Is school responsible for teaching children to understand and practice basic human values? Values like honesty, personal integrity, respect for others, and civility; you can add or subtract what you believe are basic values. Isn’t this the role of a child’s parents? Of the child’s church leaders? Traditionally, it was, but in the absence of these values-teachers we are left with this: if not at school, then where will children learn and practice basic human values?
Teachers I talk with, ask “Is the teaching of values really a part of my teaching assignment?” My answer is “Yes.” A standard curricular assignment entails the instruction of content knowledge, skills necessary to acquire and understand content knowledge, problem-solving skills for using knowledge, and skills to reach supported conclusions, and, here it is, the personal dispositions necessary to be a successful learner and user of the curriculum. Personal dispositions are laced with basic human values.
We all expect children in school to demonstrate a set of educational and social values. I will use the word “expect” in this context. An expectation begins with the teacher describing the positive characteristics of what a child should do and be. “Keep your hands to yourself. While listening to this story, don’t grab or hand-play with others.” “Look at your classmates when they are talking. Listen quietly. If you want to add to what they say or ask a question, raise your hand.” “When doing these math problems, please do your own work. Don’t copy down what your classmate is writing.” Teachers explain what children should do and then expect children to do it.
In PK and primary grades, teachers demonstrate expectations. They model sitting attentively, raising hands, and engaging in the assignment without distracting others. In intermediate grades teachers use verbal reminders. In secondary grades, teachers expect these behaviors.
Daily instruction is subliminally loaded with values. We expect children to be honest without writing the word “honest” in the specific lesson plan. Children will submit their own work; they will not cheat. Children will speak honestly; they will not lie. Children will use and maintain their own learning materials; they will not steal from other children. It is hard to imagine a classroom without honesty.
We expect children to act with integrity, at least an integrity corresponding to their age. We understand that Kindergarten children are five years old and when confronted with responsibility may want to squirm and lay blame for their shortcomings onto others. However, we consistently confront children with expectations that each child owns their personal behaviors with praise for appropriate acts and corrections for inappropriate acts. It is hard to imagine a classroom without personal student integrity.
And, the list of basic school values grows as children are involved in school athletics, activities and arts programs. Sportsmanship, being part of a team or troupe, accepting critical review, and putting personal performances on display all require children to exercise value systems. Discussion, modeling, and expectation of these are part and parcel to a school’s extensive curricula.
Outside the classroom, teachers help children to learn and practice civil behavior in the hallways, rest rooms, cafeteria and playground. Many children and naturally competitive while others are submissive. In order for all to participate positively in playground games, we teach children how to play “fairly”, how to stand in lunch lines and wait to be served, and how to walk in a crowd in the hallways.
To support school and academic values, we develop and enforce policies with penalties for serious infractions. Fight, steal or bring or use specified contraband at school and you will be disciplined. Plagiarize or hide notes for a test in your pocket and you will be penalized. If we did not teach, practice and expect these values to guide students, we should not enforce punitive policies when the values are violated.
One of the relevant 21st century skill sets school teach is that children will learn to work together and demonstrate the values of cooperation and collaboration. We teach children the roles necessary for good group work and the skill sets of each role. We teach children how these roles interact, the value of each person’s contribution to the group, and the way that consensus-building creates results that the group can support. Group work is all about basic human values. Political and business leaders expect that school graduates are well versed in these values.
At the end of a conversation with teachers about these school-based dispositions, I often ask and say, “Does your well-run classroom happen by accident? No. Children are successful learners because you and your colleagues taught each child how to act as a learner so that he or she can succeed as a learner. You are a teacher of values.”