How Do Parents & Teachers Impart Values & Ethics?

Although values and ethics are often paired together, they have different definitions and can impact children in different ways. People use values to determine what is right; think of them as standards to help decide the correct actions, according to Navran Associates Organizational Ethics and Leadership. Values might include honesty, courage or fairness. Ethics refers to choosing to take actions that reflect your values ̵1; that is why ethical dilemmas ask people to choose between conflicting values. In many cases, children learn about both values and ethics from parents and teachers. Teachers and parents might not be imparting the same values and ethics, however.

  1. Parental Values

    • Parents begin teaching values to their children starting at birth, beginning a process that can continue into adulthood, according to Kansas State University. Families have inherent values that will be passed onto their children early on. Value systems can include positive and negative factors; for example, parents might teach that honesty is good and that deception is bad. Because American families often value independence and autonomy, parents might impart explicit or modeled lessons to help children understand the importance of personal resilience and problem solving. Lessons about values can be confusing to children when parents teach values that they do not personally embody. Parents can talk together to decide which values they share, so that they don̵7;t present conflicting value systems to their children.

    Education Values

    • Because values can be quite personal, not everyone agrees that teachers should impart their own value systems to children, according to Grand Canyon University Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching. Parents and teachers might strongly agree on common societal values; for example, the idea that stealing is wrong. Imparting value systems becomes more complicated when discussing complex subjects, such as capital punishment or abortion. Parents might share values that greatly differ from those of their child̵7;s teacher. In general, though, teachers and schools help teach simple values such as the importance of positive citizenship, keeping school grounds clean and using appropriate language, through classroom activities or assemblies.

    Parental Ethics

    • Parents can reinforce lessons about values by consistently upholding consequence systems for ethical behavior choices, according to Education.com. When a child lies or cheats on a test, parents can highlight the unethical behavior by assigning negative consequences. Reward ethical behavior with praise or additional privileges. Parents can increase their own accountability by making ethical choices in daily situations, and explaining their actions.

    Education Ethics

    • In education, teachers impart knowledge about ethics by pairing value lessons with examples of appropriate behavior choices that support those values, according to Santa Clara University. Teachers might engage students in discussion about how to make ethical choices in their lives, or why it̵7;s better to resist the temptation to take an ethical shortcut with a white lie, for example. Ethical modeling also takes place in the classroom. Students might be able to learn about fairness or honor by noting that teachers treat students equally, or keeping their word about promises.

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