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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 74-24,417 VANCE, Harvey Edgar, Jr., 1941- AN EXPLORATORY STUDY IN VALUES CLARIFICATION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO A MORE UNIFIED VALUING PROCESS.

The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1974 Education, curriculum Development

University Microfilms, A XEROX Company , Ann Arbor, Michigan

© Copyright by Harvey Edgar Vance, Jr.

1974

THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. AN EXPLORATORY STUDY IN VALUES CLARIFICATION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO A MORE UNIFIED VALUING PROCESS

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

By Harvey Edgar Vance, Jr., B.A., M.E.

*****

The Ohio State University 1974

Reading Committee: Approved by Professor Charles Galloway Professor Kelly Duncan Professor Leonard Andrews Adviser Department of Education AN EXPLORATORY STUDY IN VALUES CLARIFICATION

AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO A MORE UNIFIED VALUING PROCESS

By Harvey Edgar Vance, Jr., Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1974 Professor Charles Galloway, Adviser

This investigation used an assortment of values clarification learning approaches with one hundred and fifteen secondary students at a suburban high school. The inquiry attempted to determine if such clarification and confrontation methods contribute to personal recognition and growth toward a more unified valuing process. Unified valuing was stipulated to mean a closer integration between the thinking, feeling, and acting elements of personal valuing. Valuing, for the purposes of this study, is a process that culminates with a value when each of the following is included: (1) choosing, (2) choos­ ing from alternatives, (3) choosing after thoughtful consideration of alternatives, (4) prizing and cherishing, (5) affirming, (6) acting upon one's choices, (7) repeating after reconsideration. In order to investigate the premise that a variety of values clarification procedures will enhance the development of a balanced base for value determination, a number of value stimuli were selected. These approaches were assimilated into a modern world literature class for a six-weeks period. The value stimuli chosen were: 1. eleven values clarification strategies from Values Clarification by Simon, Howe, and Kirschenbaum ; 2. value films from "Searching for Values" film anthology? 3. value speakers; 4. value emphasis with the literature; 5. pre- and post-tests: "Value Survey" and "Measure of Self-Consistency." The investigator constructed guidelines for field notations of individual and group behavior during the values activ­ ities. Also, self-reporting techniques, both written and oral, were utilized to help gauge the effects of the values procedures. The data were organized around the objectives of the study. Numerous student exemplars from the values activities were detailed. From the presentation and analysis of the data, the following assertions seemed war­ ranted : 1. Values clarification assisted the students in becoming more aware of their own value prior­ ities. 2. Students became more sensitive to the gaps between their words or ideals and their actions in specific situations. 3. Students were more able to see inter­ relationships among their own diverse personality traits. 4. Values approaches sometimes generated personal feelings that expanded into student reflection and active involvement with the issue under consideration. 5. The valuing process of choosing, prizing, and acting was incorporated into the daily lives of some students. 6. Values clarification facilitated the develop­ ment of self-awareness and acknowledgment of intrinsic feelings and attitudes among the students. 7. The intensive values emphasis influenced some students to recognize their direct relationship to others and to their society. 8. The relationship between values clarification procedures and the literature content was often unclear to many students. While there were many signs of positive personal growth, there were also indications that some students were threatened by the personal nature of the value learning strategies. Other students questioned the place of values clarification in a classroom that is committed to teaching skills in reading and composition. And finally, there was some evidence that the subjective elements triggered by values clarification were not necessarily merging with the reflective and active coordinates of the valuing process. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to Professor L. 0. Andrews for his thoughtful suggestions that helped to guide the direction of this project. Professor Kelly Duncan’s assistance was also very much appreciated. He was able to recognize problem areas and offer concrete methods to address these areas of con­ cern. The chairman for this candidate, Professor Charles Galloway, was consistently a sensitive and honest base of support. His realness was indeed an instrumental factor in the origin and completion of the study. And to Linda, the most authentic person I know, thank you. VITA

November 24, 1941 .... Born - Columbus, Ohio 1963...... B.A., Otterbein College, Westerville, Ohio 1963-1964 ...... English, Biology Teacher, Berea City Schools, Berea, Ohio 1964-1965 ...... Geography Teacher, Madison-Local School District, Groveport, Ohio 1965-1966 ...... English Teacher, Broward County Schools, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 1966 ...... M.E., Florida Atlantic Univer­ sity, Boca Raton, Florida 1966-1968 ...... English Teacher, Madison-Local School District, Groveport, Ohio 1968-1974 ...... English Teacher, Worthington Public Schools, Worthington, Ohio

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: Teacher Education Related Areas: Curriculum Development Educational Philosophy English Education TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... ii VITA ...... iii

Chapter I. INTRODUCTION AND ASSUMPTIONS ...... 1 An Overview of Literature Related to Values and Teaching Statement of the Problem Objectives Some Operational Definitions Methodology Limitations Significance of the Study II. VALUING AND MODERN LITERATURE ...... 24 A Historical Perspective of Values Related to American Schooling Value Consciousness: A Personalized Element in Education III. PROCEDURES AND INSTRUMENTATION ...... 51 Introduction A Problem before Us The Setting and Population for this Information Introduction to the Value Unit The "Process Approach" to Value Clarification A Teaching Code for this Value Study Rationale for the Choice of Particular Value Areas Criteria for the Selection of Value Stimuli Procedures Used to Clarify the Value Areas

iv Chapter Page Introduction to the Value Films Value Speakers Value-Related Literature Used with This Study Description of the Value Survey Description of the Measure of Self- Consistency Criteria for Observations of Personal Growth Description of Self-Reporting Instruments Used by the Students Review of the Procedures and Instruments Used in This Investigation IV. PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE DATA .... 79 Overview of the Chapter Objectives Sources for the Supportive Data Described in the Study Data Relating to Objective One Data Relating to Objective Two Data Relating to Objective Three Data Relating to Objective Four Synthesis of the Data as Related to the Purpose of the Study V. SUMMARY, IMPLICATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS . . . 126 Purpose of the Study Assumptions Statement of the Problem Obj ectives Procedures and Instrumentation Presentation of the Data Conclusions Implications Recommendations

APPENDIX A. Value Clarification Strategies Used During the S t u d y ...... 144 B. Summaries of "Searching for Values" F i l m s ...... 197

v Appendix Page C. Sample Value Sheets ...... 202 D. Student Counter Statements ...... 208 E. Value Survey Summations ...... 212 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 215 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION AND ASSUMPTIONS

In one sense, the relationship between personal values and schooling could be likened to Mark Twain's crusty observation that "I never let my schooling interfere with my education."^ To Twain, it seems, the larger lessons of living far outweighed the often insensitive and narrowly bookish dictates of the schooling process. Formal education is also perceived in such fragmentary terms by many contem­ porary students. Rather than an opportunity to enlarge both mind and heart, school is viewed as an unduly long and boring exercise in mental ping-pong. Instead of attempting to integrate the feeling, thinking, and acting dimensions of being human, schools are regarded as grim places that promise to sweat out anything but the "objective" approach. Although psychologists such as Abraham Maslow have written that, "The thing to do seems to be to find out what you are really like inside, deep down, as a member of the human 2 species and as a particular individual," educators continue, by and large, to eschew value questions and cling to an impersonal factual approach that unwittingly denies the very humanity before them. i

2

Unlike Twain, the youth of today have to endure large doses of school. Education stands as the gatekeeper to the meritocracy of modern life. Get enough school, our youth soon learn, and the plums of the American dream can be realized. So, while Huck Finn could physically sever his school bindings and still "make it," most of our youth must be fragmented riders on the educational escalator. The exit is now a spiritual one. Too often, this type of personal vacuum is precisely what occurs in the educational setting. A student talks: "The main thing is not to take it personal— to understand that it's just a system and it treats you the same way it treats everyone else. . . . Our names get fed into it— we get fed into it— when we're five years old, and if we catch on and watch our step, it spits us out when we're seventeen or eighteen." 3 Such words might remain simply that, so many words, if they were not symptomatic of pressing educational issues for our people. Namely, how can the schools be made more humane? Does "humane education" mean that the intellect is underplayed? Will a more natural prizing of the affective serve to release heretofore bounded regions of the intellect? Are self-identity and interpersonal under­ standing more basic to modern man than acquiring externally confirmed information? Would an education that placed human value closer to its center be coercive to particular values? 3 How can the school stress analytical rigor and still allow a feel for the intuitive, a sensitivity for the shadow of irony that sprinkles upon our lives? And life in America in the last decade has taught many paradoxical lessons. Assassinations, burnings, lootings, police dogs, lamming nightsticks, and even the World Series victory of the once-lowly New York Mets, were juxtaposed educationally with a review of Wilson's Fourteen Points, or a quiz over The Canterbury Tales, or identifica­ tion of bilateral symmetry. The jarred lives of the students were often untouched in schools. In Self-Renewal, John Gardner wrote of the search for personal meaning in our time: "He wants to understand how the great facts of the objective world relate to him and what they imply for his behavior."4 Instead, we clutch to the golden calves of our educational past— dispensing information, stressing competi­ tion, ordering chronologically, ignoring the present, praising industriousness, slighting creativity, etc.— while ducking our responsibility to identify the changing concep­ tion of education suited for our unique circumstances. T. S. Eliot wrote that the present should alter the 5 past as much as the past alters the present. And our present quivers with new forms, much as the amoeba is constantly reaching and stirring and groping. The emergence of electronic technology creates new dimensions for the "stimulated ape." But what is happening to us in the process? Social and psychological analysts such as Alvin Toffler, Marshall McLuhan, Abraham Maslow, and Charles Reich agree on one point— the fantastic rate of technological change is not without related human changes. Indeed, the effects of the changing environment upon individual attitudes and behaviors is a key focus of McLuhan. Because we have electronic media to instantly transmit sensual awareness, he states, we are bounced into new phenomena. In particular, the enveloping television medium has heightened the need for participation among our youth. McLuhan suggests that our electronically sparked youth tend to seek active roles and chafe under a rear-view mirror vision of dispensatory education. The days of preparing the student for induction to society are over, for the elec­ tronically stimulated youth is irrevocably involved.^ Where McLuhan concentrates on media as extensions of ourselves, Toffler emphasizes the dizzying panorama of clothes, buildings, objects, and people in our lives. Future shock is the ominous result. An environment that spills over in a cacophony of change is bound to belch up individual and collective anxieties. Toffler believes that some people will continue to grapple with these new realities with traditional assumptions about morality, work, sex, and religion. Others, he says, will transform themselves philosophically and behaviorally in response to the changing external stimuli. For example, Toffler sees an increasing number of transitory human relationships, even serial marriages, to complement the variation in individual growth patterns in our temporary society. The dawning of a new consciousness is heralded by Maslow and Reich. Professor Reich pinpoints the "loss of self" as the primary residue of the modern technological society. He tags Consciousness III, the emerging green wave of humanism, as the growing tip of mankind. Maslow joyfully proclaims that, "A new Weltanschauung is in the process of being developed, a new Zeitegeist, a new set of values and a

O new way of finding them, and certainly a new image of men." This transitional man stands on a forefront that beckons a more intense, artistic, intrinsic kind of education, says Maslow. More of an art-drenched education "might well serve as the means by which we might rescue the rest of the school curriculum from the value-free, value-neutral, goal-lacking g meaninglessness into which it has fallen." If our social character is modifying, how might educators respond? Could the schools be places where people are "helped-let" to grow into realizing the best within themselves? Perhaps not, but if ideals are recognized as signposts, not goals, such an undertaking might well be worth the effort. For our present screeches for skills of learning how to learn, and we click out facts with the disquieting rapidity of a rifle chamber. Our electronically pressed present vibrates messages of global community, and we retain local and national goals as paramount. Our youth are becoming more prone to listen to the whisperings of their own blood, and we drone on about the exclusiveness of evidence and forget the importance of imagination. As E. E. Cummings wrote:

may my mind stroll about hungry and fearless and thirsty and supple and even if it's Sunday may i be wronq for whenever men are right they are not young. ®

Yet the dangers of excess while suspended under the umbrella of swift change must be honestly recognized. If levels of consciousness are in quickened transition, edu­ cators seeking to hastily glorify self-awareness could fall prey to the scholarly flabbiness that infested the progres­ sive era in education. The issue is not negating the growth of the intellect while extolling value growth. Rather, it is seeking a more congruent expression of the integrated man — his thoughts, his beliefs, and his deeds. In order to move toward educating more organis- mically, some of the limitations of schooling need to be squarely confronted. Education, education, education as the panacea for the social, economic, and political ills is beginning to lose credibility. Schools are just one part of a culture that educates. In a fluid, affluent, and f 7 hyper-mediaized society, a nineteenth century reliance on schools to educate for participation in the society is antiquated. Contemporary life throbs toward involvement and sensual immersion. Traditional schooling lags behind this enculturation as does a child who tugs petulantly at his father's pantleg. Another educational debit is the pre­ ponderance of experientially leavened people who become teachers and administrators. In a society that offers an increasing tapestry of life styles, educators are fettered to school, school, school. After a while, teachers really believe that life experiences and school are intimately connected. That those who work hard in school are going to become our leading citizens. So much for comforting illusions. By recognizing these and other drawbacks, schools can become less puffed about their own importance and willing to grow more attuned to the task of searching for vital connections between schooling and life experiences. Ironically, the very fact that schools do lag behind the flow of life presents education with a special opportunity. Our accelerated culture, though imbibing sensually, does not encourage reasoned, thoughtful feedback. A sort of mental and moral numbness can result. As one of its functions, the school can critically and humanely facilitate young people in their search for what to value on this speeding plain we call modern life. Nietzche observed that, "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how."^ A quest for personal meaning, the faint recognition of the enduring as shown in one's own experiences, the creeping sensitivity for the complexity and simplicity of human existence, the identifica­ tion of self with the flow of humanity— these life affirming insights can be prodded through value-infused school experiences. The aim being that the student has a clearer image of what he believes, how he came to his beliefs, what alternatives he might have chosen, and what he is prepared to do about his convictions. 12 Students might begin to more fully establish their own touchstones for reality. A closer pulse to one's own center, and how it relates to outer realities, can add a measure of purpose to the often super­ ficial sham of twentieth century life.

An Overview of Literature Related to Values and Teaching Schools have long been purveyors of values; in particular, values that seemed to represent everything American. In the mid-nineteenth century, schools were characterized by overtones of religion and Puritan morality. Prayers and Bible studies were common. Lashings, silence, obedience, and rigorous self-denial were a few of the tenets of our Puritan ancestors that were embedded in educational practices. ^ I 9 Toward the end of the nineteenth century, and pummeling into the twentieth, came a harbinger of the modern school. Henry Steele Commager termed the nineties a decade in which "the new America came in as on flood tide."*^ The entrenchment of business as "the most powerful and pervasive interest m public life" 15 and its accompanying material­ istic values were imprinted on the schools. According to Raymond Callahan, educationists indiscriminately adopted business values and organizational procedures without bothering to consider their educational values. 1 f\ While there were original strides being made toward a more child- oriented concept of education, most of the emerging concepts in science, psychology, sociology, and industrialism were being hurriedly and directly applied in the classroom. Although William James and John Dewey warned that these fetal developments needed to be transformed into educational contexts before their use in the schools, educators kept courting the coattails of the outer society. Externally confirmed values of competition, success, materialism, conformity, and Anglo-Saxon race supremacy, to mention a few, were suckled with little temperance by the youth of our schools.17 The Progressive era that followed, though eloquently cued to the dangers of excess by Dewey and George Counts, was severely weakened by a narrow and fixed conception of i 10 its own values. As Lawrence Cremin reported, freedom became expressions of the child's whim rather than a concerted effort. Spontaneity was closer to moody indulgence than a deepening sense for one's naturalness. Self-direction became muddled with youthful inexperience instead of growing more purposefully with sensitive adult guidance. 18 The on-rush of modernity in education has wrought a new shading on scholarly attainment. Technological hardware, the inherent structure of the disciplines, packaged teacher techniques, behavorial objectives, and over-reactions to Russian scientific achievements impelled a new information intensity to the schools. Once again, through commission and omission, school people have imposed a restricted set of values upon the young. Arthur Combs writes: What makes people human are matters of feeling, belief, values, attitudes, understandings. Without these things a man is nothing. These are the qualities that make people human. They are also the qualities which, in our zeal to be objective, we have carefully eliminated from much of what goes on in our public schools. The problem of de­ humanization is no accident. We brought it on ourselves. We have created a Frankenstein's Monster which has broken loose to run amok among us.-^ Combs might have qualified his polemic by alluding to the dangers of the narrowly objective. The need is for a more balanced education. The proselytes of humanistic education, in their zeal for subjectivity, could be reluc­ tant bedfellows of the extremely analytical if reaction is permitted to overshadow constructive action. The fondly 4 11 romantic educationist would likely ignore the wisdom of Bertrand Russell— "The world is vast and our own powers are limited. If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give. And to demand too much is the surest way of getting even less than is possible."20 But then, how to pursue the delicate balance? Given the limitations of the school in a modern technological society, how can the schools move toward vitally recon­ structing the process of becoming educated in the integrated sense of the word? One central element in this life-long mosaic is to encourage the search for personal values. The chances of positive self-identification and kindred feelings for others can be increased if students are allowed to wade into the gray waters of their own beliefs. Schools can become a sort of human reservoir whereby the rushing tumult of the outer society is rubbed against our own personal feelings, related to the events of our own lives, and juggled with our yearnings. In doing so, we become less apt to become morally detached and intellectually inundated by the sweep of events. So, instead of perceiving the growth of intelligence as an isolated intent, educators might hope to better harmonize the mind, spirit, and actions by stressing the essential oneness of man. To do this, we must insist on * 12 honoring, not denying, the value-making dimension of human beings. And still, such an affective pursuit of values can be conducted in an intellectually rigorous fashion. A recent publication, Values and Teaching, illus­ trates this possibility. The authors describe values not as hard and fast verities, but as "hammering out a style of life in a certain set of surroundings." 21 The assumption is that whatever the value, it should work as effectively as possible to relate one to his world in a satisfying and intelligent way. The process of valuing is analyzed in this context as a collective act that culminates with a value when each of the following characteristics is included: (1) choosing freely, (2) choosing from among alternatives, (3) choosing after thoughtful consideration of the alterna­ tives, (4) prizing and cherishing, (5) affirming, (6) acting upon one's choices, and (7) repeating after reconsidera- tion. 22 In the past, the authors argue, schools have tended to coerce the child, sometimes flagrantly, sometimes subtly, to adopt the "right" values. The student has seldom been helped to develop a valuing process that he could use to independently form his own beliefs. The writers believe that value inclusion which is process oriented and conducted in a spirit of mutuality can spawn self-directive learning. Hopefully, the student will have a clearer vision of himself, 13 and therefore, a more congruent identification with his world.

