Introduction: Family values: planning the family parents

Our value statements are our values curriculum.

We can't teach our children until we know what to teach. We can design our values individually or with other family or classroom members.

However, it is important to have a model of carrying out the design process. Essentially, the designing-of-values process is just a special form of the planning strategy. Often it is called "strategic planning." Therefore, our first task is to seek answers to the first three planning steps. Most find the process and the values that result most enlightening. Clearly specifying our values will change our behavior and how we see ourselves and others, as well as how we interact with others.

1.  IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM

1A.  WHAT IS THE PLANNING PROBLEM?

The answer is to design a set of values, with the design goal of making them clear enough, so the we can see them being followed or not within or during our daily activities: To see that the means used (behavior) and the ends achieved (consequences) are congruent with a set of value statements. That seems simple enough, but it is not simple and not very easy to achieve.

1B.  WHAT PLAN NEEDS CHANGING?

We need some prior value guides. Hopefully, we live in a democracy. Therefore, we must build a value system that fits within that system. Thus, we can usually find a set of documents to guide us. There are the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution of the United States, the Charter of the United Nations, the Preamble of the Constitution of the World Health Organization, and others. In addition, there are fictional documents like Isaac Asimov's principles of robotics and Gene Roddenberry's directives for the Starship Enterprise. All of these sources have something important to say about values as conduct (the behavior that indicates what one values). So, begin to read and reread. Take notes on these Documents of Democracy while dealing with the other planning questions.

1C.  WHY CHANGE THE PLAN?

Each Document represents an inclusive plan that we often call a policy. When something is codified in a community, the community usually publishes a policy document. Each of the above documents offers something. However, authors often don't write from the perspective of the daily life of the family, of the classroom or of the school. For the most part, such authors use large, inclusive words like freedom and equality that are not clearly defined or do not appear to relate to everyday activities.

From another perspective, personal success seems important for the well-being of our immediate families and the larger community. Success often seems to be just as important as such words as freedom and equality. Like a family or school conflict resolution strategy, personal success seems to fit within the more inclusive class called "working together" or "working for the good of the culture." On the other hand, both the doctor and the drug dealer can be well managed and knowledgeable enough to achieve personal success, but the consequences of their behaviors are certainly different for themselves and for society. These differences make the design problem difficult. Nevertheless, just try to keep moving forward because plans evolve in the making; so, just start, don't worry about stumbling around. Move to the next design step.

2.  DESIGN SOLUTIONS

2A.  WHAT CHANGES ARE NEEDED?

Just how could the Documents of Democracy be changed, so that one can see our values at work in any activity? The goal is to see that activity behaviors fit or do not fit what values. To make such seeing possible, we may realize two things. First, it is necessary to look downward from our value statements to our everyday instances of behavior and classify the latter in terms of our values. Second, it is necessary to look upward from our everyday instances of behavior and see the values to which they are connected. With the help of resources like Webster's Third International Dictionary, compile a list of words related to values and conduct. The end result is usually a great many three-by-five study cards of words and their various definitions, as well as synonyms and antonyms. Group them in various ways as you continue to study the Documents of Democracy.

During this period, we may, as I did, realize three things. First, the Documents of Democracy focus primarily on the rights and/or responsibilities of citizens, not both. This seemed significant to me because the model of human behavior that has been presented on this site attempts to balance rights with responsibilities. Remember the following diagram about what teachers do for students.



This approach was used to design the management strategies curriculum and teach it. It was also aimed at solving everyday human management problems, so all parties benefit. This knowledge of human interactions can be put into one statement: