This paper will try to provide an understanding of the foremost values and ideologies that underlie a national curriculum policy. The report will also try to critic the national curriculum policy in the light of Catholic Social Thought.
The dominant values and ideologies that underlie National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools include the following:
1.Acknowledging the fact that education is as much about building a strong character as it is about equipping students with the requisite skills and knowledge. Realizing the need that a value based education can help a student to develop and strengthen self-esteem, commitment to personal fulfillment and help a student to exercise judgement that is ethical, and also exercise social responsibility.
2.Recognizing the fact that parents expect schools to teach their wards about social responsibility as well as personal responsibility and responsibility towards others and society in order to make them responsible individuals. Ensuring that the ethos of a school articulate proper values. Schools should ensure in the development of a sense of responsibility in students and build their social skills. Schools should incorporate values into all the practices and policies of a school, which includes teaching programs across the main learning areas.
The social teachings of the church exemplify wisdom about building a fair and just society amidst a plethora of challenges faced by modern society. Catholic Social thought can be understood through a reading of these following principles:
Life and Dignity of a Person:
The major themes that are intrinsic to Catholic Social Thought include Life and Dignity of the Human Person. According to the Church human life is sacred and that the dignity of a person is extremely important and is a foundation for society. This belief is the underlying principle of social teaching. According to Catholic Social Thought, human life is threatened by abortion, euthanasia and cloning. Catholic Social thought is also against warfare and preaches and promotes peace. Catholic Social Thought believes that it is the duty and responsibility of nations to protect and safeguard human rights and that conflicts ought to be resolved through peaceful means. According to Catholic Social Thought, human beings are considered as extremely precious and that people are much more precious than things and that a institution can be measured on the basis of whether it enhances or has a negative impact on the dignity and life of a person (Teixeira, P. (2017). According to the national curriculum policy in school, the values that are taught include the value of life. Schools are institutions where students are taught to value human beings, treat others with utmost respect, and uphold human dignity.
Call to Family, Community and Participation:
According to Catholic Social Thought, apart from being sacred, a person is also social. How one organizes one’s society affects the dignity of humans and the potential growth of self-development. The institution of marriage must be supported. The institution of family as well, ought to be strengthened and not undermined. According to the national curriculum policy in schools, the role of family and community is of utmost importance to provide children with value education. Apart from schools where students are imparted with value education, parents also play an integral role in imparting value education to children thereby ensuring that a child grows up to be a good individual.
Rights and Responsibilities:
According to Catholic Social Thought, a healthy community can be achieved and human dignity can be protected only if there is a safeguarding of human rights (Teixeira, 2017). Every individual has a right to live and perform the duties and responsibilities that is expected out of him or her towards his or her families, towards one another and towards society. According to the national curriculum policy, students are taught the value of tolerance and the knowledge of human rights so that they become conscientious people who have a strong sense of empathy and tolerance towards other individuals.
Option for the poor and vulnerable:
People live in a society where there is a lot of difference between the rich and the poor sections of society which reminds one of the story of the Last Judgement wherein people are instructed to put the needs of those who are poor and vulnerable at first. According to the national curriculum policy, students are taught to develop compassion and kindness towards everybody especially the poor people and also to help people who are poor and destitute.
Solidarity:
We are one family regardless of national, ethnic, ideological and economic differences. The pursuit of peace and justice is at the core of solidarity. The Gospels preaches us to be peacemakers. According to the national curriculum, students are taught not to differentiate anybody on the basis of castes, class, creed, religion and ethnicity and are taught to treat everybody equally.
Care for God’s creation:
One should care for the earth and one’s planet as this is the creation of God. One should also care for one and another as this is God’s creation. According to the national curriculum policy, students are taught to take care of the environment and prevent global warming.
Made in the image of God:
One of the most basic principle of Catholic Social Teaching is the understanding and realization that every individual is made in the image of the Lord (Teixeira 2017). God has given us a soul that is immortal and through reason and intelligence helps us to understand the order of things that is made by God’s creation. God has given individuals a free will to seek what is good and true. Human being embody both positive and negative qualities. Since we are made in the image of God, there lies within us positivity and goodness. However the effects of the Original Sin, ie. the Fall of Man reflects that we are prone to negativity and things that are not good. Both good and bad resides in man and it is upto him to pursue what he or she wants. God has bestowed man with intelligence and reason and therefore the onus is on the individual to choose the path of good or the path of bad. According to the National Curriculum policy, students are taught about Free Will, wherein they are taught to choose right over wrong, goodness over evil (Lynch, 2014).
The Responsible Practice of Freedom:
Christian Social Thought teaches people to practice freedom responsibly. According to the Christian Social Thought, human freedom is the power given by God to share an union with Him. Human freedom does not merely lie in our decision to make a choice between what is good and evil but human freedom lies in the decision to follow God’s teachings. According to the national curriculum policy, students are taught to enjoy freedom responsibly, not to misuse freedom, and to follow the teachings of God.
