How Do They Teach/Instill Values At Your Child's School?

[fionas]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately for a number of reasons. Partly because of my experiences with 17-year-old DSD who seems to have a tenuous grasp on right and wrong which also made me reminisce about my own childhood and the values that I have.

I would say that my parents, without necessarily articulating them have very decent values which were reinforced by my school and the community I grew up in.

What I particularly remember about my primary school is the teachings in assembly with the headmaster banging on almost relentlessly about things like two wrongs not making a right, treat other people as you would like to be treated yourself etc. etc. So essentially Christian values I suppose you would say.

This is waffling a bit but, not having grown up in Australia, I'm not sure how schools instill values these days. Presumably state schools don't read from the Bible because that would be deemed too religious?

I'm not particularly keen on sending either DD to a religious school as I'm agnostic. Not sure there is a God BUT I would very much like their schooling to reinforce what I plan to instill in them at home.

So getting back to the title of the thread, how does your child's school teach/instill values?

[Trillian]

Public schools will not instill religious values (and rightly so too I might add) - there are class rules of course though (only speaking from the perspective of the school I went to myself and my own kids' school). But all rules/morals are essentially derived from bible teachings/common sense anyway. In the classrooms they have signs up that say what is and isn't acceptable and when they start school they are drummed into them and referred back to if they break any of them.

[Tinks]

My kids go to a public school and are taught values. Every week they have a value of the week. During the week they are taught about the value, if they display the value during that week their name goes into a hat and a number of names are called out at assemlby.

Religious values are taught to them in RE and by the church they attend.

[fionas]

That's interesting Tinks - what sort of values - I'm thinking honesty, that sort of thing?

[Indadhanu]

I've never encountered a school that doesn't follow a code of conduct or try to instill 'values' into the students... honesty, respect, embracing differences, modesty (not physical modesty, but things like gracious winning etc), treat others how you want to be treated (ie. The Golden Rule) etc. I don't think they're specifically 'Christian', although they are values Christian's ... er, value ... and embrace. But then most religions are based on those kinds of values. Even most non-religious people try to live life like that... Anyway, let's not go into religions. Wrong section hey

Schools definitely do not read from the Bible, nor from other religious texts, unless it's in an educational/historical perspective on what each religion believes (or parents have consented to children participating in 'Religious Instruction', which is usually Christian Religious Instruction, but again I digress ). I would try to search out a school and have a read of their Code of Conduct or their Mission Statement or other documents that might have the values, and ask them HOW they do this. The best schools aim to explain the values to students using appropriate relevant 'stories' (I guess) and also lead by example, and not just instruct students to uphold values. In a religious school, stories could be bible stories or scriptures, for example, or just general feel-good stories. Well, from a child care perspective (0-6 years), this is what we try to do (stories, not religious stories!). Not so explicitly, but just weave it in there with things that happen (ie. Oh, Johny feels sad. He might be feeling sad because he asked you to stop taking his toy and you kept doing it. That's not listening and respecting him is it? Maybe you could ask for a turn instead of taking it? Oh wow, that's a nice way to ask for a turn. Johny might share with you once he is finished playing.)

Hope this helps.

[smiles4u]

Fiona i have the same concerns on finding the values i hold dearly and hope to find the 'right' primary school for DD !!

(a little horrifing story here ; this past Monday i walked past the primary school that is on the next block to our home to go get my DD from Kinder in the next street, the primary school kids were out and to my disgust i had not one but four approx 10years old boys screaming out to me " Hey you b**** i can see your t*** through your top, are you some f****** s*** or are you a f****** h***** " ... and to think it was said with some kind of hatred in their voices, like there wasn't any humour in it for them. I was going to go straight to the principle's office after i picked up DD from Kinder but to my disappointment when i walked back there was not a kid in sight. Couldn't see the point if i didn't have the boys in question)

i will be subscribing to this thread !!!