How Shall I Be?

A Value Education Textbook for Class VIII. Swamiji envisaged that secular education and value education ought to be integrated when he said, "Education is not filling the mind with a lot of facts. We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, and the intellect is expanded. True education may be described as a development of a faculty, not an accumulation of words, or as a training to will rightly and efficiently. As an outcome of education, students will of themselves be able to know what is good for them and what is bad." He termed this kind of integral education as Man-making Education: "Real education is that which enables one to stand on one's own legs. The ideal of all education should be man-making." On the occasion of Swami Vivekananda's 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations, "How Shall I Be?" was made available with slight modifications as a value education storybook for the students of class VIII. Brought out under the 'Value Education Programme', the book is available at a highly subsidized price thanks to the financial support of the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India. As the title suggests, it has been designed to stimulate students to think about how to shape themselves. The chapters have been prepared on a holographic model. Thus, while each chapter has a central value that it conveys prominently, there are also strains of the remaining four values in consonance with the keynote value. Values relating to rationality, concentration of mind, expansion of heart, developing a civic sense and national consciousness, and inter-religious harmony are presented through these five chapters.