The Understanding of Moral Acts:
According to the Catholic Social Thought, every moral act has three elements, namely, the objective act, i.e. what a person does, the motivation behind doing a particular act, or circumstances in which the act is performed, i.e. where, when why, with whom, how, the consequences etc. For an act to be good, the object or what one is doing ought to be good. Some acts are always wrong as they go against a fundamental good. The goal or intention is part of the act that lies within a person. That is why one says that even if an act that a person is performing is good, if the intention is wrong then the act is morally wrong (Hardy, 2015). It is pertinent to always remember that a good intention will not be able make a bad action, something that is inherently and intrinsically bad, good. One can never do something evil in order to make good things happens for it does not. As the quotation goes, “The end does not justify the means”
The Reality of Sin and the trust in God’s mercy:
One cannot talk about the life of Jesus Christ without acknowledging the sin that we have committed thereby seeking the mercy of God. If one were to deny having committed any sin in one’s life or if one were to deny the existence of sin, then it would lead to psychological damage in an individual because it would be a denial of the truth about ourselves. According to the national curriculum policy, value education is imparted to students to help them become good individuals. Students are also encouraged to perform moral acts that include helping someone among other things.
The Formation of Conscience:
An integral part of Christian Social Thought is the formation of a good conscience (Teixeira, 2017). Conscience reflects the ability of human beings to know the difference between right and wrong, to know what is good and right, and what is bad and should not be done. Conscience is the inner voice that tells us whether what one is doing is right or wrong. A good conscience makes decisions that conform to reason and something that is truly good. A good conscience takes a lifetime to form in a person. Good advice from people and good example from others helps one to develop a good conscience. The teachings of Jesus Christ and teachings of the church is an integral element to form and develop one’s conscience. According to the national curriculum policy, students are provided with value education which helps them to develop a good conscience and become good human beings.
The Excellence of Virtues:
According to Christian Social Thought, the Christian moral life seeks to practice virtue. In order to have a moral life one should practice virtues that are both human and theological (Hardy, 2015). Human virtues tend to support moral behaviour, avoid sin and control passions. Virtue guides the conduct of a person according to the principles of faith and reason leading an individual towards freedom and which is based on control of one’s self and towards the happiness of living a noble, good and a moral life. A sense of one’s duty, compassion, kindness, empathy, responsibility, a sense of duty, discipline of one’s own self and restraint, courage, loyalty, integrity, honesty, friendship and persistence among other things are examples of virtues that are required to lead a moral life (Teixeira, 2017). Historically, human virtues are called cardinal virtues. Justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude are the four Cardinal virtues. Human virtues can be acquired by repeating virtuous acts frequently. A reciprocal type of relationship exists between virtue and acts because virtue makes a person act in morally good ways. By doing good and by doing several acts of goodness, the virtues within us tend to strengthen and grows. Human virtues are also acquired by seeing them in the acts of goodness done by others and also through education as education and understanding helps one to grow and be a good person. God’s grace is given to us to strengthen our virtues and through prayers, Sacraments and the grace of God, our virtues are strengthened and we grow in virtue (Roberts, 2014). The Theological virtues such as hope, faith and charity (love) are virtues that are directly related to God. According to Christian Social Thought, these virtues are not acquired by the effort of human beings. During Baptism, these virtues are infused within us. Faith, charity and hope influence human virtues by stabilizing human virtues. The Ten Commandments forbids sins, but it also highlights the virtues that will enable an individual to commit such sins. The seven Capital sins like pride, envy, anger, avarice, lust, gluttony and sloth can be overcome by virtues such as generosity, gentleness, temperance, purity of heart, poverty of spirit and fortitude. According to the national curriculum policy, students are imparted value education that tells them about the importance of having virtues so that they grow up to be better human beings.
Love, Rules and Grace:
Love is the underlying principle and emotion of human life. However along with love, rules and regulations are necessary to survive in an earthly life, In heaven, only love can prevail and there is no need of rules and regulations unlike in an earthly life. According to Christian Social Thought, in an earthly life, a person needs moral guidance from the Ten Commandments, the Precept of the Church and the Sermon on the Mount to view and perceive how love works (Roberts, 2014). Love is sometimes separated from sacrifice which is wrong because sacrifice is a very important and crucial aspect of love. According to the scriptures, the moral life according to Christianity begins with a loving relationship with God, a love that is made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The various moral rules and the Commandments are taught to individuals in order to help people protect the myriad values that foster the love of God and other human beings. They show us the various ways of expressing love, at times forbidding an individual to do something that contradicts love. According to Christian Social Thought, life led on the principles of morality requires grace and the Holy Spirit provides an individual with a spiritual strength to do the correct thing. The grace of Jesus Christ is as important as love and rules that governs mankind. According to the National curriculum policy, students are taught the importance of love and also the importance of rules and regulations so that they grow up to be better human beings.
Conclusion:
Thus, the foremost values, principles and ideologies of Catholic Social Thought are programmed in the national curriculum policy of Australia that offers value education to students thereby helping them to become good human beings. Schools in Australia provide value education wherein students are taught to be better individuals and develop virtues and a strong character and be empathetic towards the downtrodden and destitute.
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