Statement of the Problem The focus of this investigation will be to use specific value-clarification learning approaches with one hundred and fifteen secondary students and subsequently attempt to determine if such clarification and confronta­ tion methods contribute to personal recognition and growth toward a more unified valuing process.

Objectives 1. To determine if exposure to values clarification approaches tends to stimulate more purposeful, active, and involved behavioral patterns. 2. To clarify some inconsistencies apparent between what we say we value and how we act in particular situations. 3. To report indications of student applications of the choosing, prizing, acting value process. 4. To identify expressions of feelings, thoughts, and actions that suggest personal recognition and growth patterns that seem related to value clarification activities.

Some Operational Definitions Value.— A person is said to value when he has an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally and socially preferable to alternative modes of conduct and end-scates. 24 14 Valuing.— A process that culminates with a value when each of the following is included: (1) choosing, (2) choosing from alternatives, (3) choosing after thought­ ful consideration of alternatives, (4) prizing ^nd cherishing, (5) affirming, (6) acting upon one's choices, 25 (7) repeating after reconsideration.

Instrumental values.— A mode of conduct, a means of behavior (honesty, ambition, obedience) that is personally and socially preferable. 2 6

Terminal values.— Those end-states of existence that are individually and collectively worth striving for, such 27 as, a comfortable life, a world at peace.

Value system.— A learned organization of rules for making choices and for resolving conflicts between two or more modes of behavior or between two or more end-states of existence.. . 28

Unified valuation.— The quest for closer integration between the levels of one's value-attitude organization. A recognition of inconsistencies between two or more terminal values, and other value interrelationships involving terminal values, may result in felt states of inconsistency. Such a heightened awareness of cognitive, affective, and behavioral imbalance could lead to a more unified re- organization of one's value system. 29 15 Personal recognition.— To demonstrate a sharpened sensitivity for how one can adopt belief patterns without a critical and active basis for assessing the personal worth of those values.

Personal growth.— To spark a more cumulative process of determining a value-attitude system. Such a growth would be characterized by a more vital accord of actions, thoughts, and feelings.

Methodology Essentially, the literature supporting value clarification approaches holds that many of the students partaking will grow to be more positively related with themselves and their society. Such outcomes, if indeed they are realized, would oppose the apathetic, "what's the use" sort of detachment that now lumbers through our society. In order to work toward these goals of positive personal and social identity, an intensive values education experiment will be organized along the following methodological scheme. One hundred and fifteen students, predominantly grade ten, but with a sprinkling of juniors and seniors, will be asked to participate in this exploratory study. During the seven weeks of heightened value activities, there will be a variety of external stimuli. A new film series called "Searching for Values" edits scenes from current motion picture films to present a value dilemma. Three of these films will be shown. Also, students and/or outside speakers will be invited to make presentations on "here I stand" value positions. Value clarification exercises, approximately ten in number, will be used as a gird to penetrating the exterior of one's value-attitude system. Interwoven with these valuing experiences, will be a literature survey of modern poetry and two minority groups (Blacks and American Indians). Interaction in pairs and small groups, class discus­ sions, individual written responses, role playing situations, quiet reflection, clarifying responses, and public inter­ views will then be used to help clarify such questions as: "So what? What difference does it make to me? Do I care? Why do I feel the way I do? Am I willing to do anything about my beliefs?" In hopes of authenticating this sort of value-laden environment, an effort will be made to establish a sensitive, personal sort of classroom atmosphere. Although this sort of humane setting is sensed or "caught" rather than verbally communicated, it is meant here to be some combination of mutual respect, informality, personal honesty, and above all, caring that is triggered by the personality of the teacher. If these emotive qualities are visible, a more integrated kind of learning can squirt out of what happens in the classroom. In order to identify value preferences and self­ perceived consistency, a "Value Survey" and "Measure of i 17 Self-Consistency" will be used as pre- and post-tests. The "Value Survey" by Milton Rokeach asks the student to rank eighteen instrumental and terminal values in the order of personal importance to him. The self-consistency measure purports to measure the degree of self-perceived consistency by identifying and looking for relationships between five self-chosen positive and negative personality traits. Both instruments have been found to be sensitive to value fluctuations.^ Other methods of reporting the progression and outcomes of this value study will be field notations by this writer, personal interviews, satisfaction statements, and informal essays relative to the unit in values education. Field notes by the researcher are often used in anthropo­ logical studies. This reporting will intend to be sensitive to student behavioral responses with the objective of noting trends toward or away from apathetic, uncertain, or inconsistent behavioral manifestations. These modes of conduct will be later described with overt behavioral symptoms stipulated. Personal interviews will be employed to elicit more in-depth, personal responses to this personal values experiment. The interviews will take place toward the end of the study so that the student may be more able to assess his own feelings with some overall concept in mind. I 18 Written feedback in the form of a series of com­ pleted satisfaction statements and personal essays will be another form of seeking the degree of personal impact generated by the value clarification approaches. The students will be asked to complete such sentence stems as "I was surprised that . . . I realized that . . . I wonder 31 . why ..." xn relation to their thoughts and feelings about the value exercises. In addition, personal essays focusing on outgrowths and reflections bearing on the personal values unit will be an optional writing assignment. Presenting alternatives is one centrum of the value clarifi­ cations approach; therefore, the values activities will be integrated with the literature content of the basic course structure. The students may opt, consequently, to complete an assignment that is more content than value related. Taken together, this probe into values education intends to wade into the affective without slicing away the reflective and action dimensions of being human. The reporting, therefore, will consist of a combination of standardized tools, on the spot recordings, interpretative jottings, and subjective student writings. It is recognized that such findings may stray from "objective" measuring standards in the strict scientific use of that word. However, it is also recognized that the purposes of this study do not entirely yield to scientific evaluation. It is 19 rather an attempt at blending, even at the expense of efficiency and surface orderliness. But in a larger sense, as Sidney Simon reveals, value clarification is closely related to the scientific method— "The goal of his search is to make sense out of all the data he has collected about himself in order to achieve direction and control over his own life and be less at the mercy of inner compulsions and external pressures."32

Limitations 1. Encouraging the search for personal values is one important dimension in education, but it does not supersede other responsibilities of the schooling process. 2. Values, according to Dewey, are spawned by "trouble" or "something the matter." The ends or outcomes can only be foreseen, says Dewey, in terms of the conditions by which they are brought into existence. Consequently, the outcomes of this experiment will be, in one sense, circumscribed by the particular circumstances that influence suburban youngsters. There may be, however, some grounds for generalizations pertaining to this specific economic and social strata.

Significance of the Study Gunnar Myrdal noted some years ago that most Americans strive to keep valuation conflicts under control. He wrote, "They want to keep them off their minds, and they i 20 are trained to overlook them." 34 The Swedish author cautions that while this may preserve a relatively peaceful conscience, it denies the modern communication realities that continue to expose more and more value conflicts. Struggles with value differences, of course, cannot, and should not, be avoided. But if there are few opportunities to candidly and openly address our differences in an atmos­ phere of mutual respect and reason, our fears can only further divide us. Spinoza once wrote that, "Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it." 35 By honestly and systemati­ cally seeking clarity out of the deeply rooted patterns of our value formations, schools can help students understand themselves. Insight into the recesses of one's beliefs and behavior often spills outward in the forms of increased meaning and purpose in life. The blending of a conceptual, factual, and value framework in our schools is essentially a hope for wholeness. Perhaps people leaving their formal schooling might be more closely knit within and without. Maybe the heart, mind, and hand can nearly move as one. t 21 Notes

■^Mark Twain, in lecture, as taken from "Mark Twain Tonight," a Columbia recording. 2 Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1962), p. 10. 3 Charles Silberman, Crisis in the Classroom (New York: Random House, 1970), p. 187. 4 John Gardner, Self-Renewal (New York: Harper and Row, 1968), p. 54. 5 "Change and Criticism: Consistency and Small Minds," Art International, November 1967, quoted in the Introduction. g Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965), p. 292. 7 Alvin Toffler, Future Shock (New York: Random House, 1970), p. 188. 0 Abraham Maslow, "Peak Experiences in Education and Art," Theory into Practice, June 1971, p. 149. ^Ibid., p. 153. ^ E. E. Cummings, as quoted in S. I. Hayakawa's syndicated column in the Columbus Citizen Journal, 11 July 1970, sec. 2, p. 15. ■^Frederick Nietzche, as quoted in Victor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (New York: Washington Square Press, 1963), p. 34. 12Louis Raths, Merrill Hamun, and Sidney Simon, Values and Teaching (Columbus: Charles Merrill Publishing, 1966), p. 26. 13Henry Perkinson, The Imperfect Panacea: American Faith in Education, 1865-1965 (New York: Random House, 1968), pp. 4-7. 14 Henry Steele Commager, as quoted m Lawrence Cremm, The Transformation of the School (New York: Random House, 1964), p. 90. i

22

15Richard Hofstatler, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (Cambridge: Harvard Press, 1956), p. 237. 1 6 Raymond Callahan, Education and the Cult of Efficiency (London: Cambridge Press, 1966), p. 244. 17Perkxnson, p. 145. 1 R Cremin, p. 348. 19Arthur Combs, "An Educational Imperative: The Human Dimension," in To Nurture Humaneness, ed. by Mary- Margaret Scobey (Washington, D.C.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, n.d.), p. 174. 20Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness (London: Allen and Unwin, 1952), p. 193. 2^Raths, Harmin, and Simon, pp. 28-29. 22Ibid., p. 19. 23Ibid., p. 37. 2/*Milton Rokeach, Beliefs, Attitudes, and Feelings (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1968), p. 159. 25Raths, Harmin, and Simon, pp. 28-29. 26Rokeach, p. 159. 27Ibid., p. 160. 28Ibid., p. 161. 79 Ibid., p. 165. 30 John Robinson and Philip Shaver, Measures of Social-Psychological Attitudes (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969), pp. 168-170, 356-359. 31Sidney Simon, Values Clarification— A Handbook of Practical Strategies for Teachers and Students (New York: Hart Publishing, Inc., 1972), pp. 163, 164. 32Simon, p. 168. John Dewey, Theory of Valuation (Chicago: Univer­ sity of Chicago Press, 1939), p. 54. 23 34Gunnar Myrdai, "A Methodological Note of Valuations and Beliefs," in A Preface to Our Times, ed. by William Buckler (New York: American Book Company, 1968), pp. 527- 536.

35Spinoza, as quoted m Frankl, p. 117. t

CHAPTER II

VALUING AND MODERN LITERATURE

An obvious characteristic of modern life is the acceleration with which we live. People, things, places, and ideas spew forth with unparalleled speed and number. Through it all, our perception of our world and of ourselves is irrevocably altered. And if behavior is triggered by perception, we need to consider the effects our mesmerized society has on us before reflecting upon the role of educa­ tion within this society. Near the turn of the last century, John Dewey challenged educators to struggle toward changing to conceptions of education that were more suited to the quickened pace of early twentieth century life.^ Now, three generations later, the rate of external changes in our society seems to numb rather than challenge us. The inva­ sion of over-choice, the all too visible problems of the world that seem more complex than ever, and disillusionment about the efficacy of personal action to exert social change tend to drain rather than replenish our spirits. Of course, these and other societal influences are reflected in the values, thoughts, and behavior of contemporary students.

24 t 25 Are educators to recognize the need to act upon humane educational theories that can unfold to new webs of learn­ ing? Or, are we to yield to the anesthetizing scents of apathy, indifference, and powerlessness that abound in modern technological societies and choose to do nothing? It seems quite clear that modern man is assailed with threats to his very humanity. Erich Fromm warns that, A specter is stalking in our midst. . . . It is a new specter: a completely mechanized society, devoted to maximal material output and consumption, directed by computers; and in this social process, man himself is being transformed into a part of the total machine, well fed and entertained, yet passive, unalive, and with little feeling.^ This seduction of activeness needs to be differentiated from the "Busy" nature of modern life. Movement, as Vance Packard clarifies in A Nation of Strangers, is one of the dominant patterns of our people. But this very scurrying of bodies and hum of machines often contributes to a feeling of personal isolation, says Packard. It is in this feeling realm, the sense of moving on to a diminished sense of personal belonging, that testifies to an odd sense of empti- 3 ness in an arena of motion. The will to scientific and technological progress is another shadow that encircles us. Frances Fitzgerald in her Pulitzer prize winning book, Fire in the Lake, observes that,

Today, living in a social milieu completely divided over matters of value and belief, Westerners have come to look upon science and logic alone as con­ taining universal truths. Over the past century e 26 Western philosophers have worked to purge their disciplines of ethical and metaphysical concerns; Americans in particular have tended to deify the natural sciences and set them apart from their social goals.^

This dichotomy between science and social-ethical considera­ tions is becoming more difficult to retain. As medical technology leads to pre-determination of human genetic traits and the creation of "life" via the revelations of the DNA molecule, the questions become more and more: Should we pursue this course of investigation? Will it be beneficial to man? Alvin Toffler addressed this issue in Future Shock. He concluded that technological breakthroughs have become so vital to our common existence that we must not allow a select, vested group of individuals to determine a course of action that will affect a broad spectrum of people. We must learn to say no to some forms of technology, argued Toffler, or we will submit ourselves to a premature and possibly 5 devastating arrival of the future. Another social observer, Ivan Illich, warns of a "technocratic ethos" that is now rampant in our society. This ideology teaches that whatever is technologically possible must be made available, at least to a few, whether they want it or not. The myth of this ethos, asserts Illich, is that only huge, one-dimensional systems can be created. But humanely controlled and directed, technology can provide each man with the ability t 27 to construct personalized programs. Such a humane, multi­ dimensional use of technology, Illich feels, can do much to alleviate the sense of modern impotence about the size and complexity of our technocratic society.** Erik Erikson also sees some positive personal potential rising out of modern technology. He hopes for a "technological super-identity" that will testify to a new way of perceiving. Erikson writes: A new ethics must eventually transcend the alliance of ideology and technology, for the great question will be how man, on ethical and generational grounds, will limit the use of technological expansion even where it might, for a while, enhance prestige and profit.? This new consciousness is not to be advanced by ideological youths or moralistic old men, Erikson stipulates, but by those "who know that from generation to generation the test

