their "to-do" list. And at this very minute parents in every corner of this land are parenting in ways thatinadvertently teach their children that they are evil people. Over and over they tell their kids, "You are nogood! You never have been any good, and you never will be any good!" Hammer that home to a child a fewhundred times across a developmentally critical span of years and it is a very bad idea to give them detailsabout what bad people do.Will kids be positively influenced by instruction that stresses the "knowing that" dimension of values?No, more facts about values will not deliver the civil society the values education advocates are after.
Teaching Values and "Knowing How"
"Knowing how" involves what researchers call procedural knowledge: knowledge of how to dosomething. For example, "knowing how" to be honest involves knowing that if you find someone's wallet,you should return it with money and credit cards intact. In such an instance, that's how to be honest."Knowing how" is probably a big part of what values education advocates think educators should do.Pupils do need assistance in developing values "know how." Like learning to play the piano, ethicaldecision making requires knowing how. But we should we assume that when benighted kids know "how to"be nicer, kinder and more decent, they will be? Not by a long shot.How many kids lie because they literally don't know how to tell the truth; how many cheat becausethey don't know how to be honest? Surely, very few do. Some might engage in mayhem because they don'tknow how to otherwise resolve conflicts -- the point of training kids in conflict resolution. But a lot of juveniles who turn to mayhem know both "how to" be good and "how to" resolve conflicts peaceably. They just don't want to. Why is that? They enjoy inflicting pain on others. It may be one of the few things theyare good at. Moreover, it is often profitable and the risks are relatively low.In the case of youth gangs, strife even is indispensable to the perpetuation of the gang. Struggledefines the group, revitalizes its traditions and provides a way of getting information about the strength of potentially lethal enemies. In short, gang conflict is often functional. That is why gang youths with enoughsense to figure out the "how to" of avoiding conflict, still don't do it. It would undermine the group thatgives their lives perverted meaning. Values "know how" won't change that behavior either.
Teaching Values and "Knowing To"
Now let's examine values education using our last type of knowing, "knowing to." This is the type of knowledge that leads to action. A person who "knows to" can be counted upon to do particular things inspecifiable circumstances. If, for instance, an individual "knows to" be honest, they will not cheat even if they can get away with it, they will return lost belongings regardless of their value, and so forth."Knowing to" is the type of knowledge West Point's famous honor code is designed to promote. Whenit comes to honor, Academy officials are not interested in cadets merely "knowing that" or "knowing how."Their intent is to graduate cadets who "know to" be honorable even when they could easily get away withlying, cheating, and so forth.A surprising number of the nation's values education promoters seem to assume that kids who "knowthat" and "know how" will automatically "know to." They could not be more mistaken. Many people who"know that" honesty is the best policy, and "knowing how" to be honest, still are dishonest. (Richard Nixonand Bill Clinton come to mind.) There is a quantum leap from "knowing that" and "knowing how," to"knowing to."Generally, youngsters develop "know to" knowledge about values only when the important people in
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