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Abstract
There is growing number of problems among youth like violence, behavioural changes, pressure of performance, drug addiction, depression, etc. Assisting students to grow spiritually will help to create a new generation who are more caring, more globally aware, and more committed to social justice, while also enabling students to respond to the many stresses and tensions of the rapidly changing technological society. This paper is an effort to raise public awareness about the important role that spirituality plays in student learning and holistic development.
Keywords: Spirituality, Education, Holistic Development
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. (Kahlil Gibran, 1965, p. 28)
Introduction
According to World Health Organization, India has become one of the highest suicide rates countries worldwide. The country's health ministry estimates that up to 120,000 people commit suicide each year and almost 40% of them are below the age of 30. Students are having relationship problems with parents, teachers and friends. They are arguing and fighting with parents and getting in trouble in school or with the law. Furnham, Badmin and Sneade (2002) found that female adolescents linked body image dissatisfaction with self; those who were more dissatisfied with their bodies had lower self-esteem. Now it is widely believed that the erratic behavior of youth as well as their incompetance to maintain good relationship with family, friends and the environment can be attributed to lack of spirituality in their education.
Dohrenwend and Dohrenwend (1981) suggested that spiritual support may be very beneficial to those experiencing high levels of stress because their psychological well-being is vulnerable. Maton (1989) found that spirituality was positively related to adjustment for high-stress students. Young et al., "a greater orientation to spirituality weakens the impact of negative life experiences on depression and on the onset of anxiety" (p. 54-55). There are evidences that spirituality and religiosity are positively related to physical and psychological well-being (Payne, Bergin, Bielema, & Jenkins, 1991; Perderson, 1998). Ingersoll (1998) produces 10 dimensions of spiritual wellness that can be summarized as "experience of divinity, meaning, connectedness with...