Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Generous Justice Part 1: Education, Family and Financial Literacy

I've just completed reading a Christian book on Social Change and Social Justice; one of the primary responsibility of a passionate and faithful Christian. Its written by Timothy Keller, and each page brought new insights and encouragement to my personal walk as a social change-maker.

These are my reflections with association to its application in Envisage, a Social Enterprise that brings social education programs to high schools in Singapore.

This first post is part 1 of a 3 parts series which I will be posting within the next few days to come.

Part 1

There is a higher purpose to why I am so fervent in introducing Poverty Simulation into high Schools, which follows the 3 Pillars of Poverty Simulation, advocated by Envisage that is a greater appreciation for Education, Family, and Financial Literacy.

(a) Education; It has been identified by many social change-makers that education is a key aspect of poverty eradication. Through education we can create a more civil society that has the capability of engaging in logical debates on what justice means to each individual, rather than resorting to violence whenever disagreement arise. Education also provides us with the knowledge (and consequentially the responsibility) to act on social injustice whenever we see them.
But more importantly, it is the teaching of moral values, which each individual base its perspective of "justice" on. ("Justice" is a complicated concept which can be perceived differently from multiple ethical and religious principles, of which will not be discussed in detail in this post)
Without moral values, social injustice will be difficult to identify and hence wrongfully tolerated by the society.

(b) Family; Another critical component of social change, where values if properly transferred from one generation to the next, will bring about positive moral growth to our society.
Nevertheless, it seems that it is also currently one of the most critically missing component of Singapore children's education. Where most families have both parents laboring hard at work each day to create a "better" life for their own family, yet missing out on the importance of developing their kids into morally upright individuals.

(c) Financial literacy; The knowledge of how to manage one's finances wisely, so that resources are not wasted on fruitless endeavours, and that extra wealth created could and should be shared amongst the disadvantaged of our society, instead of wasting on vain recreational activities beyond what is really necessary.

Hope that my sharing in Part 1 provides you with some useful insights. I promise to post the other 2 within the next few days.

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