ERIC Number: ED280166
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1987-Feb-21
Pages: 14
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Does Values Education Belong in the Curriculum?
Hornbeck, David W.
This report recommends ways to integrate values education into schools' curricula. Societal problems indicate that values play as important a role in students' development as math and science, as suggested by statistics on increasing teenage suicide, pregnancies, and dropping out. While it is important to ensure that at-risk students become critically thinking young people that is not enough, nor is it enough to collect credits and occupational degrees without the values that make for a caring society. However, traditional means of values transmission--church, family, school--have altered in function; for example, of children born in 1983, 60 percent will live in a one-parent home by age 18. Schools, often captured by academic achievement goals, exclude factors contributing to young people's character. Three approaches might be considered in determining how to teach values. (1) Classroom/curriculum approaches infuse values throughout curricula, courses, or classroom discussions. (2) The school examines its actions to ascertain what contributes to or detracts from selected values; for example, curriculum development should consider women's and minorities' roles, staff development, and the school-home relationship. (3) A strong community service program may be the most important component of a quality values education program because people learn best by doing; such a program requires adequate supervision and a seminar and/or writing component. This fundamental program is recommended as a graduation requirement because it fulfills the need for belonging and because a good community program can develop a sense of responsibility beyond the self. (CJH)
Descriptors: Administrator Responsibility, Citizenship Education, Curriculum Development, Curriculum Evaluation, Educational Change, Elementary Secondary Education, Evaluative Thinking, Family School Relationship, Improvement Programs, School Community Programs, School Community Relationship, School Responsibility, Staff Development, Student Characteristics, Student Development, Student Needs, Student School Relationship, Values Education
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Practitioners; Policymakers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of School Administrators (New Orleans, LA, February 20-23, 1987).