Teaching culture, transforming selves : insight into life-skill lessons offered at government schools

Abstract

There is naivety in considering that the awareness imparted on a desired lifestyle, health, hygiene and emphasis of its higher cultural value always goes down as planned, without any dissent. There are always contradictions between the idealized training and the socio-cultural context of the students expected to learn and practice the same in their everyday lives. Thus, values circumscribing suitable lifestyle seek validation by undermining an opposite set of values, guided by several socio-cultural and politico-economic considerations. This paper at large will make attempts to surface this majoritarian and universal control over value education that exists even today, standing at the crossroads of neo-liberal economies and liberal democratic political formations. It will also try to flag occasions ripe with possibilities for resistance to a given moral order from the subjective/subaltern experiences.