D of what you produce is the care it inspires." But it is a lack of caring that is noticed by many sensitive observers of the human scene. Fromm states that the key moral problem of our day is "man's indifference to 9 himself." He believes we have so made ourselves the instruments for purposes outside ourselves that we feel powerless. Instead of a productive, experientially oriented — "I am what I do"--we have estranged ourselves to an— "I am as you desire m e . " ^ Rollo May, in Love and Will, recog­ nizes this new form of the identity problem: "Even— if— I— know— who— I— am, I— have— no— significance. I am unable to 28 influence others. The next step is apathy.""^ May uses the term "schizoid" to stand for the same salient character­ istics of the modern person, "out of touch; avoiding close relationships; the inability to feel." 12 This moves quite pointedly to a state of emptiness or affectlessness since what "he wants and feels can make no real difference, he gives up wanting and feeling." 13 Such a suspension of personal powers is also intensified by the apparent loss of community in contempo­ rary life. The uprooted condition of modern existence prompted Susan Sontag to wonder if the foremost yearning of our time is homelessness. 14 The emotional price of saying goodbye to a steady stream of friends caused a woman inter­ viewed by Vance Packard to describe how she now avoids getting to know her neighbors for fear of their leaving again. Such patterns of behavior were noted consistently by Packard. So much so that one of his conclusions was that, "Personal isolation is becoming a major social fact of our time. A great many people are disturbed by the feeling that they are rootless or increasingly anonymous, that they are living in a continually changing environment where there is little sense of community." 15 Is this feeling of shared experience retreating in the face of size, opportunities, and speed? Or does the instant transmission of global images via electronic i 29 circuitry tend to sharpen our common identity? Marshall McLuhan believes that modern media create a base for a new consciousness with our youth because they tend to instinc­ tively grasp the electric drama of our day. But the linear Western traditions of the separate, the contained, and the distinct are being severely threatened by the fusion oriented new media. McLuhan sees the crisis of the modern age as the clash between the cultural attitudes spawned by the earlier mechanical age (detachment, non-involvement, classification, orderly sequential patterns) and our simultaneous pull to the current Age of Implosion. He sees the new age as being an era of electronic ecology: "It's the study and projection of the total environment of organisms and people, because of the instant coherence of all factors, made possible by moving information at electric speeds."^ This rush of total environment, though, makes many people less certain about what to do with their lives. Personal goals, once paramount as motivating forces, are now less convincing to many in our transient society. William Glasser, a noted educational and social critic, has enlarged upon McLuhan's notion that the youth in today's identity society seek roles, not goals. A strong goal orientation suggests a fixed, sequential, work-oriented, and future- based attitude pattern that is now phasing out among our t 30 younger citizens. In its place, asserts Glasser, is an emerging life style that stresses self-identity and an independent role. These individuals, particularly the younger ones, want more self-determined purposes and involvement activities instead of external pressures that reduce the chances to seize personal meaning out of life experiences. 17 Most people, however, tend to define their behavior in terms of the society they find themselves in. Erich Fromm says that in our society the official, conscious values are those of religious and humanistic heritage. We mouth the virtues of "individuality" and "love" and "com­ passion" and "hope." But these values are mainly verbal for most people and seem relatively ineffective in motivating actual relationships among people. Fromm goes on to contend

that "the unconscious values which directly motivate human behavior are those which are generated in the social system of the bureaucratic, industrial society, those of property, 18 consumption, social position, fun, excitement, etc." Are we now spinning into a time in which this external type of value consumerism is beginning to be recognized? Are the hollow, "is that all there is" type expressions evidence of an acquisitiveness gone sour? The image of the jittery consumer is common in our

affluent society. It might be the young management 31 executive who brings his wife a gift to atone for his late hours; or, the suburban woman who shops three times a week to convince herself that she is fortunate, even if she is lonely and bored. The streaming cycle of products, titil­ lating advertising appeals, and the need to demonstrate "success" are a few of the clamps that seal on our consumer ideology. Some social analysts see this consumptive value configuration, unconscious though it may be, as a determina­ tive factor in character identity. A person begins to perceive himself as another product on the market. His experience is bound up so in coming over well that he is repeatedly behaving in ways subtly separate from his own 19 feelings and thoughts. So, this hyped up, technocratic, progress oriented, consumptive type world we live in has many advantages, but it is not without its human costs. Even though our materialistic and technological progress would undoubtedly rank us as a "success," there is a curious personal emptiness among our people. One of the antennae of our time, Arthur Miller, has an alienated youth in Death of a Salesman say: "I just can't take hold Mom, I can't take hold of some kind of life." 20 What, then, can educators do to help young people grasp onto something of value in this steamrolling world we live in? For one, schools can be conceived of as places that strive to build human meaning out of our fleeting existence. 4 32 Philip Jackson challenged the modern school to recognize its most pressing problem— "learning how to create and maintain a humane environment in our schools." 21 Schools cannot further the life affirming qualities of people— their impulses to cooperate, to hope, to care, and to act responsibly— by seeing the process of education as limited to the development of intellect, or vocational preparation, or cultural transmission. Instead of fanning the divisions, an education needs to nurture cohesive growth among a person's thoughts, feelings, and actions. To do this, the schooling experience will need to place more emphasis on what is often ignored in modern life— authentic personal valuing. Matters of personal value coalesce around what we feel. Alfred North Whitehead expressed it beautifully: It is never bare thought or bare existence that we are aware of. I find myself rather as essentially a unity of emotions, of enjoyment, of hopes, of fears, of regrets, valuations of alternatives, decisions— all of these are my subjective reactions to my environment as I am active in my nature. My unity, which is Descartes' "I am," is my process of shaping this welter of material into a consistent pattern of feelings. 2

Contrary to the way values have historically been trans­ mitted in our schools, Whitehead cherishes the integration of personal experiences. Instead of restricted choices based on vested authority, he writes about strong feelings, thoughts, and acts that may congeal to weld a process of living that holds a more integrated meaning. 4 33 It is important, at this point, to survey the educative background to this present value crossroads in American life. What values have been etched into the schools by cultural and social patterns? To what extent have the schools served as a flashpoint to ignite moral ideas instead of pandering to ideas about morality? An honest recognition of where we have been is necessary if we hope to understand the deeply implanted attitudes within us.

A Historical Perspective of Values Related to American Schooling Schools have long been purveyors of values; in particular, values that seemed to represent everything American. The origins of the colonial school were meshed with the uncertainties presented by the new world. Educa­ tion was regarded as the antidote to fend off the savagery that threatened to engulf the early settlers. Thus perceived, education was charged with fear and control elements. Since the first teachers were clergymen, formal education was also the forum for the imprint of the Puritan Anglo-Saxon ethos. The school became the third arm of the acculturation process of the Puritan community— the other 23 two being the home and church. This latest appendage was to become the fulcrum for

transmitting many of the religious and cultural values of the community. The school soon evolved into a central 34 medium for shaping the good life for the community. Partly because of religious tensions and subsequent spin-offs from the parent church, and partly because of the physical and social demands of survival in this rough setting, the church began to lose its umbrella hold on the growing communities. Compulsory schooling, established as early as 1642, thus became more vital as a link to a common religious and cultural heritage.^ The emergence of the common school and Horace Mann signaled the importance of school as a stabilizing force. In Webster's Elementary Speller and McGuffey Readers, the instruction was certainly political in the sense of pressur­ ing the adoption of values and patriotic feelings that would secure the domain of constituted authority. Relationships between the individual, the community, and the state were central to and sanctioned by the grand design of Providence. The readers presented lessons in life and morality that further blanketed the student's vision of life with the dogma of the Protestant ethos. The salient features of this creed were the superiority, goodness, and sanctity of white- Anglo-Saxon-America. The following excerpt from a school reader is illustrative: But we can now look around on our rich, cultivated, sunny hills, covered with pasture, and waving with golden grain. We live in splendid cities. Beauti­ ful villages are spread over our country, thick as the stars in an evening sky. 35 After our fathers had passed through a great many trials, the Lord blessed their labors and smiled upon them; then there were some who envied them, and the King of England began to oppress them. There were many good people in England who loved the Americans and who did not wish to do them any harm. But there were others there who did not know or care anything about our country, and thought the people here were almost the same as Indians.2-5 This tendency of the school to educate for conform­ ity to an American character type, draped in Anglo-Saxon robes, was to continue into the urban-industrial changeover of the late nineteenth century. During this time, the school was beginning to reflect the difficulties of a society in transition. The rise of the cities, slum conditions, the assimilation of immigrants, the drudgery of factory work, and the diminishing relevance of rural values merged to create a mind-boggling situation for the schools.2 6 Yet, as Henry Parkinson reports, the success pulp of Horatio Alger was still the prototype for the poor child. Our righteous illusions taught that those who were hardworking, frugal, and thrifty were bound to come out fine. By strong inference, and often overtly, our youth were taught that poverty was the result of laziness, stupidity, and godless- ness. 27 Henry Steele Commager, a historian, saw the nineties as a harbinger of modern turbulence. It was a decade in 28 which, "The new America came in as on flood tide." The entrenchment of business activities and attitudes was 4 36 certainly one of the crucial developments. "Business is the most powerful and pervasive interest in American life" 29 writes a leading historian of this era. One consequence of this reality was the heavy adoption of business techniques for use in school management. Raymond Callahan's Education and the Cult of Efficiency makes it clear that the results were a sort of empiricism gone wild: "And when all of the strands in the story are woven together, it is clear that the essence of the tragedy was in adopting values and practices indiscriminately and applying them with little or no consideration of educational values or purposes." 30 With some notable exceptions, the new century was ushered in by a cluster of values that oiled the urge for aggrandizement. Power, prestige, and possessions were key doctrines of the industrial value hierarchy. Yet, according to John Dewey, the schools were ignoring and condoning the impulses at the base of the industrial system. In a like temper, Dewey concluded his Moral Principles in Education by expressing his dismay at the way that morality is wrapped up in breezy platitudes. He beckoned us to vitalize these moral ideas by bringing them down and living them out in an 31 authentic school community. Such appeals to live ethically were quickly swallowed by World Wars, depressions, rising lawlessness, red scares, and patriotic appeals. These and other societal develop­

ments brought sudden value responses from the schools. t 37 Loyalty oaths were common for teachers. The lid was tight on any subject material that might influence a student to question parochial beliefs about the innate goodness of America. Flag salutes and other pledges of patriotism were intensified. School was usually opened by prayer and religious exercises were common. Fears of foreign con­ spiracy, domestic economic travails, and world wars coalesced to produce an understandable, but nonetheless 32 reactive, climate of fear in the school. At the same time, however, the value of concerted reform efforts in education was demonstrated in the thirties. The New Deal engaged many youths in gainful employment through the Civilian Conservation Corps. Perkinson mentions in his book that many useful projects were undertaken, such as planting trees, restoring streams, wildlife protection, and fighting natural disasters. Also, the renewed concern for society, and hence education, allowed the funding and growth of many innovative educational projects that offered promise for the future. 33 This future, however, never came. After the mobilization efforts dictated by World War II, school leaders adopted certain refinements of Progressive education as their conventional wisdom. The school, once again, loaded the dice with an uncommon emphasis on life adjustment, the world of work, neighborhood nights, etc. The intent was positive identification and 38 preparedness for life experiences. However, the pre­ selected school arrangements often disintegrated into an artificial, play-acting type of experience. Conformity and future adjustment were stressed at the expense of scholarly 34 inquiry, present action, and personal meaning. Accordingly, mumblings of the "pure" academic wing were beginning to be heard. Men like Samuel Bestor, Robert Hutchins, and H. G. Rickover were stating that basic educational aims, like dispelling ignorance by accumulating knowledge, were being unduly slighted. And when the Russians launched the first space satellite in 1957, the competitive ethic of America was struck to the quick. Calls for a return to "true" knowledge were accompanied by demands to rid the schools of the educational debris of the lily- minded educationists. Schooling, the public's conception of a civic religion that offered equal opportunity for all, had failed to produce a winner. This was not to be tolerated. 35 The late fifties and sixties were accordingly dominated by curricular reforms that were designed to enhance scholarly attainment. Science and mathematics were particularly stressed. These "heady" programs, often formulated by experts far removed from the realities of the classroom, were given a theoretical boost by Jerome Bruner's The Process of Education. Bruner held, quite impressively, that the structure of a discipline can be taught at any 2 39 place along the spiral developmental process of the child. The task is to find the appropriate medium for this struc­ tural process of teaching. Therefore, the impetus to raise expectations for scholarly achievement was fueled by a supportable theory of a respected educational figure. Other statements in this classic little book, such as Bruner's plea to value the intuitive as a valid force in learning, were essentially ignored. 3 6 Of course, this scientific push was also enveloped by a larger social set of circumstances. Just as the stress came for more objectivity and formalism in the schools, a cultural and political tumult was demanding value involve­ ment. The activism and radical social change in the sixties caused many students to shout "irrelevant" at the dronings of their teacher. A group of romantic critics in education were vehement in their condemnation of what they perceived was the de-humanization of the schools. John Holt called for educators to be secure enough to allow more freedom for the child; Herbert Kohl chided the teacher to abrogate his power; and Jonathan Kozol detailed the human pain wrought by racist practices in the public schools. 37 The tenor of these books was apocalyptic. This tension continues between various conceptions of what education should become, and so it should be. The danger, though, is that while some educators play "king of 4

40 the mountain," the elevation supporting them flattens out. The history of valuation in schools is replete with specialist, self-fulfilling patterns that cloak a broad spectrum of value configurations. If we now live in a global village that is stimulating us to almost forgotten impulses of togetherness, can we continue to skirt the need for a more integrated education? What are some processes of personalizing education that may construct more congruence among our reflective, feeling, and acting capacities?

Value Consciousness; A Personalized Element in Education Some twenty-five years ago, Professor Earl Kelley stated that human beings ascribe meaning to the world around them through their own personal perceptions. This meaning is determined, he said, by what we have come to be through our past experiences. 3 8 Have we come, in 1973, to be hobbled in our efforts for self-realization? Has the throbbing, interdependent world we live in temporarily overwhelmed our capacity to internalize and formulate personal significance from our experience? What can schools do to create possibilities for the development of a value consciousness that will not be seduced by the outer forms of living? To begin with, ventures Professor Kelley, educators must stop confusing means for ends. We assume that an t

41 object or a concept has absolute value apart from the

person's involved. By doing so, says Kelley, we reinforce the separation between learning and its applications to life. The unique perceptions of each person, each with its own special meaning and reason for being, are minimized by the authority dominated arena of the classroom. 39 Instead of looking for relationships between personal experiences, opinions, and the concepts under study, information is often parceled out as if it holds some inherent meaning in itself. The common result, to paraphrase Whitehead, is an inert pupil who is merely informed, if that.40 Albert Einstein felt that imagination was more important than knowledge. Perhaps a stronger appeal to the imaginative powers of youth would help to internalize the intrinsic meaning of learning activities. "The imagination is the medium m which the child lives," 41 wrote Dewey; yet, we tend to school up this urge to be creative by the imposition of rigid external standards for evaluation. An original effort presents the frightful and exciting possi­ bility of personal extension; it is a tentative reaching that is easily snuffed out by an aloof or threatening atmosphere. A sensitive teacher can coax out these self- expressions, though, if the stress is on the personal contribution of the student, not on a comparative evaluation. Another aspect of a more genuine kind of education is an informal, relaxed setting. Charles Silberman in Crisis in the Classroom asserts that, "To enter an informal classroom for the first time is a disorienting experience. . . . The classroom does not look like a classroom. It is, rather, a workshop in which interest areas take the place of 42 the familiar rows of desks and chairs." Silberman reveals his enthusiasm for the involved and purposeful activities he observed in the decentralized classrooms in Britain and America. Decentralization is not a new concept, but the richness and variety of materials now available offer new dimensions for the child. Jean Piaget points out that teaching "means creating situations where structures can be discerned; it does not mean transmitting structures which 43 may be assimilated at nothing other than a verbal level." This more tactile, flexible classroom arrangement is to create a situation where kids are presented with more choices and more opportunities to act upon those choices. It is therefore closer to the conditions of living. Such a learning environment places a premium on participation. But involvement soon sputters if it is not laced with purpose and challenge. Indeed, as John Gardner said, "One of the most difficult problems we face is to make it possible for young people to participate in the great tasks of their time."^ Consequently, if schools are going to elicit a fuller participation in a real sense, it must transcend the classroom and open out to the larger society.45 i

43 By doing so, the student is more likely to see himself as an active agent in that larger sphere of learning. This sense of belonging or role identity is another outgrowth of a value-focused education. Jerome Bruner recently observed of contemporary youth that: "They are searching, I think, not only for a sense of what has happened to the world but a sense of what their own role in it is to be." 46 Reared on television and affluence, many young people chafe under the remnants of a goal oriented society that stresses an external locus of control. A role motivated person has more of an internal locus of control and is more receptive to the "you" directed value questions that tend to arouse impulses to self-inquiry and personal commitment. It is incumbent for schools, as Marshall McLuhan implies, to engage these positive tendencies by formulating a more personal brand of education that meshes with the realities of our changing environment. 47 The age old admonition to "know thyself" takes on renewed import in this modern world. A bounded world like ours, if we are to survive, is forced to look for common threads for humanity that override the obvious differences among the peoples on this planet. Curricular projects like Man— A Course of Study seek to identify a shared humanity by building meaning around three central questions: What is human about human beings? How did they get that way? How 44 can they be made more so? 48 Questions like these, when applied to the experiences of various cultures and to one1s own experiences, can lead to a deeper understanding of oneself and others. Of course, there is no easy avenue to self-knowledge. As Abraham Maslow says, the discovery of identity "comes via the impulse voices, via the ability to listen to your own guts and what is going on inside of you." 49 This comes hard in a society that courts outer-directed motives like clocks, schedules, rules, success, laws, hints from neighbors, etc. However, students can become more conscious of their own values and attitudes by a more intense look at themselves. Sidney Simon and Howard Kirshenbaum contend that one subject students do care about is themselves and "their attempts to develop clear, viable, and sound values in a confused and confusing world." 50 And because this desire for inner harmony is directly related to positive identification with others and society at large, it is suggested that schools include value clarification as one form of a new humanism in education. Value clarification is a personal, experiential learning approach that, among other things, lets the student know that someone cares to listen to his viewpoint. In a world that often seems indifferent and infinitely compli­ cated, a genuine act of mutuality can communicate the 45 feeling that a person does matter. Such expressions of human warmth have always dotted the classroom, but the structure of value content offered through this clarifica­ tion method makes it possible to widen and deepen the quality of affective education. 51 What is the structure of the value clarification approach? It is premised on the design built by Louis Raths in Values and Teaching, who in turn built on the thinking of John Dewey. Unlike many theoretical value treatments, Raths is not overtaken with moralizing about the content of people's values, but he is concerned about the process of valuing. His focus is on how people arrive at certain beliefs and establish certain behavioral patterns. To facilitate such personal recognition, valuing is broken down into the following seven sub-processes: PRIZING one's beliefs and behaviors (1) prizing and cherishing (2) public affirming, when appropriate CHOOSING one's beliefs and behaviors (3) choosing from alternatives (4) choosing after consideration of consequences (5) choosing freely ACTING on one's beliefs (6) acting (7) acting with a pattern, consistency and repetition. Raths advocates such a process orientation, because we believe that in a world that is changing as rapidly as ours, each child must develop habits of examining his purposes, aspirations, attitudes, feelings, etc., if he is to find the most intelli­ gent relationship between his life and the surround­ ing world, and if he is to make a contribution to the creation of a better world.53 i 46 To accomplish this type of independent sense of judgment, the teacher uses clarification techniques that relate values to the flux of life that generates them. As Sidney Simon explains: The teacher uses approaches which help students become aware of the beliefs and behaviors they prize and would be willing to stand up for in and out of the classroom. He uses materials and methods which encourage students to consider alternative modes of thinking and acting. Students learn to weigh the pros and cons and the consequences of the various alternatives. The teacher also helps the students to consider whether their actions match their stated beliefs and if not, how to bring the two into closer harmony. Finally, he tries to give students options, in and out of class; for only when students begin to make their own choices and evaluate the actual consequences, do they develop their own values.54

