Chapter 21

Values Education

Because man is a rational being, the quest for beauty, goodness and truth is never-ending. He is relentlessly in pursuit of values which he regards with a high degree of importance in so far as they influence his thinking, form his attitudes, shapes his principles and philosophical orientations to qualify his decisions. Values are fundamental and important to an individual’s existence for, in effect, they define what is desirable and meaningful to him as social being.

Values actually guide man’s behavior and action as he relates himself in most situation in life. Every individual has his own personal values that he uses on a great number of decisions he is confronted with as he lives.

Values, as an emotional response exist in everything – whether in people, ideals, customs, institutions, places or ideas. It is referred that no society will ever exist unless some value standards are maintained. The foundations of all human organizations hinge on values that are desirable and useful. Values are essential experience and undertaking.

Values have social functions; e.g., to unite families, tribes and nations. They are essential attributes to the democratic way of life, which puts a high premium on freedom and the rule law. In building a nation, the formation of values among the citizen is essential. Values are vital for productivity and progress, for social justice and stability. All efforts aimed at socio-economic well-being will never be productive if we are wanting for a moral upright citizenry. A nation can only be as strong as its people, and its people can only be as strong as the system of values that they uphold.

Values reflect man’s aspirations for himself, the society he revolves in and the greater environment which he belongs to – the world.

Definition of Value

Value has been defined by various philosophical thinkers. Professor R.B. Perry defines value as the “peculiar relation between any interest and its object; or that special character of an object which consists in the fact that interest is taken in it.” For him, anything becomes valuable when it is the experience known as fulfillment of desire, or satisfaction, or explicitly a judgment regarding an object to the effect that it is capable of serving desire. The object then receives the predicate “valuable” or is said to “have value.”

For Rokeach, value is an “enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end - state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end – state of existence. “He assumed value as enduring because, though it may change, it is “sufficiently stable to provide continuity to personal and social existence.” It is believed that value, as an emotional response , becomes the basis as a means or as an end of action judge as desirable. Value is the quality of anything that renders it the best among a set of theories.

G. E. Moore, an eminent British realist, believed that value is a concept, which cannot be defined. This view is premised on the understanding that value such as beauty and goodness are attributes of human experience.

Spinosa said that, “We do not desire a thing because it is good; it is good because we desire it.” Spinosa leads to the position that riches, fame and sensual pressure are not inherently worthwhile. They are not worth acquiring for their own sakes, but only as means to making human life happier. When these things affect men in desirable ways, they are good; but

when they affect them in undesirable ways, they are bad. He concluded that “There are men who suffered persecution even to death for the sake of their riches, and of men who in pursuit of wealth have exposed themselves to so many dangers that they have paid their lives as a penalty for their folly.”

Other Concepts Related to Value

Ethics. This is the study of human conduct. It is a part of our everyday life. Ethics is the practical science of the morality of human behavior. Human conduct is free, knowing and deliberate human activity. Such activity is either an agreement or disagreement with the dictates of reasons. The relationship of human activity with the dictates of reason is called morality. Ethics studies human activity to determine what stands in harmony with the dictates of reason. Ethics ultimately deals with the morality of human conduct. Etjics is derived from the Greek word ethos, which means “a characteristic way of acting.”

Value Judgment. This concept refers to the appraisal, evaluation or assessment of the desirability and usefulness of objects or things, ideas, situations and places that are considered important. It is an expressed, manifestation of one’s feelings or desires such as approval or disapproval or satisfaction or dissatisfaction, on matters affecting one’s life.

Norm. This is the rational or model of what ought to be; it is a mental guide or pattern by which, ideally, we control and evaluate our action and that of others. A norm or measure; it is something fixed with which we can compare something else whose nature, size or qualities we doubt. Thus, a norm of morality will be a rule, standard or measure by which we can gauge the morality of an act, its goodness or badness. It will be something with which an act must agree to be morally good.

Value System. This concept refers to independent values which are systematically arranged in a hierarchical order and are subject to reciprocal variations. Rokeach said that the value system is an “enduring organization of beliefs concerning preferable modes of conduct or – states of human existence along continuum importance.”

Axiology. This concept deals with the study of values. Some philosophers explain that a thing or experience has value of it fulfills a desire. In education, the question of values is of great importance. The aims of education are determined by the values which society adopts. These aims, in turn, determine the method and the curriculum.

Aesthetics. The concept deals with the study of value in art in relation to the sense of beauty, which elicits the intense feeling of enjoyment and appreciation.

