Values-Teaching in Public Schools
Values-Teaching in Public Education
NORMAN W WILSON, PHD
Heresy you say? Wasn’t one of the reasons for public education— besides getting the kids out of the factories so adults could have the jobs—the fostering of the values of the culture? To perpetuate the values of the society? No way, you say. Oh, but I do! Schools are a public responsibility, owned by the public, for the public good, but do they have the right to teach a predetermined set of values? I believe teachers have a professional obligation to do just that.
Several years ago when I was teaching a class in ninth grade English I had assigned William Saroyan’s wonderful short story, “The Parsley Garden.” Briefly, the story was about a boy who stole an item from a store and was caught. The question I asked my class was “Was the boy a thief?” Fifteen of the 25 students felt he was not a thief and the boy should not have been forced to sit in the manager’s office for long fifteen minutes; something my students felt humiliating for the boy to endure.
- I next asked why they thought he was not a thief. These students reasoned that he was not a thief because he was not over sixteen years old and the item he stole was not of any great value. I directed the discussion around what constituted thievery. Many felt if an item taken was worth twenty five dollars or more it would be thievery. The memory of that lingers today and I wonder if teachers ‘dare’ to teach values in today’s society which is shifting faster than the desert sands. Today’s children are not just stealing; they are selling drugs, robbing people, involved in prostitution, raping and killing one another. Are there not a set a values, no matter the political or religious or racial views that transcend? I believe there are.
Some of these values are inculcated in our laws. Obvious ones such as you don’t kill people, you don’t rob people, you don’t assault people. Others that certainly transcend the political, the religious, and racial motif include respect for others, withhold judgment until the facts are known, fairness, and self-worth. Certainly these are well within the purview of the teacher.
Even though sex, abortion, gay/lesbian issues, assisted suicide, inter-racial marriage, religious and or political beliefs are viable issues in shifting the sands of the national conscience, they may be better dealt with elsewhere. The values I have proposed are more fundamental to human existence.
Are teachers only to be responsible for subject content? For the disbursement of predetermined sets of facts? Some people will say it is the responsibility of the parent to inculcate a sense of values. There certainly is no question that the parental input is significant, but who has that child six or more hours a day in a structured learning climate? The teacher! With the advent of multiple after-school activities for students that time element increases. Schools have extended their day and some are considering extending the school year.
I am an author and co-author of college texts in the humanities. I have three speculative fiction novels published and numerous articles at Ezines. With forty years in education, Dr. Wilson believes there is room for teaching values in the public classrooms of America. Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/k-12-education-articles/valuesteaching-in-public-schools-1653334.html
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