The specific strategies included in this study were chosen because of their bearing on the development of the internal and external integration of the individual. Also, these approaches were easily connected to the value related literature that was surveyed concurrent with this unit in values education. The intent was that the search for knowledge and the search for values would become interwoven and therefore contain a more unified measure of meaning for the students. 47 Notes

^John Dewey, "The Relation of Theory to Practice in Education," in The National Society for the Scientific Study of Education— The Third Yearbook {Bloomington: Public School Publishing, 1904), p. 30. 2 Erich Fromm, The Revolution of Hope (New York: Harper and Row, 1968), p. 1. 3 Vance Packard, A Nation of Strangers (New York: D. McKay, 1972), p. 2. 4 Frances Fitzgerald, Fire in the Lake (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1972), p. 21. 5 Alvin Toffler, Future Shock (New York: Random House, 1970), Chapter 16, "Future Shock: The Psychological Dimension." 8Ivan Illich, "The Alternative to Schooling," Saturday Review, June 19, 1971, p. 18. 7 Erik Erikson, Identity: Youth and Crisis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1968), p. 259. 8Ibid., p. 260. 9Erich Fromm, Man for Himself (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1947), p. 248. 10Ibid., p. 165. ^Rollo May, Love and Will (New York: Norton Pub­ lishing Company, 1969), p. 14. 12Ibid., p. 18. ■^Ibid. , p. 28. ■^Susan Sontag, "The Aesthetics of Silence," from Styles of Radical Will (New York: Random House, 1965). ^Packard, p. 152. 18Marshall McLuhan, Counterblast (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, Inc., 1969), p. 42. 48 17 William Glasser, "The Civilized Identity Society," Saturday Review, February 19, 1972, pp. 26-31. 18 Fromm, A Revolution of Hope, p. 91. 19Fromm, Man for Himself, Chapter One; May, Love and Will, pp. 10-16. 70Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman (New York: The Viking Press, 1958), p. 22. 21Philip Jackson, as quoted by Charles Silberman, Crisis in the Classroom (New York: Random House, 197 0), p. 373. 22Ruth Anshen, ed., Alfred North Whitehead: His Reflections on Man and Nature (New York: Harper and Row, 1961), p. 28. 23Henry Perkinson, The Imperfect Panacea: American Faith in Education 1865-1965 (New York: Random House, 1968), Chapter One. 24 Ibid., Chapter Two. 25Lawrence Cremin, The American Common School, an Historic Conception (New York: Bureau of Publications, Columbia University, 1951), Chapter Two. ^Arthur Schlesinger, The Rise of the City 1878-1898 (New York: Macmillan and Company, 1933), p. 433.

27Perkinson, p. 75. 2 8Henry Steele Commager, as quoted by Lawrence Cremin, The Transformation of the School (New York: Random House, 1964), p. 90. 29 Richard Hofstadler, Anti-Intellectualism m America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1956), p. 237. 3 0Raymond Callahan, Education and the Cult of Efficiency (London: The Cambridge Press, 1966), p. 244. 31John Dewey, Moral Principles in Education (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1919), Chapter Five. 32Perkinson, p. 17 4.

33Ibid., p. 200. 4

49

34Cremin, The Transformation of the School, p. 280.

3 5 Ibid., p. 292. 3 6Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960), Chapter Four. 3^John Holt, How Children Fail (New York: Pitman Publishers, 1964); Herbert Kohl, The Open Classroom (New York: Random House, 1969); Jonathan Kozol, Death at an Early Age (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1967). 3 8Earl Kelley, Education for What Is Real (New York: Harper Publishers, 1947), p. 25.

3 9 Ibid., p. 2 0 . 40Alfred N. Whitehead, The Aims of Education and Other Essays (New York: New American Library, 1929). 41John Dewey, The School and Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1913), p. 55. 42 Charles Silberman, Crisis in the Classroom (New York: Random House, 197 0), p. 221. 43Jean Piaget, as quoted by Silberman, p. 218. 44John Gardner, Self-Renewal (New York: Harper and Row, 1968), p. 44.

45Kohl, pp. 73-74. 46Jerome Bruner, "On the Continuity of Learning," Saturday Review, March 1973, p. 23. ^Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965), p. 292. 48Peter Dow, "Man: A Course of Study m Retrospect: A Primer for Curriculum in the 70's," Theory into Practice, June 1971, p. 170. 49Abraham Maslow, "Peak Experiences m Education and Art," Theory into Practice, June 1971, pp. 150-151. 50Sidney Simon and Howard Kirshenbaum, "Teaching English with a Focus on Values," English Journal, October 1969, p. 1113. Sidney Simon, Values Clarification— A Handbook of Practical Strategies for Teachers and Students (New York: Hart Publishing Company, 1972), Chapter One.

59Louis Raths, Merrill Harmin, and Sidney Simon, Values and Teaching (Columbus: Charles Merrill Publishing, 1966), p. 37. 54Simon, Values Clarification, Chapter One. t

CHAPTER III

PROCEDURES AND INSTRUMENTS

Introduction The central purpose of this investigation is to determine if value clarification approaches tend to influ­ ence a more unified process of valuing among secondary students. Unified valuing is a process that facilitates a more vital connection among the thinking/ feeling, and acting elements of human behavior. This goal of closer integration was then anchored to the experience-based theories of valuing as expressed in Values and Teaching. To work toward the construction of a more systematic and balanced process of valuing, argue the authors, an educator must first erect a framework for personal valuation that is based on choosing, prizing, and acting. Such a design would: "1. Encourage children to make choices, and to make them freely. "2. Help them discover and examine available alternatives when faced with choices. "3. Help children weigh alternatives thoughtfully, reflecting on the consequences of each.

51 52 "4. Encourage children to consider what it is that they prize and cherish. "5. Give them opportunities to make public affirmations of their choices.

"6 . Encourage them to act, behave, live in accordance with their choices. "7. Help them to examine repeated behaviors or patterns in their life."-*- Through a personalized application of such a rigorous valuing process, students may be better able to clarify, for themselves, what they believe. If such clari­ fication is taking place, say Raths and Simon, certain phenomena will be in evidence. Therefore, this researcher will attempt to identify the following manifestations during the course of the study: 1. Does individual behavior tend to become more purposeful, active, and involved during class­ room activities? 2. Are students more aware of the inconsistencies that exist between what they say they value and how they act? 3. Are students willing to apply the basic three elements (choosing, prizing, acting) to their own valuing experiences? 4. To what extent do the value clarification approaches seem related to personal growth in the affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimen­ sions?

A Problem before Us Some people see our society slipping more and more into an Orwellian miasma of media stimuli and human indif­ ference. If so, we are thrust into a recurrent educational i 53 dilemma. Are we to continue to educate for accommodation to a society that extols competition, progress, and materialistic doctrines as barometers for success? Or, dare the school play a role in changing the social order by developing modes of inquiry and human affirmation that lay more stress on cooperation and commitment? 2 The premature arrival of the future has stunned many Americans into a dangerous sort of listlessness. Whether the issue is military spending, food prices, or Watergate, an embittered sense of resignation is evidenced in many of our citizens. The complexities of flow charts, priority spending, cost analyses, and technological spying apparatus are but a few of the shadowy images that buzz in on our lives. The instant transmission of "problems" via electronic communications imposes a paradox on this over­ exposed generation: while instant awareness may add an appearance of sophistication and hastened maturity, a numbing sort of world-weariness also soaks into our collec­ tive consciousness. The complexities of the problems appear 3 to diminish any paltry action an individual might make. Related to this ambivalence is the evolving nature of personal identity in our culture. For most of this century, many Americans were prone to see themselves in goal-directed terms. The locus of control was generally the unquestioned authority of parent, teacher, preacher, f 54 boss, or officer. If one would only do what the power figure said, the objective of higher pay, promotion, good grades, etc. could be reached. With diligence, briskness, and education, one might be on the cutting edge of a future that would be secure. To deviate from this clamp of expectations was to risk a safe passage along the charted 4 pathway to success.

The post-World War II identity society, however, causes us to look upon ourselves in a somewhat different way. We are now more apt to ask— "What can I do with my life that will reflect my own ideas and beliefs?" Instead of a compulsion to meet external standards for self-approval, a young person of today is often motivated by a role that is more self-monitored. He wants to know the reasons for the instructions. He wants to be involved in the planning. And the swirl of affluence and television has bathed our youth with more being values (friendship, enjoyment) than competitive values (national security, comfortable life).5 Such a flux in identity patterns is bound to arouse a welter of anxieties in any culture. Many wonder if an erosion on the value landscape is undercutting the very fabric of our society. Our sense of belief in ourselves is somehow jolted. Where values were once caught by the osmosis of family, church, and school, there are now a panorama of sights, sounds, things, and experiences that i 55 alter our patterns of belief. And this widened exposure is like a stolen apple— it brings on cramps if eaten too g hastily. To provide a fuller degree of personal control and critical discernment over this fluttering facade of value possibilities is a central concern of this study.

The Setting and Population for this Information A suburban school just north of Columbus, Ohio, was the locale for this inquiry. The investigator is employed there as an English teacher. The student population of one hundred and fifteen consisted of this investigator's four classes of "Modern World Literature." Of the total student population, seventy-seven were sophomores, thirty-five were juniors, and three were seniors. The "Value Survey" pre­

test was given on April 3 0 and the post-test on June 6 . Nearly seven weeks of intensive values education were

bordered by these dates.

Introduction to the Value Unit The first half of the "Modern World Literature" course inquired into certain realities as depicted in recog­ nized world literature. Writings about war, technology, revolution, and loneliness were read and discussed in class. Emphasis was on conceptual development that might create an

increased understanding of some key concerns in contemporary society. 1

56 The personal values unit was introduced as a way of latching onto an individual and collective meaning in such a modern world. To move in this direction, said the instructor, the class would experiment with a variety of personal value activities. The goal would be to look more closely at our beliefs and how we came to adopt those beliefs. To assist in this project, we would structure our concept of valuing around three elements— choosing, prizing, and acting.

The "Process Approach11 to Value Clarification The process approach to valuing that was used in this study is described in Values and Teaching. This con­ ception of valuing concentrates on the way we arrive at our beliefs, not on what our beliefs should be. In doing this, valuing is broken down into three major components— choosing, prizing, and acting. If a person holds a value that is personally impor­ tant, then he may behave in ways that demonstrate the intensity of that belief. When opportunities are presented, he acknowledges his conviction. Also, values are not dropped onto this person like so many bundles on a wagon. A value is chosen critically and thoughtfully after an informed consideration of alternatives. Such a choice includes a realistic grasp of the probable consequences 57 resulting from the application of the value. And the choice of what to value is arrived at without undue coer­ cion; it may exude the flavor of one's surroundings, but it retains an independent sense of judgment. Action, of course, is a basic element of this valuing process. But the action taken, say the advocates of this valuing process, will be a natural consequence of this systematic approach 7 to value clarity.

A Teaching Code for this Value Study Values education is one dimension of a renewed humanism in education. By including more opportunities for personal growth, value educators hope to stimulate more self-awareness and a deeper sensitivity for direct experi­ ences. Basic to these objectives, believes Louis Raths, is a spirit of trust and honest respect that overrides the g give and take in the classroom. This writer, in hope of nurturing such a humane atmosphere, constructed the follow­ ing personal code to help guide his own classroom behavior: Show personal warmth— as evidenced by touch, by smiling, accepting, interested facial expres­ sions; let your eyes transfer these messages; try to reflect a natural responsiveness to kids. Be caring— by being committed to people; be willing to "move around in someone else's shoes"; remember the importance of showing individual recognition and concern. Be tolerant— suspend the impulse to use my own barometer of values to judge others; resist the convenience of the prearranged quiet, order, uniformity, and personal distance that often punctures personal concerns for learning. Be empathic— listen to and appreciate the stu­ dent's position; value the child for who and what he is NOW. Be knowledgeable— probe for unique connections that join subject matter with student experi­ ences; understand the phases of human development; recognize that children develop mentally and spiritually "through their engagement with the environment, through their engagement with people, and through g the comparison of different points of view." Be artistic— in that you are sensitive to the flow, the freshness of the situation; feel when to intervene and when to leave the child alone. Be a guider— suggest, encourage, prod, question, and remind; remember this is usually done best in a conversational tone of mutuality, not with a sour superiority; be alert to the danger of smothering under the guise of teach­ ing. Be firm— "very much there-very much in charge," but this means commonly considered directions, personal contracts, resource references, and honest interaction— not monolithic, power- based directives. Be learning— get excited and involved with student projects; be conscious of creating structures for sharing and interrelating student efforts; be spontaneous enough to be surprised by a new possibility. Be trusting— expect honesty and respect because you are that way; be willing to risk being taken advantage of, but acknowledge and deal with it when it happens. 59 Such a teaching code is based on honest communica­ tion. Often, the individual was given time to reflect and write personal responses to the value stimuli. Also, value sheets attempted to evoke charged reactions by presenting a subjective series of questions around the value stimulus. Some students would pair up, almost spontaneously, to com­ pare reactions or opinions about a value activity. Especially after the value films, a class discussion often grew out of the written responses to the value sheets. It is important, caution Raths and Simon, to offer a variety of person-related possibilities. However, time for thinking and for private written expressions should not be pinched in order to have classwide discussions. Raths emphasizes that value discussions, although they have their place, often tend to reinforce the opinions of the most vocal and steer the more unsure. By encouraging immediate written responses, a more accurate initial expression may be kept in the value journal for future contemplation.^ Consequently, while personal knowledge is a key aim of values education, there is also an important need for a teaching credo that tries to foster student exchanges of feelings and ideas. Hopefully, enough opportunities for private expressions were also included in the class procedure. 60 Rationale for the Choice of Particular Value Areas The specific value topics to be included in this study were chosen because they were thought to be typical areas of value confusion and conflict. These target value areas represent personal, social, and religious concerns. This was deemed desirable by this researcher because the society that the students live within has itself reeled in the face of value changes and social unrest, particularly in the last decade. Therefore, an effort of value clarifi­ cation should confront some of the pervasive value dilemmas that earmark this time of transition. But even in a time of rapid change, it should be recognized that most of the value areas under consideration are timeless problems of human existence. Attitudes toward death, love, and authority have their roots in the history of man. So, enduring and temporal value concerns were chosen in the effort to make the content of the study more vital to the students.

Value Areas in the Study The prime value content areas were: rules— authority race love and sex personal responsibility abortion loneliness aging violence death revolution patriotism self-identity ideals vs realities escapism i

61 Criteria for the Selection of Value Stimuli In order to study the premise that a variety of value clarification procedures will enhance the development of a balanced base for value determination, a number of value stimuli first needed to be selected. It was felt by this investigator that a variety of value stimuli should be included in this inquiry. Since the focus of this project was to be on the process, not the content of valuing, it was decided that a diverse range of value topics and approaches would allow for varied applications of this process. The value stimuli chosen were: 1. Value clarification strategies by Sidney Simon, 2. Value films from "Searching for Values" produc­ tions , 3. Value clarification exercises used with the films,

4. Value speakers, 5. Value-related literature, 6. Pre- and post-tests: "Value Survey" and "Measure of Self-Consistency."

Procedures Used to Clarify the Value Areas A variety of clarification techniques taken from Values Clarification by Simon, Howe, and Kirschenbaum were utilized in this investigation. A brief capsule of the activities follows. 62 Values grid.— This activity introduces the seven processes of valuing. By applying these principles to important issues raised by the students, gaps in the areas of choosing, prizing, and acting may be more clearly recog­ nized at a personal level.

Public interview.— This strategy forwards the oppor­ tunity for public affirmation. A student volunteer is placed on center stage and is questioned on any aspect of his personal values that he is willing to share. To introduce the activity, six pages of possible interview questions were given to the students.

“I learned" statements.— Sentence stems such as "I realized that I . . ." and "I was surprised that I . . ." are built into this activity. They provide a tool for feedback from any value stimulus and thereby hope to clarify and reinforce the meaning of the experience.

Value focus game.— This technique, coordinated with the "Rogerian listening" strategy, has the objectives of increasing sensitivity for, and understanding of, another person's point of view. The rules for focusing, accepting, and drawing out, if followed, create a climate in which sensitive listening can occur.

