CHAPTER 3: WHY VALUES?
“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are”
(Roy Disney, n.d.)
Introduction
This thesis deals specifically with the teaching of values to our young people and in
doing so it is necessary to comment on a number of questions related to this specific topic.
These questions include: Why values are important? How we have traditionally learnt our
values? and What has been the traditional role of schools in the teaching of values? This
chapter attempts to answer these particular questions and also notes the increased State and
Federal Governments interest and support for schools to play a key role in educating
Australian youth in values. Lastly, reference is also made to concerns about the Harry Potter
series because of its portrayal of certain aspects of society that may encourage the adoption of
unsatisfactory values and beliefs in opposition to established societal values.
The need for values
Values are a necessary part of any society, whether they been selected values that
belong to individuals or small groups, or values that are common to the vast majority of the
populace. While a society may be formed without a shared set of values it will not survive
for any great length of time because of the difficulty in reaching a consensus when major
decisions need to be made. As stated previously, values are “the priorities individuals and
societies attach to certain beliefs, experiences, and objects, in deciding how they shall live and what they shall treasure” (Hill, 1994, p. 7). Values guide us in our choices and in our
behaviour. If we believe that humans are capable of free choice then the choices they make
will be governed by their personal values.
We need values so that we are able to have some consistency in our behaviour and
expect some consistency in the behaviour of others. Without this consistency societies would
be unable to function because people would not be able to live with each other in stable
relationships. Furthermore, society would be unable to create long-term laws because for
laws to remain effective they need to be recognised by the majority of citizens as accurately
reflecting their wishes on what is acceptable behaviour. To a large degree there would be
anarchy because one person would be unable to trust another to complete a task whether it be
to provide them with an accurate diagnosis of their illness or complete the building of their
house. There would be no bonding of society members, no glue holding them together, so
there would be no society (Halstead, 1996, p. 7). In reality our values are an essential
defining factor in who we are and where we belong. In reality the values we exhibit through
our behaviour are one of the key ways in which people judge us.
How we develop values and what influences them
Individuals develop their set of personal values from their experience with external
values. This experience may come through their relatives, their friends, acquaintances,
teachers, different aspects of the society they live in, mass media, books they read, films they
view, a religion they become involved with, unpleasant experiences they may be involved
with and so on. By experiencing and observing these values people then choose their own set
of values. During their early years these values will change as children grow into adulthood
and their perceptions change. In adult life most people have settled on a set of personal values that change little for the rest of their lives. If a person changes their set of personal values
dramatically after they enter adulthood it is usually because they have undertaken some lifechanging
event.
Stories offer experiences of values, both negative and positive, without the reader
personally undertaking real-life experiences in these values. A person can experience the
effects of the persecution of the Jewish people by the followers of Nazism through the stories
of Jewish people who have written about these events. While a reader only receives a limited
perspective that is often enough of an experience to affect a person’s set of personal values.
In this way the Harry Potter series provides experiences of both negative and positive values
that, while set in an imaginary world, allow a reader to reflect on their own set of values. A
reader can experience the pain of Harry growing up without parents because of their death
due to the violence of another wizard seeking power. One can experience the embarrassment
of Ron Weasley due to the teasing of others because of his family’s poor economic situation.
This is exemplified when Malfoy and his companions discover Ron’s ancient dress robes,
‘Look at this!’ said Malfoy in ecstasy, holding up Ron’s robes and showing
Crabbe and Goyle. ‘Weasley, you weren’t thinking of wearing these, were you? I
mean – they were very fashionable in about 1890 …’
‘Eat dung, Malfoy!’ said Ron, the same colour as the dress robes as he snatched
them back out of Malfoy’s grip” (GoF, p. 150).
All stories that involve the depiction of people experiencing values provide the chance for
readers to experience the effect of those values without leaving the safety of their own
environment.
Education and values
As children are involved in educational institutions for a large part of their lives then
what occurs in those educational institutions will influence children’s values. Educational
institutions have commonly been viewed as containing a moral component (Straughan, 1988,
p.12). Through the daily interactions between teachers and students teachers are “seen to
support certain values by their encouragement or disencouragement of certain forms of
behaviour” (Straughan, p. 13). “More formally, the school, as an institution will, again
inevitably, underline certain values rather than others as a result of the particular style of
discipline it maintains and the rules which it enforces” (Straughan, p. 13). The school will
transmit values that they may not be aware of, part of a “hidden curriculum” (Straughan, p.
