Society is made up of human
beings and their constructed institutions. Every member of society is closely
linked with people around him and with those social institutions which society
itself prepared for fulfilling its social needs. In other words, in society
human beings play role of creature and creator at the same time? As a creator he
plays a vital role in the process of socialization. His role in character
formation and culture evolution is inevitable. What shape of societies of globe
we are seeing today that is because of man’s efforts? He himself is creator of
his today’s world. We know it well that socialization is an ongoing product of
social interaction. A caravan which started its journey from Stonehenge age has
now searching its destination beyond the Mars. During this journey his hiking in
dimensions of life can be seen clearly. Changes in his behavior, he habits, his
attitude towards other members of society and his love with learning are crystal
clear. A revolutionary change, we can see in the man of this age. Those he is
generated by his ancestors who were near animals because of their poor social
interaction. The nurturing results of human interaction are constantly working
at three different levels.
a) Individual development
b) Organizational change
c) Evolution of culture
This ‘triple helix’ shows that at each level human being are generated by their
own behaviors. The very circumstance feedbacks the character of those follow
these levels. But these all levels are integral part of one another. Changes at
any level result changes at all level. No transformation is possible at singular
level. For example individual development is not only the result of efforts of
any individual but this process is tackled by the other two levels. No
individual can develop without role of social organizations and cultural
uplifting. We cannot give even a single example of such incident around the
globe. In advance societies individuals also stand at the peak of their
development. Their cultural heritage and social organization norms play very
pervasive role in promotion of their behaviors, habits and social changes. The
case is same with the social organization. Any social organization cannot grow
up without positive role of the members of that society. The situation is same
with culture which promotion is based upon the individual and organizational
role.
Character is defined as traits and qualities distinguishing the individual
nature of a person or thing. In social terms character is used for good manners,
habits and morals. When we talk about character building or character education,
actually we use it as umbrella term to describe the teaching of children in a
manner that will help them develop variously as moral, civic, good, mannered,
behaved, non-bullying, healthy, critical, successful, traditional, compliant and
socially acceptable beings. As stated above individual development is deeply
linked with society. Character building is also part of individual development.
Development is holistic approach and character is one of its traits, so this
process is considered an essential function of a society. Society performs it at
all levels.
Firstly we discuss character building at organizational level. Social
organizations or social institution play a vital role in this respect.
Family is a primary unit of a society. When any one comes in this world, family
is his first transit. It protects a child from thick and thin of life. Family is
first school of a child and his mother is his first teacher. Here all primary
and basic elements of good or bad character are infused in him. The Process of
character building starts from here. A good family has never bad children and a
bad family has never good children. thousands years before Aristotle knew the
importance of this social unit and believes that good nation can be made only by
good mothers. He said; ‘Give me good mothers today, after twenty years I shall
give you a good nation’. In short, family is place where the process of
character building not only starts but also strengths. A family lays foundation
of good character.
Village or Mohalah is very important social unit which engraves qualities of
good or bad character in an individual. When a child learns to move on foot, he
started visiting next doors and met his age fellows who influence his habits,
morals and learning. He learnt a number of new things from his fellows which
later become part of his character and habits. Besides his fellows a link with
nature and surrounding also develops here. He sees the world around him other
than his house streets, other houses and trees etc. this new look gives a new
look to his aesthetic sense. When a child grows up, magnitude of its interaction
spreads round the town. This also influences his character traits.
A society runs educational institutions for its own development. It uses them
for preparing its future generation. It allots specific functions of individual
development, socialization and preparing need based human resources. These
institutions play a vital role in character building. Human history is great
witness of this feature of educational institution. ALEAGS (Ex students of
Aligarh Muslim University) have some distinctive features of their characters,
manners and speaking which was their identity. There was a time when it was
famous among intellectuals of Pakistan that Government College is birth place of
intellectuals. It was said, “a person who sits under the shadow of the walls of
Government College Lahore for few years he becomes scholars. Still a Ravian (Ex
Student of Government has some specific character attributes which are
sufficient to recognize him.
Summing up the role of educational institutions in character building it can be
said it is place where all national and social features are grown up and watered
with profession approach.
Society is whole of above parts. It develops its norms, values by their
interactions and coordination but it also plays a role in their enhancement. It
value and norms influence families and other social institutions. So these all
social institutions has an attribute of reverse action and responsible of one
another growth and development. Being a member of all these institutions man
becomes their product. His character attributes are sown in the fields of
society and waters by its institutions.
A tragic episode of my national and social life is being played before my eyes.
All social norms and values are disappearing from our society. We are converting
ourselves from a nation to mob at very high speed. At this stage role of society
in character building is our extreme need because only men of character can
reverse us to our path. It is time to make us aware of the role which we have to
play as a member of this society. We should focus all our attention in character
building of our coming generation. This is the only way to safe our future.
Where we are working, we have to make an inevitable decision for playing our
role at top priority basis in nation building and nation building starts from
individual building.