The paper is a philosophical examination of values education. It is presented in three major sections. First, there is a discussion of the role that value education has played in the American educational system. A historical review of four documents published by national educational groups and the government indicates that moral education has been advocated throughout the 20th century and that the American educational community has fairly specific ideas about which values are important. Section two of the paper explores which values ought to be taught in moral education programs. The author observes that values can be taught in contexts other than the schools and that it is virtually impossible to have total consensus among educators, parents, and community members on which values are to be taught. However, for the sake of argument, he accepts the basic values identified in one of the documents summarized in section one. The third section asks what teaching model would be consistent with the values accepted in part two. Analysis of literature by psychologists and philosophers reveals that individual responsibility (and values) cannot be taught--it must be acquired indirectly and through the learner's own experience. Thus, the author concludes that no specific program or teaching model can be specified for values education. Students will best learn values by observing the behavior of ethical people in general. (AV)