Recently two contradictory articles appeared the education page of a newspaper--one right above the other.
The first article discussed the teaching of values in schools. Kevin Walsh, an education professor at the University of Alabama, laments the fact that schools teach basic skills but not values.
Characteristics such as dependability, honesty and perseverance, he feels, produce success in life.
He says that with so many single-parent homes and households with both parents working, it has fallen to the schools to take on some of the responsibility of building character through discipline.
The entire school community must make a commitment to practice the values of consideration and concern for others.
He wants a "rules of acceptable behavior" chart in every classroom.
An example of a rule would be forbidding speaking while another child is speaking.
There also would be responsibility charts to make clear to children their assigned tasks like feeding the fish. To develop students' work ethic and sense of community, he had them weed and groom the baseball field.
Sounds great although I think this professor has forgotten that most values are caught and not taught. Children learn by example and emulating the adults around them. It is true that today's children have difficulty learning values and positive character traits in their own homes if they are abused, or live in violent households. If schools plan to take on this role, however, they must be able to provide the role models the children are missing.
The other article on the page raises questions about the fitness of some schools this responsibility.
The title of the second article was: Cheating Scandal Jars a Suburb of High Achievers. Parents of children in an affluent Chicago suburban school district had high expectations of their children.
They wanted them to score above the national average on tests.
The children in one elementary school consistently scored higher than the children in the other schools. It turns out that the principal of that school had been altering the answers for four years. The principal also encouraged the teachers to help the students with the test.
High scores on standardized tests were more important than honesty.
In this school district at least it would be hard to teach the value of honesty to children.
It is difficult for today's children to learn values through the example of adults. There just are not enough examples for them to emulate and learn from. Children watch the news on television and constantly see and hear examples of corruption. The movies they watch are not much better. The model of the adult with positive values and concern for others is the exception not the rule. I am not sure, however, that a program proposed by Professor Walsh is the answer either. In such a situation one would have to be very sure that the children are not disillusioned by adults who give the message: Do as I say, not as I do.
The entire school community must make a commitment to practice the values of consideration and concern for others. Children need to see concrete examples of these behaviors not only between child and child, child and adult but also between adult and adult. Living positive values every day is the best way for children to internalize them so that they become second nature. The kinds of activities the Professor is suggesting are merely practices which make it possible for a group of people to function more comfortably and efficiently together.
Children learn about values, consequences, and concern for others by observing and living them from a very early age with adults they care about and trust. Any time any group of adults either in or out of school gives the opposite message, an unspoken pact with the children has been broken.
Remember our children are watching.
First published in 1992
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