According to Lewis W. Breck and Robert L. Holmes, values may be classified in various ways, such as:

1. Biological Values. These values are inherent aspects of human life as biological facet and these relate to food, drink, sex, health and safety for survival.

2. Economical Values. These values are attached to material things used for exchange for goods and services to satisfy human needs and include, money, personal service, property, tools and equipment.

3. Affective Values. These values are parts of human experiences as a result of particular encounter; e.g., play, sex, excitement, euphoria and delight in food and drink.

4. Social Values. These values are experienced in social interaction, social relationship and social processes and these relate to cooperation,

competition, accommodation, conflict and compromise resulting in friendship, power, prestige and status.

5. Intellectual Values. These values are experienced as a result of curiosity, scientific inquiry and the use of the human mind resulting in knowledge.

6. Aesthetic Values. These values are experienced in marveling and appreciating natural artistic creations in our environment, examples of which our beauty and “good taste,” artistic talent, the sublime and the magnificent.

7. Moral Values. These values are experienced in individual conduct and are characterized by goodness and uprightness.

8. Religious Values. These values are experienced in religious devotion, praise and worship to a Supernatural Being to whom one owes respect and allegiance. Religious values cannot be segregated from man’s life because it is an integral part of existence and experience for it is felt, lived and translated into action.

These values inevitably make human existence more meaningful and worth living.

The Good as Value

The term seems to have its origin in economics, but long before the rise of axiology to various aspects of life. There are applied analogously to various aspect of life. There seems to be no agreement on the definitions of good, but in practice, we are all aware of what value is.

One thing appeals to all us in some way; whereas, something else does not. What appeals may supply a need, satisfy a desire, arouse an interest, estimate an emotion, provoke a response, motivate a deed, or

simply draw an approval. The existence of subjective values – valuations or value judgments, as some prefer to call them – is a matter of experience. We make value judgments, whether these judgments are satisfying or not.

General Characteristic of Values

1. Values are bipolar, with a positive and negative pole: pleasant, painful, easy, difficult, strong, weak, rich, poor, one is preferred; the negative pole is better not called a value at all but a disvalue.

2. Values are not homogenous. This is the reason why the construction of a complete scale of values is very difficult; there are many crosscuts.

3. Values transcend facts, in the sense that nothing ever wholly comes up to our expectations.

Existence of Values

Social and personal values can be subjected. Polls, opinion surveys, popular votes and other forms of opinion – gathering are personal values of individuals and do not necessarily prove that there is an objective basis for the widespread of preference. Many values, like the values of reputation, of academic degrees or of artistic masterpiece are created by human convention.

In line with the existence of values, some questions may be asked: Do values really exist or do they belong to the domain of thought? Do we call a thing valuable because it possesses some real property in it or because we clothe it with a value by our attitude toward it? The subjective philosopher subscribes to the latter view.

How extensive objective values are can be seen from death, we value heath and disvalue sickness, we value poverty, we value intelligence and don’t value stupidity, and value beauty but we don’t value ugliness.

How do we come to recognize these values? The difficulty can be raised that all values are only abstractions and therefore subjective, because they exist only in the mind that conceives them. Most abstractions, however, are not formed arbitrarily and therefore, have their basis or foundation in way things really are. Those who admit a realistic basis to universal ideas will accord the same realism to values, values called objective. Values, like other universals, are drawn from the data of experience that have concrete fulfillment in existing persons, things and actions. It is a fact that we evaluate goods to buy, person to employ, students to rewards, candidates to vote for, and friends to accompany with. We do so because we see some objective qualities in them that make them deserving.

Moral Values

Many values are understood to be those that make a man good purely and simply as a man. They are not external objects, though they may help a man to become the kind of being he ought to be, is is not the man himself but outside his control, such as having good health, or long life, family status and prestige or a bodily beauty, mental acumen, artistic talent or a magnetic personality. These are all values, but no one can command them. Moral values are personal, not only because an individual has them, but also because they are innermost center of his being, as manifested in the act of choice. Moral values, therefore, reside both in the acts man chooses to do and in the results of those acts on the character of the man.

There are certain characteristics of moral values that are distinct from any other value.

1. Moral values can exist only in a free being and his voluntary or human acts. By willingness to be morally good, a man becomes good. It can

happen accidentally. It is done deliberately and intelligently in the sense that the person knows what he is doing.

