By BRONWYN SELL
Look beyond the academics, teachers and parents debating whether schools should teach children values and you will find a young girl waiting patiently with her hand up.
"As a child being affected, I think that my opinion is important," says 11-year-old Regan Nathan, of Blockhouse Bay Intermediate.
Regan and her classmates think the debate about whether schools should make a concerted effort to teach children to be good people as well as good students is too important to be left to adults.
"In my class we were reading your paper about values and doing some work on them," 11-year-old Nancy Lan wrote in an email to the Herald.
"I think values should be taught at school because there are a lot of kids who are waiting to be taught so they can have a happy life."
Teacher Trish Loomans said the values education debate had caught the children's attention and they felt strongly that their views should be heard alongside those of the professors and school principals.
Like the adults, the children are divided on whether it is the school's role to teach values.
"Shouldn't our parents be telling us to use pleases and thank yous?" said David Chau, aged 11.
"In the class we always have a fully planned day. If this system of teaching values is brought in, where are we going to fit it in?"
Many said the responsibility should be shared between the school, parents and community.
"It's not any use if the child gets home and gets taught bad things, and they fight all the time and swear at each other. Then the child would most likely copy these things," said Azin Emami, aged 11.
Zion Gutnik, aged 10, said children sometimes needed to be smacked if they were behaving badly so they knew it was unacceptable.
"I think values should be taught to children when they're toddlers, because when they're teenagers it will be a bit too late."
Grace Edwards, aged 11, said it was important for adults to set a good example. "People take more notice of what you do than what you say."
Emily Forbes, aged 11, thought that "values education should be taught in all schools nationwide."
* Herald education email contacts: bronwyn_sell@herald.co.nz, theresa_garner@herald.co.nz.
Pupils add weight to debate
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