Teaching values returns to our schools

By THERESA GARNER and BRONWYN SELL

New Zealand children are in danger of growing up morally bankrupt unless schools take a stronger role in developing the character of children, experts say.

Worldwide, the movement towards "values education" is gaining momentum because of the belief that schools should not just help students get an education and qualifications, but help them develop a code for living.

Many New Zealand schools run their own values projects, and a number of values-education groups are operating independently, all with different ideas on how values should be taught.

Some believe there are core ethical values - like honesty, responsibility and respect - central to all cultures, while others think communities should come up with their own values. There is also conflict over how values should be passed on to children.

The country's education standards watchdog, the Education Review Office, says it is vital that schools have their role clarified.

Its chief, Dr Judith Aitken, says that nationally, and in many of the country's homes, there is no clear understanding of what is appropriate behaviour.

"We are at a point, particularly if we compare New Zealand with other countries, where we have exposed ourselves to the risk of moral bankruptcy."

Today, the Herald launches a series of articles on values education, a subject social scientist Dr Alan Webster calls a "minefield." But he says it is imperative to have the debate.

"Character education is so important, with the extreme complexity of our society today. The biggest danger is that we won't do it well enough.

"We are talking about the idea that people have to get some substance to their personal identity."

Massey University Emeritus Professor Ivan Snook said that in the 1970s, attempts to get schools to teach values were denounced on the grounds that it wasn't the school's job.

"Having had quite a few years of that kind of mentality, these very groups seem now very worried about the way the kids are turning out."

Unesco has complained that internationally, "worthy declarations and formal commitments" have failed to make a real impact on teacher training, curriculum, and classroom practice.

Brother Patrick Lynch, the director of the Catholic Education Office and a spokesman for Unesco in New Zealand, pointed to appalling crimes like the murders of Beverly Bouma in Reporoa, and Constable Murray Stretch in Mangakino.

"It is too easy to sit on our hands and bemoan these appalling incidents and to talk loosely about bringing back the cat o' nine tails or putting violators in a hole and putting the lid on."

Brother Lynch said the issue of values education could no longer be dodged.

"Many of our schools are facing an uphill battle with valueless, nihilistic kids, whose parents all too often flow with the tide."

Dr Webster, who heads the New Zealand Study of Values project, said that for the past 20 years, society had taught young people that their main concern should be for their own interests.

Adolescents were at the point in their lives when they were experimenting and criticising given values, and "trying on" new identities like sets of clothes.

"If in the context of that, they are in a society that doesn't give them any clear guidelines, it does seem to be a pretty dangerous situation."