Rogerian listening.— Humane listening consists of hearing feelings, empathizing with the speaker, and sus­ pending value judgments says Carl Rogers. This exercise « 63 attempts to transmit some of these basic communication principles by having a small group discussion that is monitored toward the practical application of Rogers' precepts.

Alternative action search.— This activity attempts to clarify the inconsistencies between our actions and our professed beliefs. The specific life situations thrust at the students via this technique may prompt a more thorough awareness of personal contradictions. This could result in a personal commitment to better harmonize beliefs and actions.

The miracle workers.— This procedure aims at helping each student better understand his own feelings about what is important to him. Each of the fifteen "miracle workers" has something to offer the student. The task becomes that of personal choice for the participant. The student decides which five miracle workers he values most, which five he values the least, and which five are sandwiched between the extremes.

Value sheets.--This is a way of stimulating value clarification by raising "you"-focused questions, by examining divergent opinions, and by considering contro­ versial statements. Time is then provided for a written student response. This is a relatively non-threatening, 64 individualistic, and thought inducing approach to personal

valuing.

Ways to live.— This well-known value strategy asks the student to rate thirteen alternative life styles according to how much he personally would like to live this way. Also, each person is asked to write a paragraph expressing his own philosophy of life. Ideally, this exercise promises to precipitate within the student a more thoughtful and far-ranging consideration of his own way of life.

The values journal.— Students were requested to keep an ongoing log of personal values information. A journal provides a way to enlarge personal patterns, changes, and dimly focused value configurations by a systematic collec­ tion of personal data. The journal is the student's per­ sonal property, not to be graded or even read by the teacher, unless the student requests that it be read.

The fall-out shelter problem.— This simulated problem-solving game is designed to demonstrate how values differ; how hard it is to arrive rationally with the "best" values; and how we often do not listen to those who hold values that differ from our own beliefs. The task briefly summarized, is to determine what six people, of the ten that remain alive after a nuclear attack, will be permitted

to enter a fall-out shelter.^ *

65 Introduction to the Value Filins Another value clarifying medium was the "Searching for Values" film series from the Learning Corporation of America. This unique visual edits scenes from contemporary feature films to present a value dilemma. The problem presented is not resolved by events in the edited version. Seven of these films were seen during an eighteen-week period. A description of the content of these films may be found in Appendix B. The films used, with their value sub-

titles were: 12 "I Who Am, Who Am I?" from The Swimmer "My Country— Right or Wrong?" from Summertree "Violence: Just for Fun" from Barabbas "Love to Kill" from Bless the Beasts and the Children "Loneliness...and Loving" from Five Easy Pieces "The Right to Live: Who Decides?" from Abandon Ship "When Parents Grow Old" from I Never Sang for My Father

Rationale for Value Films The medium of film can communicate value dilemmas in a very intense fashion. For this reason, and because the new "Searching for Values" film series edits value conflicts from contemporary feature films, it was decided that such films would add power to the value study. These dramatic presentations of value conflicts could add reality to the value study. When issues of value conflict are couched in real life circumstances, the chances for authentic involve­ ment in subsequent clarification activities would seem to

be increased. Value Clarification Approaches Used with the Value Films In order to maximize the reflective and active as well as the emotional potential of the value films, a number of techniques were used after the film showings. Normally, there would be a "quiet time" of five to ten minutes after the viewing. During this interval, students were encouraged to clarify their thoughts and feelings in one or more of the following ways:

1. Value sheets.--Often the students were asked to write a response to several "you"-focused value ques­ tions. After viewing a young man in conflict over what to do with his aging father, the students were asked the following questions: What do you think Gene (the son) should do? What do you think he will do? What do you feel you would do in a comparable situation?

2. Value journals.— Time was given for each student to record any personal responses to the film in his value journal.

3. Role playing.— Students were sometimes invited to assume the roles of some of the key characters and create a resolution to the value conflict. Also, related situations were constructed and acted out.

4. Value discussions.— These discussions would normally build upon the value sheet questions. After 67 clarifying the value conflicts involved, the class would be asked to list alternative courses of action to be con­ sidered. Finally, each student was asked to take a personal stand. This stand might be represented by moving to a designated place in the room that symbolized his attitude toward a statement from the movie; or it might be voting for one of the action alternatives created through class discussion.

Value Speakers Value speakers were identified as people who were willing to stand up and share their personal convictions on a value topic. Students were identified as possible value speakers, or persons known to the students or the instructor could be invited to present their views. For example, a young lady in one of the classes volunteered to express her ideas on abortion. She is a member of the "Ohio Right to Life" organization and presented her information and beliefs to each of the four participating classes. About two weeks later, a literature unit stressing the Black and Indian Experiences in America was introduced. Later that day, a young man in one of the classes, who is part Sioux, offered to share his feelings about being Indian in American society. And finally, toward the end of the month, a student who lived for three years in the Union of South Africa brought her slides showing apartheid as a way of i

68 life. She gave her impressions and remembrances of a "separate but equal" type of society. The instructor arranged for two speakers to con­ tribute to these presentations of value alternatives. Ralph Simpson, a faculty member at a local school, surveyed the development of Indian cultures in pre-colonial Ohio. He then detailed the attitudes and actions of some of the first white settlers to the descendants of these Indian communities. Also, the Black Studies division of the Ohio State University sent a graduate student from Ethiopia to share his perceptions of the black experience in Africa and the United States.

Rationale for Value Speakers Beginning with and during the conduct of this experiment in values education, the classroom was considered a forum for the expression of divergent value positions. Value speakers, people who would share their personal convictions on any value topic, could then help provide a cross-current of value positions. Since anyone could be a value speaker, the labels of "expert" and "experienced" were de-emphasized. Instead, the opportunity for public affirmation of personal beliefs was pointed more toward personal responsibility and commitment. Also, the presence of a value speaker might spark some confrontation on a value issue. People would have a 69 chance to hear the strengths and weaknesses on matters of personal importance. Out of the clash of different atti­ tudes and arguments, a person might walk away less sure of his own prejudices and more willing to get informed on the issue at hand.

Value-Related Literature Used with This Study Since this project was administered in a class of "Modern World Literature," an effort was made to fuse the value activities to the flow of literature under considera­ tion. Of course, a class in literature is framed around creative works that weave in the value preferences of the various writers. The principles of the value clarifying process can therefore be easily transposed to aid the personal understanding of literature. During the span of structured value emphasis, the literature content that was interwoven with the value clarification methods was: 1. A survey of modern American poets (e.g. Cummings, Ferlingetti, Rod McKuen, Leonard Cohen, etc.), 2. "Wounded Knee," a chapter excerpt from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, 3. "Stereotypes," an informative essay, 4. The Black American Experience, a collection of poems, essays, and stories written by black Americans, 5. Kaleidoscope, a collection of black American poetry. 70 Description of the Value Survey This instrument for values research served as a pre- and post-test for this study. Eighteen instrumental and terminal values are provided and each student is asked to rank order the values according to their personal importance to him as a guiding principle in his life. Instrumental values are used here as a means of behavior (ambitious, cheerful, polite). Terminal values stand for a desired end-state or goal for a person (a comfortable life, inner harmony, a sense of accomplishment).13

Rationale for the Value Survey as a Pre- and Post-Test The "Value Survey" by Milton Rokeach helps students become more aware of their own value priorities. If students are to incorporate the choosing, prizing, and acting elements of valuing into their own lives, they must first become more aware of their own belief system. This instrument asks the student to make difficult decisions about his own values; consequently, a backdrop for compari- sons and self-recognition of one's values xs begun. 14

Description of the Measure of Self-Consistency Gergen and Morse constructed this measure of con­ sistency by pooling together a number of positive and negative personality traits gleaned from a battery of i

71 psychological studies. The student is asked to identify five positive and five negative traits that reflect the way the respondent perceives himself. Each of the ten composite personality indicators is then placed on a ten by ten matrix. The student is then instructed to compare each trait with each of the others in terms of consistency or the degree of interrelationship seen between the two traits. If the person sees the two traits as being highly compat­

ible, then a score of "0 " is entered in the appropriate section of the matrix. A score of "I" means that a signifi­ cant relation is recognized between the two personality

factors; a "2 " signifies that the traits are more dissimilar than similar; and a "3" testifies to a high degree of disparity between the character elements. The total of the matrix is then indicative of a person’s self-perceived consistency. Naturally, the higher the score, the more inconsistency the person sees in himself. 15

Rationale for the Measure of Self-Consistency as a Pre- and Post-Test Gergen and Morse's "Measure of Self-Consistency" nurtures the "know thyself" aspect of this value experiment. Each student is confronted with the task of identifying both positive and negative traits about himself. By doing this, the student may be more apt to avoid a blocking of negative traits and, therefore, take a more honest I 72 assessment of his character. The comparison of each trait with each of the others fosters a kind of personal recogni­ tion that raises questions of interrelationship among a diversity of traits. Also, the activity may engender a clearer identification of contradictions in self, relation­ ships among seemingly dissimilar traits, and unnoticed similarities in one's personality structure.^

Criteria for Observations of Personal Growth Louis Raths theorizes that the inclusion of more value clarification approaches, humanely conceived and carried forth, will contribute to the emergence of certain positive behavioral patterns among a student population. Among those behavioral manifestations that he sees as closely related to personal valuing are:

1 . less apathetic, listless behavior— more involved energetic, caring behavior;

2 . less inconsistent, unsteady behavior— more regular, repeated, consistent behavior; 3. less overconforming, dependent behavior— more self-directive, independent behavior; 4. less drifting, lackadaisical behavior— more purposeful, positively directed behavior. During the conduct of the specific value techniques used in this project, this writer constructed an informal guide for focusing in on classroom behavior. This was used 4

73 to structure the field notations that were taken subsequent to the clarification activities. 17 The following two outlines were used by the investigator to structure the above concepts into a work­ able guide for field notations on personal and group behavior.

GUIDE FOR FIELD NOTATIONS ON BEHAVIOR (1) Were the students: (2) Were the students: extremely involved? extremely consistent? moderately involved? moderately consistent? slightly involved? slightly consistent? no external basis for no external basis for judgment? judgment? slightly apathetic? slightly inconsistent? moderately apathetic? moderately inconsistent? extremely apathetic? extremely inconsistent?

(3) Were the students: (4) Were the students: extremely independent? extremely purposeful? moderately independent? moderately purposeful? slightly independent? slightly purposeful? no external basis for no external basis for judgment? judgment? slightly overconforming? slightly drifting? moderately overconform­ moderately drifting? ing? extremely drifting? extremely overconform­ ing? GUIDELINES FOR AN INFORMAL GUIDE TO BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT involvement a willingness to reach out and take an active role in the activity. Includes elements of caring enough to ask questions, disagree, write out reactions, offer suggestions, and participate in general discus­ sion. apathy lacking interest, perhaps he goes through the motions, but communi­ cates an indifference by a blank expression, looking out windows, sleeping, etc. consistent evidence of repetition and regular patterns in behavior. Tends to recognize the discrepancy between words and actions. inconsistent displays one idea or action today and likely an opposite pattern tomorrow. Words and actions are variant, runs hot and cold. independent reveals positions, ideas, and actions that are his own; has the strength to stand up for an idea or opinion when strongly opposed. overconforming - expends his efforts to please the authority figure; is sensitive to what is expected to the point of anxiousness. He takes his cue from the behavior of others. purposeful sees a reason or motivation for most activities; willing to respond, to reach out with little prodding. Likes to share or disclose reactions and opinions with others. drifter tends to take what comes without trying to change it or really be •involved with it. Not much is important or worth giving his time to consider. Rather than grasping onto something, he tends to brush past it. i

75 Description of Self-Reporting Instruments Used by the Students A number of self-reporting instruments were utilized in this study. Among them were: 1. "I learned" statements were sometimes completed at the conclusion of an activity. The student would be asked to complete a sentence stem such as, "I realized that I ... , I was surprised that I ... , I was displeased that I ...” in relation to the value activity just completed. At the end of the values unit, the students were asked to complete a number of stem sentences in relation to their feelings about the six weeks of intensive value study. 18 2. Small group interviews were conducted during the last two weeks of this experiment. Groups of three to five students were asked to comment on their personal impressions of the value study we were doing. A sample question would be: "From the films, speakers, value games, value questions we have asked— what kinds of personal reac­ tions do you have? What do you feel about what we did?" These interviews lasted approximately ten minutes each and every student took part in the interviews. Depending on the nature of the responses, the interviewer asked probing questions in an effort to get concrete impres­ sions that might indicate if the student assimilated the valuing process into his own belief system. 76 3. A personal value paper was one of the writing options at the conclusion of the unit. About one-third of the students chose to develop a paper that would discuss his own feelings about a value topic of his choice. 4. Value journals were kept by the students so that they might record personal reactions to the various stimuli. These were not read or collected by the teacher, but they were a source of private expression and were mentioned during the course of the clarification activ­ ities.

Review of the Procedures and Instruments Used in This Investigation The means of conducting this explorative study were linked to the purpose of the investigation. Since this purpose was to consider the effects of value clarification strategies on the development of an integrated valuing process, a combination of value approaches were utilized. Some aspects of the procedure were directed more to choosing among alternatives, some to prizing or cherishing one's beliefs, and some to acting upon a stated value. Another dimension of the value synthesis was the recognition of larger patterns of relationship between the individual and his world. Therefore, the tapping of direct and personal experiences of the participants was united with the experiences of others through the media of film, literature, 77 and group discussions. The question now remains: to what degree do the student outcomes relate to the purposes of the study? i

78 Notes

1 Louis Raths, Merrill Harmin, and Sidney Simon, Values and Teaching (Columbus: Charles Merrill, 1966), p. 56. 2 Erich Fromm, Man for Himself (New York: Harper and Row, 1947), p. 156. 3 Alvin Toffler, Future Shock (New York: Random House, 1970), Chapter I. ^William Glasser, "The Civilized Identity Society," Saturday Review, February 19, 1972, pp. 26-31. ^Ibid., p. 30. Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968), Chapter 1. 7 Raths, p. 37. ®Ibid., p. 82. 9 Jean Piaget, as quoted in Charles Silberman, Crisis in the Classroom (New York: Random House, 197 0), p. 254. 10Raths, Chapter IV. ^Sidney Simon, Values Clarification: A Handbook of Practical Strategies for Teachers and Students (New York: Hart Publishing Company, 1972)• 12A Teacher's Manual for Searching for Values Films (Long Island City, New York: Learning Corporation of America, n.d.). 13John Shaver and Philip Robinson, Measure for Social-Psychological Attitudes (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969), pp. 156-160. 14 Shaver, p. 159. 15Ibid., pp. 346-350. 16Ibid., p. 350. 17Raths, pp. 276-280. ■^Simon, pp. 163-165. It

CHAPTER IV

PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE DATA

Overview of the Chapter The overriding purpose of this investigation is to gauge the influence of value clarification activities on the growth of a more integrated valuing process. Therefore, the reporting should focus in on the responses that most clearly relate to the choosing, prizing, and acting elements of this particular valuing process. Since the findings will contain highly personalized content, the method of reporting should be one that allows for the richness and variety of human responses. In an effort to include as much depth and diversity as possible, it was decided that the reporting should be centered around the objectives for this study. The data reported will be a cross-section that most clearly articulates the responses to the four stated objectives of the study. Following each section will be a commentary that will attempt to assess the findings for each objective. The final portion of the chapter will be concerned with the synthesizing of the particular outgrowths of the study with

the overall purpose of the investigation.

79 It 80 Objectives The objectives revolve around the recognition and possible manifestations of personal value growth. The students involved in the study were observed in a variety of value activities. Also, the students were asked to keep a personal journal; they were interviewed; and there were numerous opportunities to write out personal responses to the value stimuli. The following objectives were used to focus in on the range of human responses precipitated by the value activities: 1. To determine if exposure to values clarification approaches tends to stimulate more purposeful, active, and involved behavioral patterns. 2. To clarify some inconsistencies apparent between what we say we value and how we act in particular situations. 3. To report indications of student applications of the choosing, prizing, acting value process. 4. To identify expressions of feelings, thoughts, and actions that suggest personal recognition and value growth patterns that seem related to value clarification activities.

Sources for the Supportive Data Described in the Study The outcomes from this values experiment grew out of a variety of procedures used in the investigation. The student exemplars categorized under each objective were chosen because they were thought to be some of the more 4 81

articulate responses to the value stimuli. These exemplars were intended to reflect a representative sampling as the researcher attempted to include a wide selection of responses. The exemplars come from three sources: 1. Interviews: small group and individual inter­ views were held the last two weeks of the study. The focus questions were: "From the films, speakers, value games, value questions we have asked, what kinds of personal reactions do you have? What are your feelings about what we did? 2. Value papers: a writing option at the end of the values unit. This paper could analyze a personal value conflict, discuss any of the value topics considered during this study, or evaluate the values study. 3. "I learned" statements: at the conclusion of some of the values activities, and at the end of the unit, the students were asked to complete sentence stems. Examples of the phrases com­ pleted are: I realized that I . . . I was displeased that I . . . I was surprised that I . . . . Other sources of data were: 1. Pre- and post-tests: Value Survey— students rank order values according to their personal importance to them. Measure of Self-Consistency— students identify positive and negative traits and then compare and contrast them in terms of self-consistency. 2. Searching for values films: seven films that presented value dilemmas in contemporary life situations. 3. Value speakers: five speakers brought forth their personal positions on value topics important to them (abortion, segregation of races, treatment of Indians by whites, causes of racial prejudice). 82

4. Field notations: an informal guideline was constructed for observations of student behavior during value clarification activities. This behavioral aid was built around the con­ cepts of involvement, consistency, independence, and purposeful activity.

