Part of a Large Society

Many respondents cited the need to prepare students to be part of the larger society as a justification for teaching values in the schools.  In order to be members of society, children need to be socialized in its values.  That socialization happens for many children in school.  The idea of creating successful citizens seemed especially attractive to my respondents.

"School is a part of preparation for life in society and these are the kind of values that help us live peacefully and successfully."

"Teachers have a wonderful opportunity to not only help students becomes successful academically, but successful as citizens as well."

"Schools in the U.S. are preparatory tools for building, shaping, and encouraging better citizens.  Schools can act as a catalyst or an enforcer of things that are being taught at home, church, and community events."

"If the conversation is healthy, informative, and thought-provoking/encouraging, than each student will have the opportunity to create their own understanding of their values and ultimately become better citizens in the process."

"I believe that a major part of our responsibilty as teachers is to prepare our students to be successful in society."

"Curriculum development across the board should include an emphasis on what it means to be human, to live in society, and get along with each other. Schools are microcosms of society—I agree with the whole 'Everything I Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten' idea.  Schools function better if the students learn how to behave as good school citizens, and students transition better into functioning members of society  because of what they’ve learned in school."

While I agree that one of the functions of education is to prepare our children to be citizens, I think that we must remember that we are preparing them for a different kind of citizenship than we were 50 years ago.  Global citizenship is not just a buzzword anymore, it is a reality that we as teachers and fellow members of society need to apply importance to.  We are now preparing our children to become not only citizens of the society or societies they grew up in, but also possible citizens of the world.  Education in my mind has never been more important than it is now, especially if it is fulfilling the capacity that my respondents cited, teaching values in order to create good citizens.

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Who should be teaching children values?

This question evolved from the responses that I received to my original questions and the way in which it evolved struck me.  When I posed the question of who has a right to teach children their values, I got a lot of passionate responses.  For the most part I received the same answer, parents have the right and the responsibility to teach their children values.

Family/Parents:
"Ideally, one would hope that parents are playing a key role in the development of their children's values but I think that it is becoming more and more of the case where the parents are not playing a significant role in their child's education."


"It is not the responsibility of the school to explicitly teach values.  The values that are inherent in the school’s policies and behavior expectations must reflect the values of the community, which includes the values of the families that send their children to school.  When the community includes differing values, the school must make room for those differences."

"Teachers and parents have a responsibility to model those values so that children may learn how to demonstrate them throughout their schooling and life outside of school."

"I believe it is the parents’ responsibility to teach values.  I do not believe that it is the school’s responsibility to be active teachers of variables, as in direct-instruction."




I would agree with these sentiments when I take them into reference for myself and my life.  But when I apply them to the students that I have come into contact with, I am left feeling less certain.
I see a growing disconnection in children.  A disconnection from the nuclear family, from a set beliefs system, and from society itself.  Maybe a reason for this is as our society becomes more globalized, people are no longer certain that their set of beliefs is the "right" one.  In our search for a more interconnected world, we are detaching ourselves.  One of my respondents spoke directly to my thoughts in this quote:

"...the problem our society faces is that perhaps within the last 20 years, parents are increasingly not accepting that challenge (the challenge of teaching values).  I think part of that is that they have become more globally aware, their world is larger than their parents' or grandparents'.  They have less certainty that their way is the right way.  They want to be politically correct but sometimes it just amounts to wishy-washy.  Kids really do want to know what their parents think and why they think it."

Lets talk about important values for schools to teach:

I asked my respondents: What values do you feel are important to teach in schools?  These are some of the things they said.


"I think everyone in a society has the responsibility to model the virtues that make us all human: trustworthiness, respect, fairness, responsibility, caring, citizenship."  


"Values such as honesty, teamwork, and healthy competition"


"I feel that is important to model and promote values in schools such as respect, tolerance, kindness and honesty."

"Children need to experience values such as respect, responsibility, cooperation/collaboration,kindness, and tolerance in school."

I would agree with all of these folks.  I think that through the use of modeling in the classroom, these values can be taught.  Integrating these values into lessons and daily school life will create a comfortable and safe place in which students can learn.  Necessity is the mother of invention and our students need to be given values that will help them construct a meaningful life.  These sets of values will translate well into society because I believe that they are all things that we expect from each other.  They will allow our students to function and lead a flourishing life beyond the schoolyard.  Although being intentional about modeling behaviors is sometimes hard to fit in, I think that in the long run it will pay off.  Being a part of a classroom climate where certain values and behaviors are taught and expected will not only enrich the students' learning experiences, but also the teacher's ability to convey that learning.  We can go on and on about the various pitfalls of integrating these values into our schools but the fact of the matter is that the presence of these values will enhance our students' learning for school and for life.

Introduction

It is my last semester at Luther College, and man are the powers that be making me think!  My Paideia Capstone class is trying three times a week to make decisions for our U.S. school system.  For this section's response I have decided to invoke the use of technology to help me.  My ultimate question is should schools and teachers be teaching values to our students?  I recently emailed a few of my favorite people to see what they had to say on the topic of values in the schools.  This blog is devoted to those people and the discussion of the value of conveying values in our schools.

My sub-questions (the ones posed to my original contributors) are as follows:
1.  Do teachers and schools have the right or responsibility to convey their values to their students?  
2.  What values do you feel are important to teach in schools?
3.  Are there certain core beliefs of our society, that need to be emphasized in the classroom?
4.  Is there any danger in teaching values to children who come from different home cultures?  Or are certain values universal?