Dr. Nandini N.

Abstract:

                  Educators serve a crucial function as mentors in cultivating students’ values and character, directing them towards enduring ethical and moral growth.  A teacher bears greater duty than other professionals, as kids regard them as a paragon of excellence.  The contemporary education system is structured to facilitate material success and superficial accomplishments, while neglecting essential virtues such as kindness, honesty, compassion, peace, love, and non-violence.  Human beings have become egocentric and individualistic.  This instills in them jealousy, animosity, and competition.  The disintegration of ethics jeopardises societal stability.  The primary objective of education ought to be the cultivation of knowledgeable and cultured individuals.  Principles such as patriotism, opposition to untouchability, individual dignity, perseverance, social service, justice, and national integration are absent in the contemporary landscape characterised by corruption, violence, intolerance, and profit-seeking.  This study examines the diverse impact teachers have as role models and mentors, highlighting the significance of fostering essential human qualities such as empathy, integrity, accountability, and resilience.  The study elucidates how educators cultivate values that transcend academic achievement by exploring tactics such as character education, individualised mentoring, and the establishment of nurturing learning environments.  The paper examines the influence of teacher-student connections on emotional and social development, utilising case studies and evidence from educational psychology.  This article delineates best practices and essential attributes of effective mentorship, offering insights into how educators can cultivate character development that enables students to lead value-driven, purposeful lives.  This aims to articulate the function of educators in value education within the contemporary educational framework, ensuring that future generations cultivate high ideals and values to contribute to societal growth and the teacher’s responsibility in instilling these values.

Keywords: Teachers as mentors, character development, lifelong values, moral education, empathy….