Education in Human Values (EHV)
"Education must promote peace, security, and happiness. The core purpose of education is the development of the child's ability to live a fulfilling life of peace and happiness. The end of education is character."
- Sathya Sai Baba
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Education in Human Values was originated by Indian guru and philanthropist Sathya Sai Baba. He created the Sathya sai organization, an international non-profit, dedicated to serving the poor and educating the youth in Human Values. Sai Baba said himself “Education is not merely accumulation of information or the acquisition of skills. It is the cleansing of the mind, the strengthening of unselfish tendencies, and the discovery of the truth, beauty, and goodness that lie dormant in every being. It is the cultivation of integrity, discipline, tolerance, compassion and love.”
Education in Human Values is a universal values-based teaching program. Created by Indian guru and philanthropist Sathya Sai Baba, the core of the program is twofold: 1. There is inherent goodness in every human being, and 2. Be the example of goodness you want to inspire in your students. The goal of this program, which should be the goal of all education, is character and wellbeing. Too much of our educational system is designed around performative outcomes, rote memorization, and bookish knowledge. Institutions strive to compete with each other on measurements of perceived intelligence but rarely is such assessment and consideration given to how happy a student is or how well they will live their life. EHV challenges us to redefine success and allow students and their families to define what success means to them.
On the subject of character development, we encourage you to consider this question: would the world be better off with more smart people, or more kind people? We are not interested in indoctrinating American values or the values of any institution. Instead, we want to draw out the latent positive human characteristics untainted by capitalistic or colonial ideas that so often dampen the potential of morality in young students as well as teachers. When we boil down education to its core function, what better goal could we have than to inspire our students to be good human beings? We believe you are already teaching human values through your good example, but the negative influences on our students are so ever present that so must our messages of humanity be. What this program offers is a strategy with which to teach it overtly and consistently with your heart. In this way students are immersed in the work and can organically reflect on their own human values.
