THE EDITOR, Sir:
I WISH to add my views to the ongoing debate about teaching values and attitudes to our people in the school system. I am aware that character-building begins in those formative years when children are being socialised; and for effect should continue as they grow and develop. Consequently, schools have a vital role to play in helping to inculcate the necessary values which it is hoped will ultimately influence their life-style.
Our secondary schools in particular, and there are increasing numbers of them, must become deliberately involved. I do agree that a well-organised extra-curricular programme can make a significant contribution in this regard, but the formal activities of the schools must also be planned with a view to realising not only academic goals but socially desirable ones as well. A values education programme should be articulated and implemented within the curriculum, and it should address the social and moral needs of the school as a microcosm of the wider society. The objective of such a programme should make students better persons - not necessarily more proficient in their subjects areas (although this may well result from the exercise.)
An additional subject is not being advocated, as the writer is aware that timetables especially in our high schools cannot readily accommodate another formal subject. Instead teachers should examine how each subject might contribute to values education.
R. Pring, an educator, as early as 1984, published a book entitled Personal and Social Education in the Curriculum. In this text he made the point that a good beginning would be to consider what values are implict in a particular subject. In addressing the specific contribution of the sciences, for example, he explains: "Implict in science are certain values that getting at the truth and not distorting the evidence matter, that one's views need to be subjected to the critical scrutiny of others; that reasons and evidence should be given for what one holds to be true; that progress requires co-operation and teamwork; that truth is a common rather than a personal property."
This is an area of values education that merits careful study. If students are helped to see the relevance of subject matter to their lives, they are more likely to learn what is being taught; and at the same time, much of the boredom they experience in the classes would become dissipated.
Despite the limited resources with which Jamaican educational institutions operate today, it is incumbent on educators or curriculum developers to take a fresh look at the formal curriculum, with a view of giving direction to teachers on methods by which social and moral education can be advanced while teaching the academic subjects.
I am, etc.,
MARGARET A. MORRIS
Former High School Principal
and University lecturer