2. Moral values in universal in the sense that what holds for me holds for all in the same conditions and circumstances. The reason is that it seems the worth of a man as his human being.

3. Moral value has preeminence over other value. We think that a man simply must be true to himself as a man, no matter how much else he might lose in the effort.

4. Moral values implies obligation. Man may disregard all other values; and consequently, we may call him foolish, stupid and ignorant; but we can still retain respect for him as a man; however, not so, if he loses his moral integrity. The absolute good is the ultimate end that ought to be sought because of its supreme value:

It is quite impossible not to form a scale of values in which there is top values or the highest good. In such a scale, moral value claims the highest place.

Values Education in the School System

Values are the basis for judging what attitudes and behavior are correct and desirable and what are not. Values education is, therefore, of crucial importance. There should be an appropriate framework as well as a strategy for providing the context and operational guidelines for implementing a value educational program. The value education is designed to translate values from the abstract into the practical.

Values education, as a part of the school curriculum, is the process by which values are formed in the learner under the guidance of the teacher as he interacts with his environment; but it involves not just any kind of teaching – learning process.

First, the subject matter itself, values, have direct and immediate relevance to the personal life of the learner. Second, the process is not just

cognitive but involves all the faculties of the learner. The teacher must appeal not only to the mind but to the hearts as well, in fact, the total human process. Third, one learns values the way children learn many things from their parents. Children identify with parents and this identification becomes the vehicle for the transmission of learning, be it language or the values of thrift and hardwork.

The Department of Education Values

Education Framework

The Department of Education Values Education Framework aims to provide and promote values education at all levels of the educational system. Its goal is the development of the human person committed to the building of a “just and human society” and an independent and democratic nation.

The objectives are directed towards the proper implementation of the program that will develop Filipinos who:

1. Are self-actualized integrally developed human beings imbued with the sense of human dignity;

2. Are social beings with sense of responsibility for their community and environment;

3. Are productive persons who contribute to the economic security and development of the family and the nation;

4. As citizens, have a deep sense of nationalism, and are committed to the progress of the nation as well as the entire world community through global solidarity; and

5. Manifest, in actual life, an abiding faith in God as a reflection of his spiritual being.

Values education, pursued at the national, regional, local and institutional levels, are guided by the following general principles:

1. It must be oriented toward the total person of the learner – mind, heart and the entire being.

2. It must take into consideration the unique role of the family in one’s personal development and integration into society and the nation.

3. In the school context, more important than lesson plans and listed values are the teachers themselves who have the proper sense of values, awareness of the inner worth, and utmost respect for the person of the other

The overall strategy is to make regions, localities and institutions construct their own values map, with clearly defined priorities suited to their peculiar context and needs.

This DepEd framework should be of help in these tasks. Classroom teachers, syllabi constructors, and curriculum planners may use it to identify which values are to be targeted in specific courses and programs.

The DepEd framework may also serve as a frame of reference in the reformation and revision of operative Filipino values. For instance, against the backround of the framework, “pakikisama” should be seen as something to be prized, but not at the expense of personal integrity; likewise, as a Filipino value, it should be compatible with the much-needed productivity and should even become a bridge to national solidarity. Similarly, “utang na loob,” should have a wider application in society, so that it can propel other values such as concern for the common good and social justice.

Philosophy of the Values Education Program

The human Person

The Values Education Program Framework is based on the rational understanding, philosophy of human person. More specifically, it is grounded

on a grounded understanding of the Filipino as a human being in society and his role in the shaping of society and the environment. It may be reconstructed from the various statements of the Constitution and expressed in the following manner:

The human person is the subject of education; he is a human person learning and being taught. The human person is also the object; the human person is at the center of the curriculum and of the entire program. The task of education is to help Filipinos develop human potential, contribute to the growth of Philippine culture, and by controlling the environment and making use of human and non-human resources, build appropriate structures and institutions for the attainment of a just and humane society.

The human person is multi-dimensional (Figure 6). There is, first of all, the distinction between the person as self and person in the community. In real life, however, there are two distinct and separate aspects: the person as self grows precisely by developing his facilities in contact with the world and others in the community.

The human person is an individual, self-conscious being of incalculable values, who cannot be a mere instrument of the society and of the state. His physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual well-being is recognized by the State.

As a physical being, the human being has material needs. He is equipped with an intellect whose activity is to know, with a view to transforming himself, society and the world. As a moral being, he is endowed with a free will which searches for the good and whose motive force is love. The individual’s personhood is oriented to God from whom he derives his spiritual nature.

