I concluded that while ideally students do learn their core set of values at home, we as educators are obligated to teach them some very important values as well. As educators, we are responsible for using our classrooms to create environments that model positive value systems. These core values in our classroom communities can include kindness, responsibility, honesty, empathy, compassion, self-discipline, open-mindedness, patience, the willingness to compromise and the ability to accept diversity. Teaching these values will help our students who all come from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds learn to interact in a more harmonious manner both inside and outside of the classroom.
Many might argue that it isn’t the responsibility of educators to teach moral values to students, but isn’t that what educators have been doing since the beginning of time? My earliest memories from my kindergarten class were learning to be kind, share and always speak the way you would like to be spoken to. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best in “the Purpose of Education,” his 1947 paper: “We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
What that means is while the ultimate goal of educators is to nourish the minds of young children, we are also responsible for equipping them for society, which starts with teaching and enforcing positive value systems in our classroom communities. It starts at home but it finishes with us.
Grand Canyon University’s College of Education prepares students to teach from a foundation of learning, leading and serving. Learn more by visiting our website or contacting us using the Request More Information button.
References:
- King Jr., Martin Luther. (1947). “The Purpose of Education.” Retrieved from: drmartinlutherkingjr.com/thepurposeofeducation.htm
More About Anastasia:
Anastasia Smith is a junior at Grand Canyon University, currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education. Looking to the future, she passionately aspired to teach for Arizona Head Start where she is currently serving as the 2017-18 chairwoman of the Parent Policy Board. she is an avid reader who just finished “Who Fears Death” by Nnedi Okorafor. She also enjoys TED Talks, mediation, and reading to her son’s preschool class. In her spare time, you can find her blogging at “Walking in My Purpose, Through Time and Space,” where she blogs about life as a domestic engineer and finding herself professionally. Anastasia is a native Arizonian who is excited to use her voice for underrepresented minorities both in the classroom and outside because everyone needs an educational advocate.
