Spiritual values for all educators

IN the new Malaysian Unity Government, both the Education and Higher Education ministers are politicians of high calibre.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin and Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek have both proven themselves in the arduous arena of Malaysian politics, and now helm what is to me the two most important portfolios that could make or break this nation.

Many would disagree with me and say that the Finance or Economic Affairs portfolios are more important, but I believe Education supersedes everything else.

For it is the education of our sons and daughters that could produce citizens who are able to accept others, have meaningful ideas and be kind to all regardless of race and faith; it is education that will make them understand that we all need each other to make Malaysia great in all aspects, thus securing their own and their children’s future.

There are those who argue that education is the key but point only to a curriculum of technology, skills and cognitive learning; very few would highlight the “humaneness” of students and future adults.

I have shared ideas about pedagogy and curricula in past columns, but in this one – at the beginning of the new year – I want to focus on four spiritual values that all teachers, whether in schools or universities, should contemplate.

The first spiritual value is to consider every single pupil that they teach, in every class in every year, as their own child.

Human beings are driven to procreate and produce our own offspring. The natural love that we feel for our young and the need to protect them are ingrained in our DNA.

Most animals are the same in this regard. But humans are more than just our biological impulses, we are also spiritual beings floating in a sea of cosmic divinity.

Unlike animals, humans have the capacity to extend that impulse to love and protect beyond our own. None of us would leave a starving child alone on the roadside regardless of the child’s race or nationality or faith, would we?

In the same way, all teachers must treat each student as his or her own. Then and only then will we possibly, one day, venture outside the realm of religious selfishness and racial identity. All pupils are our children regardless of race, religion and lifestyle. Children are innocent and taking care of them is one of the greatest spiritual deeds that anyone could ever do.

My second spiritual take on teaching is based on the fact that many of the boys and girls that we teach will one day become somebody in our neighbourhoods or our world.

Perhaps one becomes the entrepreneurial satay seller on the corner, another a car mechanic, or a nurse, a doctor or a lawyer – or even a prime minister. Teachers must all realise that, one day, they will come to depend on these former pupils to help with their problems or their children’s problems. If teachers treat their pupils with dignity, trust and compassion, the pupils will always remember their inspiring gurus.

Accepting the unknown future is part of our spirituality and we should believe in the connection we have with all our pupils who will one day have the world in their hands.The third spiritual take for educators is that knowledge is present in everyone and everywhere.

Today’s education boxes us all into becoming narrow-minded entities, hating those who are different from us. As educators, we must look beyond them and acknowledge the boundless nature of ilmu (knowledge) that may be present in individuals of different faiths and religions, or in another’s heritage, civilisation or history.

The Covid-19 pandemic taught us that we need vaccines from all around the world, and help from total strangers so we can survive and our children can live through the threat of the virus.

We must learn to share knowledge and pool it. Educators cannot stay in one box of race, religion, culture and knowledge. There is no box where knowledge is concerned, and there are no boundaries when it comes to questions and experiments.

We must accept that there is something to learn from multiple disciplines, multiple societies and multiple faiths if we are to educate those who will later determine our well-being and the nation’s well-being.

The fourth spiritual take is that what we have learned, we must eventually unlearn and then relearn.

We as educators cannot carry the baggage of experience in our history, religion and culture without a thorough self-examination. Old tyres must be renewed – or, better still, take public transportation!

Change is inevitable and we must change for the better and not stay stagnant in a safe place and a secure box which, ultimately, would imprison us forever.

Educators must educate themselves through reading, reflecting and sharing in worthy discussions filled with adab (manners); we must maintain the ability to open our minds and hearts to new and better things from whatever source they may come.

I believe there is no hope for our educational curriculum to educate the young if teachers and educators themselves do not embrace these four spiritual values of life.

These spiritual values require no budget, require no workshops and require no teachers. It only requires a simple act of self-reflection and soul-searching to change a nation until it becomes a blessing to all of us through those who will inherit the world.

Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Studies at UCSI University. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.