In this section
- Developing Values Schematic - the LVE Method
- Values-based Atmosphere
- Components of Living Values Activities Units
- Bringing in the Values of Your Culture
- Incorporating Values into the Existing Curriculum
Teaching Values
The choices of young people are critically important, not only for their own happiness and well-being at this vulnerable time in their lives, but also for their future. If they are to resist the powerful messages of negativity ubiquitous in our society and on social media, and move toward a love for values and positive socially-conscious choices, they need positive role models and the opportunity to cognitively discern the difference between the impact of values and anti-values on their lives, the community and the world.
LVE activities are designed to motivate students, and to involve them in thinking about themselves, others, the world in relevant ways. The activities are designed to evoke the experience of values within, and build inner resources. They are designed to empower, and to elicit their potential, creativity and inner gifts. Students are asked to reflect, imagine, dialogue, communicate, create, write about, artistically express and play with values. In the process, personal social and emotional skills develop as well as positive, constructive social skills. This is done most effectively when there is a values-based atmosphere and when teachers are passionate about values.
The Living Values Activities resource books are arranged to present a series of skills that build sequentially. However, it is important for educators to integrate values throughout the curriculum; each subject opens a window to view the self and values in relation to the world.
Three Core Assumptions
LVE resource materials are built on three assumptions. The first assumption is drawn from a tenet in the Preamble of the United Nations' Charter, "To reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person ...."
-
Universal values teach respect and dignity for each and every person. Learning to enjoy those values promotes well-being for individuals and thelarger society.
-
Each student does care about values and has the capacity to positivelycreate and learn when provided with opportunities.
-
Students thrive in a values-based atmosphere in a positive, safeenvironment of mutual respect and care - where students are regarded ascapable of learning to make socially conscious choices.