Educational values: are they in crisis or are they changing?
Before the economic crisis exploded in our mouths and overflowed political and social agendas, we were fully immersed in two other crises. On the one hand, there was the ecological crisis (everything will happen) and on the other hand we had what was rightly called "crisis of values" .
The latter used to be interpreted from the nuance of danger of the word crisis, implying that values run the risk of disappearing, leading to moral anarchy, and the task was to preserve them. However, remember that "crisis" also means "change", and with it also "opportunity", and the next generations could count on moral systems and ethical scales more perfected than ours.
So that... What is happening with educational values? They are evolving in such a vertiginous way that we have not yet realized their transformation, or are in the process of dissolving into nothingness?
- Related article: "The 10 types of values: principles that govern our lives"
Educational values and the generational change
The most important thing is that the prevailing values are not disappearing , but are being relegated to the background or are beginning to coexist with new emerging values. A key agent in this process is the rise of social networks, which allow the expression and transmission of certain values normally repressed by the mass media and that favor a process of globalization that involves the import and export of these values.
Therefore we find many values, all legitimate but many contradictory, which makes the actions and feelings of the same person may not be consistent, leading to cases in which there is a known discomfort in psychology as cognitive dissonance, and making it very complicated to be politically correct in almost any official or social situation.
This being so, it is difficult not to fall into a postmodern relativism that leads us to the conclusion that everyone and no one is right, and beyond, to a moral war in which I can admit to be wrong , but I will fight stubbornly to defend my values, which is why I chose them.
Combat relativism
In extreme cases, the erroneous nature of some values is usually justified by reference to human rights. However, from this relativist perspective, these rights do not cease to be the fruit of a consensus dependent on a specific culture and time , what I would call them arbitrary after all.
That is why from many sectors it is aimed at a solution, and that is that we are lucky to have an entire educational network, with buildings, professionals and politicians fully dedicated to this respect, which gives us an unparalleled opportunity to instill positive values in the young minds that will make up the majority of our population in just 15 or 20 years. We have achieved a content education and we are on the way to getting an education in competitions, it may be time to enter into an education in values.
Should values be taught at school?
Analyzing it from the pragmatic point of view, the function of the school is to guarantee the students all those necessary competences in the society to which they are going to incorporate that are not insured by non-formal educational environments. Taking into account the political and social conflicts of the world in which we live, we would say that values are fundamental and that they are not working like a charm, so, following this logic, yes, it seems that responsibility falls back on the schools.
The million dollar question is: what values do we choose? If we do not want to fall into relativism, we must define what are the optimal values for our society ... Respect, companionship, fraternity ...? I wish it was that easy!
Obviously, we face several problems. On the one hand, values should be defined through behaviors and ideas associated with them, but we can not be sure that those responsible for defining these values do not subject them to certain interests, not to mention that they inculcate predefined values to the malleable juvenile minds it is still an indoctrination whose dangers are evident in the history books. Finally, as we do not control what happens in schools in other states, we remain without being safe from relativism .
However, there is a tool for citizens to respond adaptively to their moral environment without falling into interventionism. Be skeptical of the information provided by interested parties, contrast the same , to consider the reasons that lead other people to take opposite solutions ... That is, to develop critical thinking.
The importance of developing your own criteria
Developing critical thinking in our society is vital to form values without entering into indoctrination, and education is a tool at our disposal of incalculable power. Maybe if we start to follow that path let's stop seeing the crisis of values as a danger , and we may see fewer and fewer conflicts between groups that are separated only by such trivial elements as colors, geographical location ... or flags.