The human person does not live in isolation but in community with other persons also endowed with physical, intellectual, moral and spirituals attributes and capacities. The human person is inevitably social.

ECONOMIC

He belongs to a family, the “foundation of the nation,” as well as to a wider and more complex society of men and women. Being social, the human person participates in defining the goals and destinies of the community and in achieving the common good.

He is also economic. Life in a community involves the concerns of livelihood, sufficiency, production and consumption.

Lastly, the human being is political. Like other peoples, Filipinos have constituted themselves into a state-nation to pursue the goal of “social progress” and “total human liberation and development.”

Core Values

On the basis of the forgoing philosophy of the human person, the supreme and overreaching value that characterized education is human dignity; the human person is of infinite value (Figure 7).

As a physical being (made of matter), one must maintain health and harmony with nature.

As a spiritual person (capable of higher concerns and rising above the material), one must cultivate a sense of spirituality in consonance with his nature and respond to God in faith.

MORAL

POLITICAL

SOCIAL

As an intellectual being (gifted with mind the faculty of knowing), one must constantly search for the truth and must seek that which will transform society and the world.

As a moral person (endowed with the faculty of freely choosing and loving), one must go out with others, and in fact, to all humanity, in love.

As social being (living in community), one must cultivate the sense of social responsibility, aware of his unique participation in the pursuit of the welfare of the family and the common good of the larger society, so that society can, in turn, look after the common good and well-being of the inhabitants.

As an economic being (bound to the concerns of the livelihood), one has the obligation to help achieve economic efficiency for the community.

As a political person (member of the nation), one must foster the sense of nationalism and patriotism by which he can identify with the people and join hands with them in the pursuit of common goals. As a member of the world community, one must cultivate a sense of global solidarity because the emerging concerns and problems can no longer be isolated.

Related Values

1. Health implies physical fitness and cleanliness. The physical nature of the human being calls for harmony with the material universe. One perceives his affinity with the world and sees beauty in the forms and shapes of nature and of human artifacts. One develops the appreciation of art and beauty.

2. Truth implies the tireless quest for knowledge in all its forms. Furthermore, it is not enough to discover data and facts, one must develop creative and critical thinking to meet the challenges of the

modern world. The objective is a creative understanding and imagination that will transform the environment , develop a cultural expression of the ideas and highest aspirations of the people, and build structures and institutions in the pursuit of a “just and humane society.”

3. The moral nature of the human being places primacy in the value of love. It also implies the quest for personal integrity and the development of self-worth or self-esteem, honesty, and personal discipline, which are marks of a mature person and a useful citizen.

4. Human love and suffering points to reality beyond one’s experiences. This indicates the dimensions of the Infinite, which religious believers call by the name of God. The response to this transcendent spiritual dimension is the surrender of faith. The cultivation of faith is what is meant spiritually. This calls for the daily growing love, repentance and reconciliation.

5. Social interaction among individuals and groups must be characterized by concern for others and common good, the love of freedom, the democratic principle of equality, and respect for human rights. Recent historical experience underscores the need for popular participation in the determination of social policies, the conduct of public affairs, and the shaping of the nation’s destiny.

Society sets up structures and organization. Justice which should be fostered in the human heart, must be built into social structures where all have an equitable share not only of duties and obligations but also of power, material resources, essential services such as health and education, ownership specially of land, and the other benefits of growth and development. Peace is also the common aspiration of human beings in society; it is likewise, intricately related to justice and freedom. All too often, police force, military might, armed struggled and violence are overvalues in national defense, the redress of wrongs,

the attempt to change unjust social structures and the perennial pursuit of peace.

6. Mastery over the resources of nature and creative imagination in the solution of complex problems. In this regard, the objective of the Filipino today is the attainment of a “self-reliant and independent national economy.” The work ethics is imperative, particularly in the depressed economy. People must produce food, basic commodities, the goods for the survival and well-being of the community.

Table 4. RELATED VALUES

DIMENSIONS VALUES

A PHYSICAL HEALTHS Physical fitness

Cleanliness Harmony with the material

Universe Beauty Art

INTELECTUAL TRUTH Knowledge

S Creative and critical thinkingE MORAL LOVEL Integrity/HonestyF Self-worth/Self-esteem

Personal disciplineSPIRITUAL SPIRITUALITY

Faith in God

SOCIAL SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Family Mutual love/Respect

Fidelity Responsible parenthood

Society Concern for others/Common good