14). Catholic schools have, as a central aim, the transmission of values: “The Catholic school,
far more than any other, must be a community whose aim is the transmission of values for
living. “ (The Catholic school, 1977, p. 41)
This thesis deals specifically with the explicit, conscious attempts by schools to
transmit values and other critics, besides Roger Straughan (1988), also recognise this
relationship between schools and the transmission of values whether openly or through the
hidden curriculum (Halstead, 1996, pp. 3-4). In looking at the current teaching of values in
schools it is necessary to have some understanding of the history of Values Education in
Australian schools.
Australian schools’ history of Values Education
In the history of Australian schooling different approaches have been taken regarding
the education of students in values. In the 1860s to 1880s, both the religious schools and the state-funded schools of Australia saw that education involved more than achieving goals in
literacy and numeracy. Mary MacKillop’s Josephite schools, that began to be established in
the 1860’s, placed importance on educating students in Christian values because they were
Catholic school but even the charters of secular schools established in the 1870s and 1880s
stated that Values Education was a central aim of formal education because it was able to
assure “personal morality for each individual and a suitable citizenry for the soon to be new
nation” (Lovat, 2005b, ¶ 3). In the majority of the 1900’s Values Education was not seen as a
key outcome in secular educational facilities but there was certainly Values Education being
undertaken in both implicit and explicit ways. These values were seen as being an essential
part of the Australian culture and were generally centred on Christian-based, European/
Mediterranean values because the majority of Australia’s population had cultural ties to these
areas (Hill, 2004, p. 3). Many non-government schools, particularly those established by the
Catholic and Protestant Churches saw Values Education as a key part of their educational
mission. These values were of course Christian-based due to the religious affiliations of the
Churches involved.
With the cultural changes that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s many of these
communal values came under challenge. As Hill (2004) states, factors such as the advent of
global television, youth anger over the Vietnam War, and easy access to the birth control pill
helped cause changes in traditional values. Consumerism increased in 1980s and people
sought to satisfy their desires rather than communal ones. However, there was also a push for
rights for women and oppressed minorities (p. 3). Australia started to take immigrants from
other areas of the globe as the so-called “White Australia Policy” dissolved. Competing value
systems arrived with migrants who came from cultures that were not the traditional source of
Australia’s population. In the 1980s the Australian education system reacted to these cultural
changes.
“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are”
(Roy Disney, n.d.)
Introduction
This thesis deals specifically with the teaching of values to our young people and in
doing so it is necessary to comment on a number of questions related to this specific topic.
These questions include: Why values are important? How we have traditionally learnt our
values? and What has been the traditional role of schools in the teaching of values? This
chapter attempts to answer these particular questions and also notes the increased State and
Federal Governments interest and support for schools to play a key role in educating
Australian youth in values. Lastly, reference is also made to concerns about the Harry Potter
series because of its portrayal of certain aspects of society that may encourage the adoption of
unsatisfactory values and beliefs in opposition to established societal values.
The need for values
Values are a necessary part of any society, whether they been selected values that
belong to individuals or small groups, or values that are common to the vast majority of the
populace. While a society may be formed without a shared set of values it will not survive
for any great length of time because of the difficulty in reaching a consensus when major
decisions need to be made. As stated previously, values are “the priorities individuals and
societies attach to certain beliefs, experiences, and objects, in deciding how they shall live and what they shall treasure” (Hill, 1994, p. 7). Values guide us in our choices and in our
behaviour. If we believe that humans are capable of free choice then the choices they make
will be governed by their personal values.
We need values so that we are able to have some consistency in our behaviour and
expect some consistency in the behaviour of others. Without this consistency societies would
be unable to function because people would not be able to live with each other in stable
relationships. Furthermore, society would be unable to create long-term laws because for
laws to remain effective they need to be recognised by the majority of citizens as accurately
reflecting their wishes on what is acceptable behaviour. To a large degree there would be
anarchy because one person would be unable to trust another to complete a task whether it be
to provide them with an accurate diagnosis of their illness or complete the building of their
house. There would be no bonding of society members, no glue holding them together, so
there would be no society (Halstead, 1996, p. 7). In reality our values are an essential
defining factor in who we are and where we belong. In reality the values we exhibit through
our behaviour are one of the key ways in which people judge us.
