The Construction And Cultivation Of Values In Contemporary Youths

Youths are the future of the country ,the hope of the nation and the backbone of the society,so the cultivation and construction of the right kind of values in them has direct influences over the prospect of the country and the fate of the nation.In the new social atmosphere ,new values arise from the socialist market economy, and values conflict with one another during the transformation of the society . Due to the characteristics inherent in youths , there exist such problems as confusion of faith and values ,lack of examples for their behaviours .In this complicated economic and cultural background , how to direct youths to construct and establish self-developing values that will provide guide and motivation for their behaviours ,is both a practical problem related to the actual subsistence situation of youths and a theoretical question demanding an answer.Youths are now at the key point at the coordinates of their lives .To make a study about them and their values ,we must first make a general exploration about mankind .With the study of mankind as its logical starting point ,with further questions about mankind as its thinking basis ,the whole structure of this thesis is unfolded with order in the analysis of the inherent nature of man ,and thus the route of research is set. Successful practice necessarily complys with the yardsticks of both truth and values .Values regulate ,motivate and guide people through their concepts about things .The human beings are inherently cultured and cultivated .The life of human beings is both social and animate ;the need of human beings is both material and spiritual ,the realization of self-values of human beings are both self-seeking and altruistic.Youths of contemporary period ,forming an important community of this society ,can not transcend these general characteristics of mankind ,which are not born into them, but cultured into them and the fruit of socialization .So inculcating youths with right kind of values is of great importance.Youths of contemporary period grow up in a special living and developing environment at a critical historical moment in Chinese society, and are provided with living conditions ,in terms of material, superior to any ages bygone ,for most of them are the only child of their family . Thus they are featured with unique physical and psychological characteristics .Caught in the midst of social transformation , market oriented economy has positive impact on them in urging them to improve themselves and develop skills,while at the same time brings about money worship, hedonism ,egoism ,relativism ,which are negative.The trend of economic globalization can help the youths to widen their horizons and to acquire all-around knowledge about politic ,economic and cultural situation of Western world , while trivialize patriotism and national ethos.The Internet makes it more likely for youths to become addicted to the virtual interaction with the computer while ignore their relationship with people in real life and dehumanize man to tools ,which will give rise to wrong values or even crimes.All these pose both realistic and theoretical challenges to the the cultivation and construction of youths values .So what is values ?In short ,values are the sum of basic perspectives and views ,to which people refer when they are to tell right from wrong ,good from bad ,worthwhile from worthless. They are of great significance to the growth of the youths and will manifest its practical function in their whole life process. Truth ,kindness and beauty are the ultimate orientation of the values of youths .We find that university students ,the most apt representatives of youth ,are generally progressive and full of Zeitgeist and righteous values .But there exist many problems ,too.For example ,the orientation of the values are commercialized , secularized ,and materialized ,which goes against the leading orientation of values in this society . Also there are confusion and misunderstanding about integrity ,about good and evil ,about a honourable man and a mean one. All these demand construction and cultivation of youths' values in terms of reality and theory.There are three representative viewpoints with regard to this problem: regressionism , wersternizationism and eclecticism,all of which has its merits and demerits .Viewing the current situation of youths' values ,in order to construct and cultivate their values ,we must inherit as well as create,which means we are to absorb the nutritious elements of contemporary society and inherit the communist ethics of serving people heart and soul ,from the standpoint of the realistic social background.Traditional culture plays an indispensable part in the development of the contemporary society and the growth of the youths . The ever vital spirit of self-improving which has gone throughout the history of mankind ,the harmony oriented values ,humanitarianism ,and tolerance are all the indispensable nutrients for the building-up of the youths' values .Meanwhile ,we should also assimilate those beneficial elements such as diligence ,thrifty ,punctuality and self-reliance into our values.The values of contemporary youths form a complicated system which develops itself from low level to higher ones .So we should go about the construction and cultivation of this system in accordance with those levels, which can be specifically divided into the basic level and the ideal level .The basic level of the system attaches importance to the youths' growing-up process and subsistence ,which is the fundamental state of being a man ;while the ideal level of the system aims at beinguseful and enterprising-------the developing state in which people carving for growth,which is the self-motivation of human beings . In constructing and cultivating the values of basic level ,we should deal appropriately with the relationship between the individual and the community ,the relationship between justice and interest , the relationship between sense and sensibility ,the relationship between heart and soul so that we can find solution to those four questions :how to strike a balance between being self-seeking and being altruistic? between justice and interest ?how to be worldly without being vulgar ?how to treasure life and enjoy it ? Constructing and cultivating values of ideal level means we should try to realize our self-values , pursue compassion ,render service to repay our country and fellow countrymen ,love the mankind and the nature. To implement the construction and the cultivation of the values successfully, it is necessary to support the action with five motivations: love from family, education from school ,strengthening effect from career, influence of the environment, guidance of the government. We are to ensure the effect trough the assessing mechanism of the construction of the youths' values. Custom and tradition, public opinion and honour are the main parts of the external assessing mechanism, which will arouse self-consciousness and self-evaluation, and then lead to the formation of conscious in the youths. This whole process is the unification of the external and internal mechanisms.