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The teaching of values in the classroom is a controversial topic, with the debate
often centered around the question, "Should teachers assume the function of imparting
specific values to students.''" The column below argues that values "education" is
inevitable, i.e., values concerning relationships and information are inherent in
the symbolic structure and procedures of the classroom environment. The author
applies key principles of general semantics to illustrate the problem and its consequences, and to suggest a more productive approach. Itrustyou willfind her remarks
provocative and, as always, I welcome your comments
Jeanne Posner
NANCY JACHIM*
84
EDUCATION
85
socialist, nor communist economies. Economics means capitalism. Capitalism is all that is worth knowing and if mastered, will lead to being educated.
Nor do we present students with opportunity to do science or history or literature. Most classroom time is devoted to teachers' answers rather than fecilitating
students in answering their own questions.^
In summary, the values symbolically communicated through the structure
and content of most classrooms are 1) content is more important than process,
2) content is objective, 3) convergent thinking is preferable to divergent thinking, 4) education is knowing the answers to pre-determined questions, and
5) authority has the answers to these questions.
In conclusion, we can say that the schools as a whole are value-impregnated.
Since values are involved in education not so much as goals or end-products,
but as principles implicit in different ways of proceeding or producing, there
will be a problem in the development of innovations, as distinct from conventional behavior, if we do not begin to extensionalize these values. In addition,
some think that value discussions may become indoctrinating to the students.
If they are, it will not be the discussion per se, but the manner in which the
discussion takes place. If we are to teach values by involving students emotionally and rationally in the lives of individuals and groups locked in struggles
of significant moral consequence, then the schools are a perfect place in which
to do this. However, to do it honestly will mean a radical change in the way
schools fiinction. It will mean a change from the traditional authoritarian mode
where values are transmitted to a non-authoritarian mode where values result
from shared extensional experience.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. J.R. Fraenkel, "Teaching About Values" in Values of the American Heritage: Challenges,
Case Studies and Teaching Strategies, C. tJbbelohde and J.R. Fraenkel, eds. (Washington, D.C: National Council for the Social Studies, 1976), pp. 152-213.
2. John Dewey, Moral Principles in Education (New York: Philosophical Library, 1959).
3. Marvin Harris, Culture, People, Nature, Second Edition (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell,
1975).
4. Fraenkel, "Teaching About Values," op. cit., pp. 152-213.
5. J.M.Rkh, Education and Human f^/ (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1968).
6. Elizabeth M. Eddy, "The Re-organization of Schooling: An Anthropological Challenge,"
in Applied Anthropology in America, E.M. Eddy and W.L. Partridge, eds. (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1978). pp. 326-349.
7. H. Rice, "The Myth ofthe Developmental Lesson" Association of Teachers of Social Studies
ofthe United Federation of Teachers Newsletter, Vol. 6, No. 5 (1986), pp. 4-5;14.
8. Wendell Johnson, "How to Ask a Question," Et cetera, A Review of General Semantics, Vol.
XL, No. 3 (Fall, 1983) pp. 278-285).