A Critical Analysis of Values Clarification

All rights reserved. This document may be printed or stored on computer media, on the condition that it will not be republished in print, on-line (including reposting on any personal Web sites, corporate Web sites, organizational Web sites, electronic bulletin boards, etc.), or on computer media, and will not be used for any commercial purposes. Further, it must be copied with source statements (publisher, author, title, bibliographic references, etc.), and must include this paragraph granting limited rights for copying and reproduction, along with the name and address of the publisher and owner of these rights, as listed below. Except for those exclusions mentioned above, and brief quotations in articles or critical reviews, or distribution for educational purposes (including students in classes), no part of this document may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. The subject of value(s) has been and continues to be, a crucial subject of philosophical inquiry. Although there are various aspects of value that could be considered as a topic of philosophical investigation , this paper is concerned primarily with the transmission of moral values (i.e., the process by which one person or group is led to embrace the moral values of another person or group) as a fundamental part of the moral development (with particular emphasis given to some current ideas relative to the moral development of the child). Traditionally, the transmission of values has taken place in the context of institutions such as the family, the church, and the school. The basic issue I will examine here is the primary role of one of these institutions in moral development—the school. Specifically, this treatise will critically analyze one particular approach to moral education employed by certain schools—namely, the values clarification approach as espoused by such men as Louis Raths, Merrill Harmin, Sidney Simon, et al. In my analysis, I will show the inadequacy of the values clarification approach as a means employed to enable a child to develop morally. This paper will not concern itself with an investigation of what (i.e., the various techniques) is being done on the practical level to teach values clarification. Rather, it is a philosophical enterprise that limits itself to an investigation of the philosophical aspects and implications of the values clarification approach. First, I plan to provide a critical analysis of values by making some general remarks relative to moral education. Second, I will give a …