Data Relating to Objective One Objective One.— To determine if exposure to values clarification approaches tends to stimulate more purposeful, active, and involved behavioral patterns.

Student Exemplars from Personal Interviews JIM: It didn't mean that much to me . . . except for when we played these games . . . I liked the listening games and all the games where we checked the values with the sheets. I liked that. That sort of helped me discover more about my own per­ sonality cause I had to mark down traits about myself. TOM: I didn't think we changed as much as we should have. We had the same people in every group . . . we didn't get to know somebody on the other side of the room; it just kind of split up in little sec­ tions. I think we should have drawn lots, or something like that, and split everyone up so we could get different opinions of everybody else instead of just one person. After a while, you could just get to know what the other guy would think. You wouldn't really have to ask him or any­ thing because you'd already know. SUE: I got the most out of the [small group] discussions because I expressed my own views. It was better when it was with somebody I knew. I don't think I could get in a group with people I didn't know and just talk— but I knew the group that I was in and I could just say what I wanted. MARY: I really liked those [small] groups a lot. That was my favorite part because you got to say something and you knew the other people were really listening to you and you could say what you were really thinking. You could also hear what the other person was saying. You could say what was on your mind without being embarrassed.

Excerpts from Student Value Papers RUTH: This relates very closely to those charts we filled out a couple of weeks ago regarding seven controversial issues and our stands toward them. I discovered that I wasn't thinking for myself nearly enough, and also, I was doing absolutely nothing toward realizing the ideals of my attitudes. This is how I came to decide that as long as I don't work for my ideals, I might as well not have any. PAM: Being able to clearly and openly look upon things is also very vital to one's life. I, myself, can be very stubborn at times, when I cannot see another person's view of something. But I know that I've made a major change in my way of thinking on the issue of abortions. This topic has always seemed of no real importance until I heard a speaker talk about it. I have always felt that abortions were wrong in some instances, but after careful thought, I now know that abortion is wrong, in any case! I never looked at it that way before, and when I began thinking about it, it made real sense. BETH: One of the ideas that I found I had is the statement, "not to decide is to decide" . . . I saw the movie with the crowded lifeboat. It suddenly dawned on me that I am often faced with situations and even though I may not get involved, that in itself might effect the situation. PAUL: I have noticed a great change in my feelings and opinions. For one, I never used to be open- minded. I never used to get involved. Whether anyone else noticed it or not, for me I participated and had many new ideas . . . what I'm really trying to say is that during the four months, me, person­ ally, I think my personality is more open . . . I have come to the conclusions about my feelings and beliefs mainly through the way I feel and the way I answered some questions in my journal. « 84 Some Completed Sentence Stems AARON: I realized that I want to get involved in things and make changes. I want to make improve­ ments. BECKY: I realized that I am an individual and I care about what I think and do. DOUG: I wonder why people just don't give a damn. BOB: I was surprised that I enjoyed some of the books I've read. Before, I doubt I would think of reading them. HELEN: I was pleased that I grew closer to many kids in this class, more so than in other classes. RACHEL: I recognized that I need to think a lot about life and what kind of role I'll play in it. I don't intend to let the human race botch every­ thing up. MIKE: I was displeased that I couldn't always get my feelings and thoughts across to other people. FRANK: I realized I can change my future; I don't have to just let it happen. NANCY: I was surprised that I didn't mind the papers so much in this class. I guess they were more obvi­ ously relevant to the course.

Values Films and Follow-Up Value Clarification Activities "Violence: Just for Fun" was related, through a role-playing situation, to a novel called The Butterfly Revolution that had just been read and discussed in class. In this book, a group of teenage boys revolt and take over a summer camp because they were being treated like small children and weren't having any fun. Three deaths result from this pleasure-motivated caper. When it was announced, 85 a few days in advance, that we were to see a film about violence for fun, a student saw me privately after class. He suggested that we follow the film with a revolution in the classroom. This was then planned with only three students aware that it was a contrived situation. After seeing the film, an argument about the worth of this film erupted between this writer and these three students. The exchanges were heated. Suddenly, the three youths accosted the teacher, grabbed him, and pushed him out of the door as they shouted their disgust with the subject matter we had been studying. The unsuspecting class sat and watched in shocked silence. Several minutes later, the four of us re-entered, revealed the role situation, and listened to the reactions of the relieved class members. One girl said she felt her respect for me dissolving away as I shouted at the students. A boy said he couldn't believe what was happening and therefore became a stunned onlooker. A few said they wondered what "got into" the three enraged students. Some commented on their surprise at the teacher's unusual show of anger. When asked to compare the personal effect of this scene with the violence depicted on screen and in book, the general consensus was that they had become used to written and projected violence but the first-hand experience was more intense. 86 "Love to Kill" was also paralleled to The Butterfly Revolution as both were stories of violent revolutions sparked by value differences between adolescents and adults. Following the film, two discussion groups with about twelve students in each were guided by student leaders. The questions, formed by students, revolved around cultural attitudes toward killing, the value of revolution, and violating the law because of personal beliefs. The inter­ action was usually active and sometimes volatile. In each class, the divisions were distinct between those who revered life to the point of refusing to kill, to those who sanc­ tioned killing under certain circumstances. The majority felt efforts should be made to change laws instead of violating them. And most believed that while revolution is understandable under the press of unjust circumstances, other available avenues should be sought first because revolutions characteristically spill out of control.

Value Speakers All of the speakers could be included under a phrase like "tends to stimulate more purposeful, active, and involved behavioral patterns." But the following illustra­ tions will be limited to those aspects of the public affirmation that stimulated visible active involvement from the student audience. Other outgrowths from the guest 87 speakers will be considered as they relate to the appropri­ ate objective. Lisa Holmes, a student, was the first value speaker. An articulate and poised young lady, Lisa presented a pamphlet, information, and her own opinions on the value- charged issue of abortion. The pictures in the pamphlet from Ohio Right to Life showed the grim results of abortion — human lives stacked in plastic-bagged garbage pails; limbs and arms torn apart by suction abortion; and the charred remains of fetal life burned away by salt poisoning. More­ over, information that established the early heartbeat (18-25 days) and brain waves (seven weeks) of the child rammed home the realization that abortion, indeed, was the painful destruction of life. All of this resulted in a somewhat jarred, but sharpened, consideration of alterna­ tives to abortion. While some still held that the parents had the right to determine life or death, it was pointed out that the Dial-for-Life Organization will provide hospital and doctor expenses for the expectant mother. Also, adoption procedures for unwanted children can easily be arranged. As the exchanges began to hone in more on the heart of the matter, what began to crystallize was the degree of inconvenience, embarrassment, discomfort, and personal values of the progenitors weighed against the morality of destroying an individual life. A number of i 88 students expressed a reversal or reconsideration of their

attitudes about abortion. The saga of the American Indian has a certain romantic attraction for many people. And with recent attention to recounting the red man's story, it was not surprising that the students were enthralled when Mark Randall, a fellow student, appeared in full Sioux garb to air his views. He shared his experiences on a Sioux reserva­ tion in South Dakota, pointed out the high rate of suicide among young Indians, and angrily denounced the lack of concern for human dignity in the government-regulated reservations. His harsh content was mollified by a moderate delivery. Taken together, he triggered expressions of affirmation and concern from the students. Someone asked about the acceptance of white people on a reservation. Mark then spoke of the suspicious, wary attitude reserved for any white, especially a newcomer to the reservation. Out of such interaction came some suggested courses of action for those who felt a sense of commitment: 1. Become active in supporting federal legislation for financial support to the Indians. 2. Get informed about the restrictions of reserva­ tion life. 3. Try to convince others of the need for adequate federal subsidies for Indian education. 4. Become actively involved with the realities of Indian life. t

89 Field Notations on Student Behav­ ioral Patterns during Specific Value Clarification Strategies Value focus game.— This strategy resulted in a lot of polar behavioral responses. For a majority, an active involvement was very evident through animated expressions, gestures, and eye contact that indicated a high degree of immersion in the activity. For some, however, behavior was quite inconsistent and drifting. Rather than independently arriving on a topic and a mode of operation for trying to communicate it, these students faltered and then soon stopped any attempts to understand one another.

Rogerian listening.— This exercise, once again, stresses the sensitivity that is involved in the process of communication. The less mature students, particularly some of the males, drifted away fast from this activity. Yet, a good percentage worked conscientiously at applying Dr. Roger's axioms for sensitive listening. A certain emotional maturity seemed to be a contingent factor for positive involvement in this activity. In more than a few instances, some moderate over-conformers began to recognize their susceptibility to the viewpoints of others. This was shown by statements such as "I'm not changing my mind this time!" and by later revelations in personal essays.

Value journal.— Since this was an optional, non­ graded exercise that required out-of-class attention, it is I 90 estimated that it only received slight to moderate involve­ ment. Some students were extremely consistent in placing each strategy in their journal. Others showed little or no concern in keeping an ongoing log. Some of the final value essays attested to the fulfillment of the goal for a value journal— recognition of enlarged value patterns through data collection.

Fall-out shelter.— This was a most involving and purposeful activity. The simulation to life and the close coordination to subject matter may have elevated the success of this technique. Behavior was consistently active and independent in nature. Students would often select three or four survivors with little confrontation. Soon thereafter, voices would rise, reasons would be exchanged, and efforts would be made to convince the undecided members of the group. There was very little apathetic or drifting behavior in evidence during this simulation.

Commentary Related to Objective One Values clarification, as illustrated by these data, may evoke a very diverse field of responses. One person may be relatively unaffected by a value speaker, another student may be influenced to act in different ways because of the impact of the speaker's ideas. It appears, however, that a number of students were triggered to some phase of t 91 purposeful, active, and involved behavior through their exposure to a variety of value stimuli. One level of active awareness is to physically see how many unchecked squares one has on a value grid. A person could be struck, as one student was in the previous section, by his own lack of independent thought and action on issues that are personally important to him. The ques­ tion is— will this person be more motivated to work for his ideals or will he slip into a numb indifference toward them? In a number of instances, students verbalized their desire to act upon their ideals. Another strategy to fuse active personal and inter­ personal involvement was the small interaction groups. With some students, the activity groups became a place for personal sharing; they became a place to exchange opinions, to listen to personal experiences, and to compare reactions to the value stimuli. For others, they became a predictable and uninspired ritual. A reluctance or fear to grapple openly with the value topic was evidenced by long silences, surface questioning, and abbreviated responses to the content material. Most groups were somewhere between those extremes. On some occasions, especially those strategies that contained rating lists, checklists, numbered scores,

etc., the participation was quickened. a

92 The most emotion-fused impact on students was usually through a direct experience. When a student came to give a forceful presentation on the "Right to Life," many students were jarred to personal involvement. Of course, such a spur to the emotions can lead to strong reactions, like "I know that abortion is wrong, in any case!" The value films also prompted a flurry of feelings. The young person who observed that "not to decide is to decide" is exercising a more reflective thought pattern than did many of the students. The first few minutes of discussion following a value film were more likely to involve one's anger, disappointment, or depression than one's considera­ tion of the ideas and choices presented through the film. The sentence stems completed by the students were often quite revealing. In this section, the references to individual action, to reading and writing involvement, and to interpersonal warmth and communication were quite evident. The urge to assert oneself has taken a variety of forms. Some of the students refer to a political role; others point to their determination to shape a personal sense of direc­ tion; and still others express an interest in pursuing more learning in a particular area. More important than the particular focal point, at least to this researcher, is the activeness toward a worthwhile goal. Data Relating to Objective Two Objective Two.— To clarify some inconsistencies apparent between what we say we value and how we act in particular situations.

Student Examplars from Personal Interviews

CARRIE: Something I've noticed in myself is that I'll say something and when I'm faced with the situation, I'll act completely different. Maybe it's because of my ingrown feelings about things that have been planted there since I was a child. I've had slight changes from this class . . . more than I have had from just being around people. This class has directed me toward saying what I really felt and I have started now to state my opinions. If I had been prejudiced, I would have stated that I was prejudiced. And I've found that I'm really a lot different than I think I am— I mean I act differently when confronted with the situation than I say I would. PETER: I remember when I used to let someone else say something and then I'd kind of go along whether that was really what I thought or not. But now, I'm beginning to stand up for what I believe in. I just say what I believe instead of trying to go along with everybody else. PAT: I'd say one thing and really mean the other, just to go along with people because you know the reaction you'd get [if you didn't] . . . it's been a different experience just being able to say what you mean and feel good about it. JOHN: The last survey really showed this— about the woman losing her wallet— what would you do idealistically? realistically? . . . if you really had to stand up for something, I think this course kind of gave a little insight. Would you do it or not? Each person could figure it out for them­ selves . JEFF: Most people are easily influenced by the group. In the movies you could notice how people were influenced by other people whether they believed in something or not. In the lifeboat, the other people didn't want to throw them overboard, but they yielded to authority. They believed one thing and did another because authority made them bend to it.

Excerpts from Student Value Papers LINDA: Men should be honest with themselves first, then search for the truth pertaining to all men. Hypocrisy is destroying America. Although I have met sincere people who want to learn about minor­ ities, too many are afraid, angry, or evasive. Many state that they are embarrassed. How can one continue to live an "embarrassing" life without attempting to change it? MICKEY: About being inconsistent in values . . . I've done that an awful lot. I get one point of view and think about it an awful lot and I agree with it, and then somebody else tells me their point of view and that makes sense to me too. I can't decide what I really believe in more or what would be better applied to my life. This class has really brought out more about what I think my values are.

Some Completed Sentence Stems HOLLY: I learned that I have a long way to go to "brotherly love," but I'm getting a little closer all the time. JULIE: I realized that I am not all I think I am. MIRANDA: I recognized that I am very vulnerable to hypocrisy and also I'm very human, making many mistakes. MARK: I learned that I could show what I believe in just by living it. DUANE: I was surprised that I do not always do the "best" or "ideal" thing. JIM: I learned that I want to try to be con­ sistent in the things that I say and do. * 95 RICK: I was displeased that I do nothing about real problems. GAIL: I realized that I didn't really commit myself to what I believed in. BILL: I wonder why people don't live what they believe even if they are afraid of what other people think?

Pre- and Post-Tests Value Survey (pre-test).— This instrument attempts to foster a clearer recognition of one's own value- attitudinal hierarchy. Milton Rokeach believes that a person's terminal values, or desired end-states of exist­ ence, lie at the core of his belief system. The means or mode of conduct, as represented by instrumental values, are considered to be a level removed from the pivotal position of the terminal values. Nevertheless, the instrumental values relate to the everyday experiences that impose the nuances of life upon personal convictions. A sensitivity to the tension between these two elements of the value system is thought, by Rokeach, to be basic to the growth of insight into one's own value organization. Therefore, this survey is an adjunct to the clarification of values. Within this frame of reference, this tool can be used as a sort of barometer to pinpoint the disparity between what we say we believe and how we proceed to act. On April 30, this measure was administered to the participating students. The results, among the terminal 4 96

values, indicate a preference for salvation, freedom, happiness, inner harmony, exciting life, and wisdom. The highest scores at the bottom of the list were ascribed to national security, salvation, and social recognition. Salvation was usually ranked at the extremes and therefore appears in both the highest and lowest preferences. Being honest, independent, loving, and responsible were the highly regarded instrumental values. And the least esteemed of the instrumental values were being clean, imaginative, obedient, and intellectual.

Value Survey (post-test).— At the conclusion of the study, the Rokeach survey of value priorities was again administered. This time, the top terminal value choice was true friendship. Salvation and exciting life were equal in first-place votes but both fell off quickly. Freedom was again in the preferred area, as were wisdom and a new arrival— self-respect. Similar to the pre-test, national security, salvation, and social recognition made up the least admired values. There was a rapid leavening off at the bottom with the exception of these dubious three values. Honest and independent were far and away the pre­ ferred instrumental values. Loving was a consistent third, and broad-minded showed a marked upswing. As before, clean and obedient were considered in a negative light. Polite t 97 was ranked lower than it was previously; intellectual and logical were also perceived as less than attractive.

Measure of Self-Consistency (pre-test).— One of the objectives of this study is to bring to surface some of the value inconsistencies that characterize human behavior. Oftentimes people will be unaware of glaring contradictions between words and actions, means and ends. Some researchers in value formation believe that if people are confronted with these inconsistencies, they will, in many cases, alter their attitudes and actions to achieve a closer harmony. Gergen and Morse's self-consistency measure was used to elicit just such a self-appraisal. By identifying and then interrelating five positive and five negative personality traits, the students examined their own self-perceptions. The pre-test was given on the first of May. Scoring is represented on a matrix that combines each trait with each of the other traits. If the traits are perceived as being different or opposite, a "2" or "3" is recorded. If similarity is seen, a "0" or "1" is indicated. The scores ranged from a very consistent 62 to a most inconsistent 261. The median score was 159. The highest evidence of con­ sistency was generally shown when positive traits were compared. Negative traits, when related to each other, were perceived as being more inconsistent than the positive pairings. But the highest degree of inconsistency came when positive and negative traits were interrelated. This was to be expected as it follows the pattern of responses described by Gergen and Morse. Regardless of the specific trait under scrutiny, the greatest inconsistency is gen­ erated when people are confronted with opposites in their own character structure.