How we develop values and what influences them
Individuals develop their set of personal values from their experience with external
values. This experience may come through their relatives, their friends, acquaintances,
teachers, different aspects of the society they live in, mass media, books they read, films they
view, a religion they become involved with, unpleasant experiences they may be involved
with and so on. By experiencing and observing these values people then choose their own set
of values. During their early years these values will change as children grow into adulthood
and their perceptions change. In adult life most people have settled on a set of personal values that change little for the rest of their lives. If a person changes their set of personal values
dramatically after they enter adulthood it is usually because they have undertaken some lifechanging
event.
Stories offer experiences of values, both negative and positive, without the reader
personally undertaking real-life experiences in these values. A person can experience the
effects of the persecution of the Jewish people by the followers of Nazism through the stories
of Jewish people who have written about these events. While a reader only receives a limited
perspective that is often enough of an experience to affect a person’s set of personal values.
In this way the Harry Potter series provides experiences of both negative and positive values
that, while set in an imaginary world, allow a reader to reflect on their own set of values. A
reader can experience the pain of Harry growing up without parents because of their death
due to the violence of another wizard seeking power. One can experience the embarrassment
of Ron Weasley due to the teasing of others because of his family’s poor economic situation.
This is exemplified when Malfoy and his companions discover Ron’s ancient dress robes,
‘Look at this!’ said Malfoy in ecstasy, holding up Ron’s robes and showing
Crabbe and Goyle. ‘Weasley, you weren’t thinking of wearing these, were you? I
mean – they were very fashionable in about 1890 …’
‘Eat dung, Malfoy!’ said Ron, the same colour as the dress robes as he snatched
them back out of Malfoy’s grip” (GoF, p. 150).
All stories that involve the depiction of people experiencing values provide the chance for
readers to experience the effect of those values without leaving the safety of their own
environment.
Education and values
As children are involved in educational institutions for a large part of their lives then
what occurs in those educational institutions will influence children’s values. Educational
institutions have commonly been viewed as containing a moral component (Straughan, 1988,
p.12). Through the daily interactions between teachers and students teachers are “seen to
support certain values by their encouragement or disencouragement of certain forms of
behaviour” (Straughan, p. 13). “More formally, the school, as an institution will, again
inevitably, underline certain values rather than others as a result of the particular style of
discipline it maintains and the rules which it enforces” (Straughan, p. 13). The school will
transmit values that they may not be aware of, part of a “hidden curriculum” (Straughan, p.
14). Catholic schools have, as a central aim, the transmission of values: “The Catholic school,
far more than any other, must be a community whose aim is the transmission of values for
living. “ (The Catholic school, 1977, p. 41)
This thesis deals specifically with the explicit, conscious attempts by schools to
transmit values and other critics, besides Roger Straughan (1988), also recognise this
relationship between schools and the transmission of values whether openly or through the
hidden curriculum (Halstead, 1996, pp. 3-4). In looking at the current teaching of values in
schools it is necessary to have some understanding of the history of Values Education in
Australian schools.
Australian schools’ history of Values Education
In the history of Australian schooling different approaches have been taken regarding
the education of students in values. In the 1860s to 1880s, both the religious schools and the state-funded schools of Australia saw that education involved more than achieving goals in
literacy and numeracy. Mary MacKillop’s Josephite schools, that began to be established in
the 1860’s, placed importance on educating students in Christian values because they were
Catholic school but even the charters of secular schools established in the 1870s and 1880s
stated that Values Education was a central aim of formal education because it was able to
assure “personal morality for each individual and a suitable citizenry for the soon to be new
nation” (Lovat, 2005b, ¶ 3). In the majority of the 1900’s Values Education was not seen as a
key outcome in secular educational facilities but there was certainly Values Education being
undertaken in both implicit and explicit ways. These values were seen as being an essential
part of the Australian culture and were generally centred on Christian-based, European/
Mediterranean values because the majority of Australia’s population had cultural ties to these
areas (Hill, 2004, p. 3). Many non-government schools, particularly those established by the
Catholic and Protestant Churches saw Values Education as a key part of their educational
mission. These values were of course Christian-based due to the religious affiliations of the
Churches involved.
With the cultural changes that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s many of these
communal values came under challenge. As Hill (2004) states, factors such as the advent of
global television, youth anger over the Vietnam War, and easy access to the birth control pill
helped cause changes in traditional values. Consumerism increased in 1980s and people
sought to satisfy their desires rather than communal ones. However, there was also a push for
rights for women and oppressed minorities (p. 3). Australia started to take immigrants from
other areas of the globe as the so-called “White Australia Policy” dissolved. Competing value
systems arrived with migrants who came from cultures that were not the traditional source of
Australia’s population. In the 1980s the Australian education system reacted to these cultural
changes.
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