Values...What Are They?

"Values are determined by the beliefs we hold.  They are ideas about what someone or a group thinks is important in life and they play a very important part in our decision-making.  We express our values in the way we think and act."   (p. 1, Values Strategies for Classroom Teachers)

Catholic educators are encouraged to promote these four key values throughout the whole curriculum not just in the key learning area of SOSE.  Students learn that these four values are central to Christianity. 

These values are also reflected in Catholic Education's commitment to:

• affirm students' basic goodness, to promote their dignity, to honor their fundamental rights, and to develop their gifts to the fullest;

• educate students to live responsibly for the fullness of life for self and others;

• convince and mould students to live as if their lives are worthwhile and have historical significance, that their every good effort advances the well-being of all;

• encourage students to see that all of God's creation is essentially good; though we can misuse or abuse it, what God has made and makes is never inherently evil.

Transforming the Curriculum Using the Four Key Values

The introduction of the four key values of SOSE into every key learning area would appear to be desirable within a 'Catholic Curriculum'.  If we have only one key learning area such as SOSE dealing with these key values and all the rest never addressing issues such as social justice and peace, then we are teaching students to isolate these issues from other educational concerns.  Integration of the four key values, and other values, appropriately throughout the curriculum adds to the intrinsic value and interest of all key learning areas. 

"The educational value which rescues all values education from the tendency to relapse into indoctrination is the commitment to build students up in their capacity to reflect critically on the values traditions to which they are heir, and to make informed personal choices."  (p. 51, A Sense of the Sacred)

Values PowerPoint Presentation

Futures PowerPoint Presentation