MOST conversations on educational issues in Pakistan, sooner than later, come to the topic of ‘values’ in our society — our young people in particular. People lament that values have changed and the change has been for the worse: young people just do not possess the values that older generations held. Empathy, tolerance and community feeling are often mentioned as prime examples of values we need badly but do not have or have lost to a large extent over time. The conversation then focuses on how curricula, textbooks and teaching should be changed to facilitate the inculcation of these values.

This is all good — and yes, curricula, textbooks, teachers and teaching should definitely engage with the issue of values. In fact, we have always done that in education. Society has an interest in shaping how young people think and grow up and what they become. This is an essential part of the meaning of the very word ‘education’. But we should also remember that children learn much more from what they see adults doing around them and what they read, hear and watch on television, social media and within their social circles. They are shaped by what they see their parents, family elders and teachers do. Children learn from examples and what they see — far more than from what they might be asked to read/reproduce for assignments and examinations. If the two are not in line, curricula, books, lectures and lessons are likely to fall on deaf ears.

Do religious

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