Measure of Self-Consistency (post-test).— Self- perceived consistency was improved in practically every way on this second testing. The lowest score was an extremely consistent 30^ and the highest was 235, somewhat lower than the high of 261 on the pre-test. The median score was 148, compared to 159 on the pre-test. Individual variations were sometimes quite pronounced. For instance, one person ranged from a 124 on the pre-test to a 5(5 on the post-test. One girl dropped from a 216 to a 97. An upward climb was also in evidence; one young man moved from a 128 to a 155, while another rose from a 171 to a 191.

Values Films and Follow-Up Value Clarification Activities Perhaps the most visually dramatic film in this unit was "The Right to Live: Who Decides?" This visual drama­ tized how, in certain situations, actions may be at odds with ideals. The value of an individual human life versus the responsibility of the captain to insure group survival gave rise to an ethical dilemma. Should the old and weak be 99

sacrificed for the common good? If so, does this mean that the individual life is expendable if it is expedientto the situation? These and other questions spiralled into some lively class discussions. In every class, most felt that the captain overstepped his authority, but there was no unanimity about what would have been a more appropriate course of action. Among the alternatives suggested were: 1. Ask for volunteers to go overboard. 2. Leave it in God's hands. 3. Wait a few days before making a decision. 4. Have a common vote on who should be placed overboard. 5. Let the people hang onto the lifeboat. 6. Overpower the captain and allow a new leader to evolve from the group.

Field Notations on Student Behav­ ioral Patterns during Specific Value Clarification Strategies Values grid.— Involvement in this activity was moderately successful. Students that were highly motivated toward self-analysis responded extremely well. A number of students lost interest quickly. The process of suggesting issues and concerns for possible inclusion on one's value grid was purposefully done. Most seemed to fill in the grid completely. The follow-up discussion of the seven-step valuing process was stimulated by some student recognitions of previously unnoticed "gaps" in what they thought they 100 had really valued. This was the first clarification strategy used.

Alternative action search.— Most students seemed moderately to extremely involved during this activity. The close proximity of the possible alternatives and identifi­ able real-life situations was one involving factor. Also, the way in which the ideal response to the situations was often in opposition to a probable real reaction induced many to come face to face with their own inconsistencies. Consequently, behavior was surprisingly purposeful, in the sense of providing a rationale for a course of action and then weighing it against an alternative line of reasoning.

Commentary Related to Objective Two Incongruity between stated ideals and personal actions has long been a difficulty of mankind. And of course we will all continue to fall victim to our self- interest, or our need for security, or our prejudices, or our submission to figures of authority, etc. But how can the gap be narrowed between what we are and what we would like to be? Does an honest recognition of such duality facilitate a growth toward more congruity between ideals and realities? These speculative questions, however, first need to be braced against the student commentaries. Many responses mention "going along" with someone else's values. In some cases, this seems to stem from 101 "things that have been planted there" since childhood; in other situations, going along is perceived as being easier than confronting the emotional reaction of a value conflict. One student refers to "the reaction you would get" if you didn’t go along. Another response points to the embarrass­ ment that causes people to avoid value issues. Still another reason for a value void is confusion. A young lady was unsure about her religious beliefs and, therefore, "became very confused about my own morals." Another person says, "I can't decide what I really believe in more or what would be better applied to my life." Faced with such uncertainties, it is not difficult to understand the attractiveness of just "going along." A problem is often identified, however, by those who recognize their conformity. As one young lady put it, "Men should be honest with themselves first." Some of the stu­ dents seemed to recognize a breach between their words and their actions. One person phrased it, "And I've found that I'm really a lot different than I think I am— I mean I act differently when confronted with the situation than I say I would." The value activities triggered a sharpened aware­ ness of this separation for some: "The last survey really showed this— about the woman losing her wallet— what would you do idealistically? realistically?" Another made reference to a value film that showed a group of people 4

102 acting on an idea that they verbally opposed. The presenta­ tion of specific situations to graphically illustrate the difficulty of applying one's stated beliefs seemed to generate self-appraisal. As one student stated it, "I recognized that I am very vulnerable to hypocrisy and also I am very human, making many mistakes." The pre- and post-tests also pointed out incon­ sistencies between stated beliefs and actions taken by the students. For example, being honest was the highest ranked instrumental value. However, during the value clarification activities, it was brought out that in some specific situations (finding a wallet, cheating on a test, lying to protect oneself, etc.) honesty would not govern individual actions. The students were then forced to recognize the ambivalence between ideals and actions. Of course this disjuncture was not resolved by class discussion but alternative approaches to specific situations were mentioned

and considered.

Data Relating to Objective Three Objective Three.— To report indications of student applications of the choosing, prizing, acting value process.

Student Exemplars from Personal Interviews RANDY: I used to feel reading was to obtain infor­ mation and facts. I had always enjoyed reading. Now my favorite book is Aesop's Fables. Don't laugh! i 103 Really! I read one [fable] a night and think about it, the next day seeing if the morals can apply to anything I do. Many times they don't but when they do I have a good feeling. BOB: We should have had more time to read books and time to do reports. GARY: I think this class has really made me think about what I believe in . . . before I had never really thought about my values . . . I thought I just sort of knew what I believed in, like in honesty. This class made me realize that that's not really what I think. I think there are cases where I know I wouldn't be honest.

Excerpts from Student Value Papers KATHY: The values unit was worthwhile because when you had to compare your different values, what you thought was more important or not— it challenged you to make a decision. I was kind of going through, before this class . . . I don't know . . . every­ thing was all muddled up and I didn't really think hard about my values. When I had to compare and find my feelings and had to search deeper . . . well, I do think clearer and know how I feel about some things. It challenged me to think harder about certain things. BILL: My most prized possession is my Dale Carnegie Diploma. It means a lot to me because I won three of the awards and was voted one of the top three who contributed the most to the class. I am proud that the people thought that much of me, and that they would accept me as I am and not look at me as a long-haired teenager . . . the personal values study has helped me outside of class more than you can imagine. DEBBIE: After reading about many world-wide con­ cerns, we are concluding with a unit on values. The unit, if approached with sincere reflection, can open many doors to the inner self. It holds special interest to me because I am a black girl in a pre­ dominantly white school. In this paper, I would like to draw from the total black experience and define it in terms of Joyce Campbell's experiences. 1 104 After a black value speaker stirred up some "unpleas­ ant feelings" that could have been easily dodged, Sarah wrote: However, a short conversation with Pam during one of our classroom activities made me resolve to get to the bottom of these feelings . . . so far I have discovered a wonderful person and the beginning of a deep new understanding . . . in relation to blacks, however, the bad attitude didn't even show up until I dug it up a few days ago . . . I realize now, though, that underneath I have long had the vague feeling that blacks are to be looked at with suspicion, scorn, and distaste, and that it is quite virtuous to convince oneself that one does not have an inkling of these feelings. . . . I am surprised how accurately I picked up this point of view, at a relatively young age, and how unaware I was of having picked it up. . . . What, now, can be done about this unfruitful situation? . . . Pam and I both wanted to talk to each other more about my feelings, so several days later we met after school and talked . . . I had been hoping that I could sort of ignore the fact that she is black and get on with the business at hand. She talked about both sides having similar shortcomings, but by then I had already felt that, in her mind, being black sets her apart from my race and from me, though she is not a "separatist." When she said, in conclusion, that she hoped I could get a little understanding from her as a person who just happened to be black, such quiet pride and loving self-consciousness shone through the word "black" that a new vista opened in my mind and I felt like crying. At last I understand that there ijs something special to being black, just as there is something special to being German, or female, or addicted. . . . Certain it is that we cannot be one unless we are many, and that we cannot be whole individuals unless we are united. . . . 1 feel my lack of under­ standing strongly, and also my discomfort and inability to communicate meaningfully with people, especially blacks. I don't really understand that Black is beautiful, but it is not hard to see that Pam is beautiful, and I guess that's a start. Some Completed Sentence Stems TOM: I was surprised that I really valued my beliefs. LARRY: I was pleased that I am able to stand up for all the causes in which I believe. KATHY: I learned that I can change my values and attitudes if I try. SUSAN: I wonder if I will always stand by what I think or if I will just let things go as they will. STEVE: I was surprised and pleased that I was able to stand firm on one issue. MARK: I was surprised that I didn't stick to some of my former ideas and beliefs. BETTY: I learned that I value my friends very highly and that I am afraid to see what the future holds for me. LOIS: I was pleased that I realize now that I have to form opinions of my own that are important. MATT: I learned that I was very unstable on my views and recognized that I should start looking at things more objectively. SCOTT: I learned that I downgrade minorities for no reason other than what I hear. MARIA: I was surprised that I could speak out so strongly on things what I was being opposed. PETE: I was pleased that I got the chance to say what I think. KEVIN: I wonder why I never took the time to think about these things before. DAVE: I realized that I hated value games and I never want to see one again. RHONDA: I liked this course because . . . we made decisions about what we would do and this was dif­ ferent. 4 106

GREG: I learned to listen to others yet still be able to come to the conclusion about my own feel­ ings . WENDY: I was surprised that I changed the way I felt and listened to others. SALLY: I learned that I have opinions that I like and am proud of. NANCY: I recognized that I needed to do my own research on a subject before coming to any conclu­ sion about it. When I hear people talk, I must not accept everything they say because it might be (and probably is) biased. BETTY: I learned that I was not thinking on my own. I realized that I was of the same opinion as this person I really admire and after I heard her stand on something, I "felt” the same way. STEVE: I was surprised that I really got nothing out of the values games.

Values Films and Follow-Up Value Clarification Activities The value of personal commitment in human relation­ ships was explored as a result of seeing "Loneliness... and Love." A value sheet asked the students to write their personal reactions to the following two speeches from the film episode: Catherine's rejection of Robert: "You're a strange person, Robert. If a person has no love or respect for himself, no love of his friends, family, work— something— how can he ask for love in return? Why should he ask for it?” Robert's description of himself: "I move around a lot, not because I'm looking for anything really, but because I'm getting away from things that get bad if I stay." 4 107

After allowing time for written responses, two modern poems about love and loneliness were distributed. The students were then asked to look for similarities and differences between the poet's ideas about responsibility in personal encounters, the ideas expressed through film, and their own feelings. Each group shared their findings, which are cap- sulized as follows: 1. Leaving or removing oneself from a relationship is often the only alternative. 2. A person shouldn't expect a relationship to last indefinitely. 3. Commitment is not something to be expected, or perhaps even necessary, but is more a matter of a mutual understanding between the people involved. 4. Love is a child of freedom; it can be snuffed out if obligation becomes too burdensome. 5. Being left out, ignored, or overlooked are com­ mon occurrences in a big school. 6. Someone has to be willing to give more, to make himself more vulnerable, if a relationship is going to survive. 7. Distances between people are difficult to over­ come; why do so many seem unfriendly? The final value film addressed the problem of aging in a youth-drenched society. The value conflict that the son faces is one of priority: Is my first responsibility to my father or to myself? To bring out the feelings and 108 thoughts kindled by the film, a value sheet included these questions: 1. What do you think Gene (the son) should do? 2. What do you think he will do? 3. What do you feel you would do in a comparable situation? 4. Why do you think you feel the way you do? 5. What is your attitude toward your grand­ parents? The interaction that followed centered on the value question — what responsibility does an individual have to the aged in his family? The possibilities considered were: 1. An individual has no responsibility to his aging relatives. 2. A younger member should offer financial assist­ ance. 3. A family member should arrange for institutional care. 4. The younger family member should arrange for medical care and house care so the elder can live at home. 5. The individual should move near his older relative and be available to help when needed. 6. An individual should open his home to his elder relative for a limited period of time each year. 7. An individual should provide a home and care for the elder family member. A listing of alternatives prompted some to express how this situation was handled in their own families. A few spoke of grandparents who were happier in nursing homes. i

109

Some disclosed that parental conflicts were sparked by a relative moving in. Others said that the addition of an elder in the home was in many ways a positive factor to family stability. After exposure to the film, diverging opinions, and alternatives for action, each person was asked to reconsider his attitude toward this value issue.

Value Speakers In conjunction with a unit on minority literature, Sue Baker, a former resident of South Africa, supplied a close-up look at apartheid by showing slides from that troubled land. The juxtaposition of lush, expensive, white-owned homes and the clay huts of the natives was striking to many of the students. Also, Sue's comments about the lack of education opportunity for blacks in this supposed "equal1' society were soon related to the Indian and black experiences in America. Some of the parallels noted between these geographically separated minorities were: 1. Both are framed in white-dominated cultures. 2. Both suffer from a lack of positive identity in that culture. 3. Both are perceived with fear and mistrust by the minority whites. 4. Both have been forced to deny their own cultural heritage. 5. Both seem dedicated to a continued struggle for equal treatment in their cultures. 4 110 Field Notations on Student Behav­ ioral Patterns during Specific Value Clarification Strategies "I learned" statements.— Students were very respon­ sive to this activity. This was used only as a written, feedback exercise at the conclusion of a film, clarification procedure, or value speaker. Even those who are usually reluctant to write were soon involved in completing the sentence stems. On occasion, a student would use the idea in one of these sentences for a composition assignment.

Value sheets.— These guides to written and oral expression were, overall, quite effective. Many students showed a willingness to respond independently and in some depth. Depending on the degree of stimulus from the value activity, students were extremely consistent in their patterns of responsiveness.

Ways to live.— This strategy is largely a private, written series of personal reactions. From observation, though, it was apparent that most were moderately to extremely involved. Toward the end of the hour, a number of spontaneous comparisons of the ratings on alternative lifestyles took place. A surprising percentage of the students (over fifty per cent) wrote out their own philoso­ phy of life; this would seem to infer a generally purposeful response to this activity. Ill Commentary Related to Objective Three Valuing, as stipulated for this investigation, is a process that can influence cumulative growth. This growth is toward a closer unification of the feeling, thinking, and acting components of valuing. This valuing process is linked closely with the life experiences of the students; otherwise, the students might well perceive valuing as something that is confined to a particular place and time. In order to try to congeal these valuing elements, a com­ posite of value stimuli was organized and brought into the secondary classroom. One way of beginning to assess the growth of more integrated valuing patterns is to specify some particular occurrences of choosing, prizing, and acting in the student’s belief system. Choosing, as used here, implies a thoughtful consideration of value alternatives. As one student put it: "The unit, if approached with sincere reflection, can open many doors to the inner self.” It appears that some were nudged to be more speculative while considering a possible mode of valuing. One student wrote that, "Before, I had never really thought about my values . . . I thought I just sort of knew what I believed in . . . this class made me realize that that is not really what I think." A number of the value exercises required the students to make choices among many values that reflected the relative importance of a

112 the value to the individual. One student said, "I realized that I can feel differently when hearing more than one opinion." In some cases, activities like this seemed to clear up some areas of confusion: "everything was all muddled up and I didn't really think hard about my values and when I had to compare and find my feelings and had to search deeper, well, I do think clearer and know how I feel about some things. It challenged me to think harder about certain things." However, with other individuals, the effect was much less noticeable: "The list [value prefer­ ences] might not have what means most to you . . . ." Another remark was that, "Lots of the questions and problems I never really decided . . . my values did change but it may not have been just because of English class." Prizing, or cherishing, may be evidenced in a variety of ways. Adopting a new motive for reading, receiving a Dale Carnegie diploma, or recognizing that one has opinions that he likes and is proud to assert are some of the ways of showing how one feels about a part of his life. Feelings of worth are sometimes linked with personal choice. One student mentioned that she was surprised and pleased that she was able to stand firm on one issue. Another said that he was displeased that he was not able to determine where he stood on certain issues. t 113 The acting phase of this valuing process was also beset with some ambivalence. Were the classroom actions necessarily indicative of actions in other situations? In some cases there appeared to be some consistency. One young lady became aware of some "deeply ingrained" racial attitudes after an exchange with a black girl during a value strategy. This led to her resolution to "get to the bottom of these feelings." The white girl then arranged to meet with the black girl after school. They met, discussed the remark made by the white girl, and shared feelings about what might have prompted her defensive reactions. As a result, the white girl became more aware and more honest about her racial feelings: "I feel my lack of understanding strongly, and also my discomfort and inability to communi­ cate meaningfully with people, especially blacks. I don't really understand that Black is beautiful, but it is not hard to see that Pam is beautiful, and I guess that's a start." Of course this dramatic and articulate example is not representative of the group. In many instances, the level of action was less concrete, and in some cases, not apparent at all. Responses such as, "I was pleased that I am able to stand up for the causes in which I believe," may represent some tangible action during the value activities. One person reacted by saying that the values study helped to 114

"put me at ease in different situations— I don't over-react now— I take it easily and am more comfortable in different spots." One student responded by saying that he hated value games and "I never want to see one again." Others wanted to know how this project related to English. And a few regarded the values techniques as "games people play” and did not actively participate in many of them.

Data Relating to Objective Four Objective Four.— To identify expressions of feelings, thoughts, and actions that suggest personal recog­ nition and growth patterns that seem related to value clarification activities.

