, The Guardian and others, are directed at readers who want full information on a wide range of public matters. "Popular" newspapers appeal to people wanting news of a more entertaining character. They are usually with lots of illustrations. Some populars, like The Sun, are note for their sensational stories and photographs. Some newspapers come out only on Sundays: The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Express, Sunday Mirror, The Sunday Times.

Many newspapers are printed in color, as the part of Sunday or Saturday paper. They provide reading material about clothes, cooking, diet, the house and home.

 

Ethics of family relations

For centuries family was an emotional center of people’s lives, was transmitter of culture & raising children. Families gave us a sense of tradition, strength & purpose. The things we need most deeply in our lives – love, communication, respect & good relationships – always had their beginnings in the family. Friendly family includes many aspects, such as tact, responsibility, respect, tolerance, support and many others. It goes without saying that in a good family both partners help each other and try to overcome difficulties together. So they are always ready to support and to give a good piece of advice. They share housework as well as sorrow and joy. Peace in any case better than war.

Unfortunately, the family is in trouble nowadays. To our regret we can observe changes in family structure. We can see that family lost its traditional functions & purposes. The decline of the traditional family can not be denied. Divorce, cohabitation, single-parenting & birth outside marriage have all risen sharply & recently. Today people think that it’s not very important that parents should be married rather than live together; half of parents believe that a single parent can bring up children as well as a couple; the degree of conflicts between spouses has risen greatly! Another shocking thing that juvenile crime has increased enormously because of the lack of parental discipline, combined with violence on TV & easy access to drugs. If today parents can’t provide conditions in which children can be born & brought up, if parents can’t teach their children values as well as daily skills, if they also can’t teach them common practices & customs, such as respect for elders & celebrating holidays, if they can’t give emotional support & security what will be next?

I think that nobody has an answer to this difficult question. People are trying to find the solution but this process is a difficult one. People should put a lot of effort to restore the traditional family.

The traditional structure of the family - mother, father and children - continues to prevail for the most part as a new century unfolds. Yet, over the past several decades, the society has witnessed an evolution in family structure. Single parenthood, adoptive households, step-parenting, stay-at-home fathers, grandparents raising children are but a few of the newer tiles in the mosaic.

The decline in marriage comes from three main sources. First, people are delaying marriage. Second, divorces have increased. Third, people are slower to remarry than previously. Fourth cohabitation has become the norm for both men and women both as their first form of union and after divorces. The norm of the stable, two-parent family was close to becoming the exception for children rather than the rule.

Relations within a family are different now. Parents treat their children more as equals than they used to, and children have more freedom to make their own decisions.

 

Moral values as they are seen today.

Moral values are the object of much distrust and thorny debate. But most people would admit that they are in some way important. Even the Youth of Today (YOT) would tend to agree, though our idea of morality may differ from that of our parents/

Oscar Wild asserted: “Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike”. H.G.Wells wrote: “Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo”. These two gems highlight the one quality most commonly associated with the notion of morality since time immemorial: hypocrisy. Vary rarely, it seems, do you see one without the other? Of course, we all know that this is not what true morality should be. True morality is very simple: Love thy neighbour as thyself. Or, in more modern parlance, it is all about respect (man).

The question is, do children need to have morality passed on to them? Are human beings fundamentally bad? Or conversely, are human beings inherently wonderful, angelic beings, corrupted only by the evils of social conditioning and bad parenting?

The answer somewhere in between: human beings are both good and evil. A moral education should strive to bring out the good and redirect the evil.

At the heart of Moral Re-armament is a brief that each person can make a differenceto the world through a transforming experience of liberation in their lives and through their interaction with others. People long to be themselves to have a sense of worthand purpose of life, to be able to contribute of their time and talent, to know thatthey are needed and loved. In an age of information it's possible to fool ourselves,succumb to peer pressure and the spirit of the age. There are to be checks andbalances-moral standards of honesty, purity, selflessness which guide our motives.

It's time for all countries to take a long hard look at themselves. Many of them areembroiled in a public debate about standards in public life, ethics in businessvalues in education, values in the media and so on. It's because of the sort of thesociety we have created: a society which can produce the murder of a toddler: the massacreof infant-school children in Scotland and so on. Each of theseevents in isolation would have produced its own short-lived outcry.

But what can bedone?It would be easy to say it all began with the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Easybut wrong. It was the sweeping reforms of the politicians. Its catchwords were “doyour own things”. Morality was privatized. You could do what you wanted as long asyou did not harm anyone else.Underlying all of this violence and civil disorders is the me-first philosophy which justifies all actions in terms ofself-interest, rather than the common good. At the heart of these concernslies the great issue of our time the dilemma between and constraints, rights and duties. Most pundits sum clear what is needed.

A simple preposition might be for eachof us to start with ourselves. If each person began with what they could do, toput things right and to set standards, then we might soon see a difference.