Student Exemplars from Personal Interviews MARK: I've got to where I listen to other people's ideas. I used to think my views were the only right ones— I don't care what they think, they're wrong . . . now I think that mine are right for me and theirs may be right for them and they might try to change mine and I might try to change theirs. PATSY: These last few weeks have been very good for us, not so much as English goes but, I think, as far as life goes .... The main thing to learn in your childhood is how to live . . . it's helped develop and change some of my ideas and I. think they're for the better. BRENT: I can look at just about anything . . . I can look at baseball, football, or toilet papering the school today and you can see the rights and wrongs about it. I think you can look at anything, after this course in values, and see rights and wrongs, ways to improve it and ways to destroy it. SUE: . . . made me think more about what I really thought and believed .... Excerpts from Student Value Papers KEITH: This English course has helped me find myself among this great mass of people. My values have changed little, but my understanding of them has grown greatly . . . being forced or pushed to take personal value tests was very important. These tests, eighteen values, lying, personal questions, etc. have all led to a better under­ standing of myself and people around me. BILL: . . . made me think a lot more about what I really thought, but I never really brought it out and realized what I thought . . . that one thing about what we thought was most important or what sort of life we'd like to live— that really made me realize how much some things I really want more than others. I really valued that a lot. JASON: I definitely think I'm probably more open- minded now than I was before I took the course. I guess I understand why people do things a little more, but then again, I'm more confused because I learned a little bit more. MELANIE: I have tried to do as you [the instructor] said; put yourself in others' shoes so you know their point of view and you listen to them. Well, I've tried and it's really working, but now I change my mind all the time. LESLIE: I guess the biggest thing about it was the way I felt, after we finished, about the world. I think I decided the world was being run by a bunch of children and they don't know what they're doing and they don't really care. They don't care about what's happening to me or anybody else because of what they're doing .... BOB: This course opens your eyes to what people are really saying and what society is doing. It is beneficial in some way which at this point I don't understand, but detrimental in the effect of rocking the boat. MYRA: I just re-thought most everything and either the views grew deeper or I changed them some. HELEN: This class of Modern Literature has been the most worthwhile class I've taken this year. Unlike any of my other classes, it challenged me to face myself and to honestly appraise my inner feelings. As a result, I have learned a lot about myself. The most exciting aspect of all this is that I didn't form a lot of new ideas, but rather I found ones that I had previously hidden in my sub-conscious. Now that they have been brought to light, I can try to note patterns, understand why I feel the way I do and if I don't like what I find, I can change my attitude. In this way, my mind is clearer and my ideas more consistent.

Some Completed Sentence Stems RALPH: I recognized that I needed constant motiva­ tion to remain interested in a cause— otherwise I soon lapsed into bored apathy. REX: I was surprised that I could relate many of the meanings of the books and the values to my own life. MARGARET: I recognized that I have a direct rela­ tionship with the world. DALE: I wonder if this course had much to do with the happy growth in this semester, especially in the last part. I have not had such an undisturbed semester— plagued as it was--for several years. I know that one guy in here helped me help myself along, and I know that I often got up easier when I told myself to look forward to English class. JOHN: I learned that I know very little. BILL: I recognized I am the person I want to be. TOM: I was pleased that I grew closer to many kids in this class, more so than in other classes. NORMA: I was surprised that I do not know really, after all this time, what my values are. I was pleased that I could recognize this fact and I can try to do something about it. MIKE: I learned that I hated value games and I never want to see one again. 117 FRANK: I realized that I have a lousy personality and could go far with it. SHARON: I learned that I dcn't value my life very much and the only reason I am living is because that's the way God wants it. DONNA: I realized that I am a very mixed-up person — with many different things going through my head. JOAN: I recognized that I hate school very much— I don't like anything about it except my friends who go here. BETTY: I was displeased that I didn't get to know more of my classmates better.

Values Films and Follow-Up Value Clarification Activities The paradoxical nature of human beings was illus­ trated by the "Searching for Values" film anthology. One of the first films viewed was "I Who Am, Who Am I?" In this segment a man is physically and psychologically stripped of society's exteriors (clothes, money, status). He finally comes to a painful recognition of his lack of self-identity. A discussion of Ned's fate led to a con­ sideration of these value questions: Does your image of yourself stem mostly from external sources (parents, friends, clothes, grades, accomplishments)? Have you ever been unwilling to accept painful realities? How does one go about finding a strength from within to establish a secure self-image? Do you feel that a sudden change or loss in your own life will be necessary before a deeper under­ standing of yourself is possible? These questions formed 4 118

the kernel for small-group discussions that followed the film.

The next film, "My Country— Right or Wrong?" was introduced by a value sheet on patriotism. Four different conceptions of patriotism were read and ranked, one through four, according to the students' personal like or dislike for each of the divergent views. After marking their preferences, a small-group discussion ensued in which the students exchanged their ideas about the various conceptions of patriotism. The film was then viewed. Afterwards, each student was asked to reconsider his rankings and was invited to write out his own definition of patriotism. Of the four conceptions presented in the value sheet, the most preferred ones among the students were conceptions of patriotism that stressed vigilance and active recognition of the strengths and weaknesses of the country.

Value Speakers A historical account of Indian cultures in Ohio was another topic discussed by a value speaker. Sam Logan, a fellow faculty member, brought his collection of Indian relics and detailed some of the cultural advances of the early tribal communities in what now is this state. Apart from the novelty of viewing and touching the remnants of a nearly forgotten time, the students were shocked at the documented white horror stories relayed by Mr. Logan. These 1 119 were then related to the massacre at Wounded Knee, 1890, and the Indian siege of Wounded Knee, 1973. This look through a historical context for better understanding of present uprisings resulted in: 1. a number of students reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and other books of the Indian experience, 2. a renewed interest in searching for Indian relics expressed by some students, 3. expressions of surprise, disgust, and concern from students when confronted with the histori­ cal myths of movies, books, and folklore that stereotyped the Indian as a mixture of savage, alcoholic, and stoic, 4. a continued detachment from "reality" problems. Another speaker also considered racial attitudes. An Ethiopian student in the Black Studies department at Ohio State University surveyed the black experience in Africa and America from a psychological standpoint. He started with himself. He spoke of his national pride and his earnest desire to return and be constructively involved in the forward movement of his country. He listed some self-perceived causes of racism— fear, ignorance, greed, and inferiority or superiority complexes. He appealed to the students to objectively analyze the attitudes of their parents, friends, and community before they blindly adopt them. This presentation was followed by a series of small and large group discussions in which students were asked to examine, through the frame of their own experience, the 120 racial attitudes that they have observed in others and in themselves. They were encouraged to record some of their findings in their value journals.

Field Notations on Student Behav­ ioral Patterns during Specific Value Clarification Strategies The miracle workers.— The half-humorous nature of this game lent to a more casual and independent behavior that resulted from this activity. The surface reactions were generally purposeful, but laced with a light, mocking series of exchanges as the students were making their choices. A number were apathetic about discussing their choices, but most proceeded and the small group involvement gradually increased in intensity. The behavior was more inconsistent than usual, but gained a considerable measure of purpose and involvement.

The public interview.--Many really got immediately immersed in the questions, but there was a reluctance to volunteer for the public dialogue. Those who did partici­ pate were usually the most confident, successful students. There were some dramatic moments (when George told of his love for the countryside of West Virginia, when Amy told of her fears as she began to date a black friend). The students were respectful and attentive during the public interviews, but this writer sensed a hushed embarrassment with many students. I 121 Commentary Related to Objective Four Patterns of recognition and personal growth are unique to individuals and, therefore, difficult to discuss in a generalized way. There seem to be, however, discern­ ible groupings among the student data relating to Objective Four. The responses directed to the "self" could be divided into two categories of self-awareness and self- understanding. Comments like "it challenged me to face myself and to honestly appraise my inner feelings" point to a sharpened opportunity for self-awareness. One student revealed that he was pleased that he was able to realize that he had prejudices and could now change them. Increased awareness could lead to a perceived increase in self- understanding. The following statement testifies to this felt state of self-insight: "Now that they [values] have been brought to light, I can try to note patterns, under­ stand why I feel the way I do and if I don't like what I find, I can change my attitude." Another level of personal growth involves the affirmation of others. One student referred to her tendency to be self-righteous about her views and to assume that others were wrong. She writes: "Now, I think that mine are right for me and theirs may be right for them and they might try to change mine and I might try to change theirs." 122 Another person recognized that she tried to put herself in another's place and that it was working— although this did not guarantee any definite answers; the girl closed by saying, "now I change my mind all the time.” Some students identified the ability to relate the value processes to different problems and situations in life. The result was not always positive. One girl concluded that "the world was being run by a bunch of children" who don't really care about her or anyone else. Someone else focused on how he believed he could "look at baseball, football, or toilet papering the school today" and recognize the good and bad characteristics of each. One girl said she recognized "many deeply ingrained fears and bad attitudes" that she felt were contributing to her "social problems." And finally, a number of responses reflected the degree of confusion felt by certain students. They wondered why they were so mixed up, learned that they didn't value their own life very much, recognized that a selfish, materialistic personality could take them far in our society, and wondered why they were so disoriented. Growth and recognition uncovered, it seems, a percentage of the anxiety and pessimism that exists in modern societies. a 123 Synthesis of the Data as Related to the Purpose of the Study The data were categorized under the objectives for three basic reasons: 1. They provided a way to recognize specific examples of the choosing, prizing, and acting elements in the valuing process. 2. They clarified some of the interrelation­ ships between the thinking, feeling, and acting dimensions of valuing. 3. They established a backdrop for assessing the relationship between value clarifica­ tion activities and the development of a more holistic way of valuing. It was evident that the value stimuli activated many students to engage in the valuing process. Choosing among various options was a regular activity. Before a decision or course of action was made, the students were often asked to reflect upon the consequences of their action. The value speaker on abortion caused many to see the crumpled body instead of an idealogical concept. The film called "When Parents Grow Old" forced the viewers to contemplate the indecision of a son who is torn between obligation to his parent and personal independence for himself. These kinds of value dilemmas, of course,cannot be limited to a rational consideration of options. In most every situation, the students were encouraged to express their personal feelings. In some cases, an emotional release was necessary before a thoughtful consideration was 4 124 possible. After the black speaker left, some students expressed their anger by tightened facial expressions, some by derisive comments ("What a waste!" "How many times have we heard that prejudiced line!"), and some mentioned how it was good to hear a black man's opinions. Later, it was possible to look critically at our own feelings and behaviors. The discussion evolved to personal experiences of various class members with blacks and how these situa­ tions may have influenced present attitudes. When involvement like this occurred, it was possible to clearly point out the organic relationship between thoughts, feelings, and actions. Students would sometimes say that they didn't know how they had come to adopt certain strong feelings. Usually, a response like this was followed with a series of questions about personal experiences, talks with friends, attitudes heard at home, etc. Sometimes inquiries like these would foster an assimilation of personal experience. Students wrote about how certain attitudes related back to particular events; a few were perceptive enough to recognize how the imprinting of these experiences affected thought patterns and triggered emotions in certain situations. Value clarification strategies, it appears, possess a strong potential for igniting a more unified valuing process. The strength seems to stem from the emotional Ia 125 impact of many of the activities. Because the question brings in a personal experience, it seems worth a reaction. Because the small group has to decide on a course of action, it seems to take on more importance. Because the speaker states a personal position, it seems to be a more authentic situation for agreement, challenge, or reconsideration. Emotional involvement, however, does not necessarily broaden into doubt, investigation, broad-mindedness, or commitment to action. It was clear that with some people, the feeling level was tapped, only to drop off with the passing of the immediate experience. With others, the personal nature of some of the activities was obviously a threat. But a sizeable portion of student responses indicate the beginnings of an integrated valuing process. While many seemed to respond positively to the value activities, there were some students who turned away from the value clarification procedures. A few were quite angry and defensive; some of their statements have already been included in the reporting of the data. A composite of student counterstatements is detailed in Appendix D. CHAPTER V

SUMMARY, IMPLICATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS

Purpose of the Study A chief concern of this project is to explore an area of personal value growth. More particularly, unified value growth was used here to mean a conscious movement toward a closer integration of the thinking, feeling, and acting dimensions of human behavior. In order to activate a learning environment that might nurture such personal growth, a series of value clarification approaches was used in the classroom. These learning strategies, according to their chief architect, Dr. Sidney Simon, are designed to provide the student with a process that can be applied to his own life experiences. This process is built on three concepts: choosing, prizing, and acting.

Assumptions This research was predicated on the premise that humanistic education can be a way to foster a more balanced and integrated education. In a world that often presses change and discord upon its individuals, perhaps there is

126 4 127 more of a need to look for personal meaning in schooling content. In a society that is large and complex, perhaps there is a need to offer some ways of limiting and simpli­ fying a portion of one's own experiences. And in schools where information dispensing is considered a sufficient criterion for learning, perhaps there is a need to develop some ways to unify the feeling, knowing, and acting capacities of humankind.

Statement of the Problem The focus of this investigation will be to use specific value-clarification learning approaches with one hundred and fifteen secondary students in a suburban high school and subsequently attempt to determine if such clarification and confrontation methods contribute to personal recognition and growth toward a more unified valu­ ing process.

Objectives The objectives revolve around the recognition and possible manifestations of personal value growth. The students involved in the study were observed in a variety of value activities. Also, the students were asked to keep a personal journal; they were interviewed; and there were numerous opportunities to write out personal responses to the value stimuli. 1

128 The following objectives were used to focus in on the range of human responses precipitated by the value activities:

1. To determine if exposure to values clarification approaches tends to stimulate more purposeful, active, and involved behavioral patterns. 2. To clarify some inconsistencies apparent between what we say we value and how we act in particular situations. 3. To report indications of student applications of the choosing, prizing, acting value process. 4. To identify expressions of feelings, thoughts, and actions that suggest personal recognition and value growth patterns that seem related to value clarification activities.

Procedures and Instrumentation A suburban high school near Columbus, Ohio, was the locale for this exploratory study. This researcher is employed there as an English teacher. The student popula­ tion of one hundred and fifteen was the number of students in this instructor's four classes of Modern World Literature. The student population consisted of three seniors, thirty- five juniors, and seventy-seven sophomores. The unit on personal values was introduced as one way to deepen the personal meanings that the class had been identifying in selected world literature. The goal would be to look more closely at our beliefs and how we came to adopt those beliefs. To move toward this purpose, the instructor 129 supplemented the literature content of the course with a variety of value materials. To begin with, a Value Survey was used as a pre- and post-test given to every student. This instrument emphasized choice and value priority. The students ranked two sets of eighteen values according to their personal importance in their lives. The next activity was a Measure of Self-Consistency. This instrument, also used as a pre- and post-test, asked the students to identify positive and negative traits in themselves. Each of the characteristics was then related to each of the others and scored for consistency or dissimilarity. Following these introductory exercises, the students were exposed to seven value films, five value speakers, many value clarification strategies, and value-laden literature focusing on topics like love, loneliness, authority, revolution, race, death, etc. The process for working with this material centered on the concepts of choosing, prizing, and acting. The instructor adopted a teaching credo for facilitating the union of cognitive and affective concerns. Class discus­ sions, personal interviews, and value papers were directed to creating situations in which the students could express their beliefs, hear the feelings of others, and act upon their ideas. 4 130 Presentation of the Data The student outcomes can be related to the objec­ tives of the study. The outgrowths of the value activities were communicated in a variety of forms that would each represent some aspect of the particular objective. These modes of communication were: 1. student exemplars from the interviews, 2. excerpts from the value papers, 3. completed sentence stems, 4. pre- and post-tests, 5. follow-up value activities with the value films, 6. field notations of student behavior during the value strategies. The results relating to Objective One pointed to students becoming aware of their personal role in the outside world. Some students expressed the satisfaction of growing closer to many kids in the class; other students recognized that they wanted to make improvements. One girl said she didn't "intend to let the human race botch every­ thing up." The films and speakers were often contributing factors toward this objective. After a speaker showed pictures and relayed information about the process of abortion, many students changed or modified their views on this topic. 131

The difficulty of living out one's ideals was the focus of Objective Two. The pre- and post-tests served as barometers for the degrees of inconsistency between the student's words and deeds. One young man asserted in an interview that, "I've found that I'm really a lot different than I think I am— I mean I act differently when confronted with the situation than I say I would." As the students were confronted with the contradictions of their personality make-up, as they were placed in choice situations— "would you take the wallet or not?"— many students seemed to acknowledge the fallibility of the human condition: "I was surprised that I do not always do the 'best' or 'ideal' thing." The ways in which the students applied the choosing, prizing, acting value process were the concern of the third objective. The examples went from reading Aesop's Fables nightly and seeing if the morals apply to daily situations, to a private meeting between two girls, one white and one black, to discuss the white girl's defensive reactions to a black speaker. It appeared that most everyone found some way of carrying out some phase of the valuing process. The more private vehicle of writing was appealing to many of the less demonstrative students. The fourth objective closes in on the phenomena of personal growth. The key words in this section are "self" « 132 and "others.” There were indications that personal insight and affirmation of others did occur. One student said, "My values have changed little, but my understanding of them has grown greatly. ..." Others mentioned the way that feelings and attitudes were uncovered during discussions, or films, or in writing out reactions to the activity. One boy wrote: "That one thing about what we thought was most important or what sort of life we'd like to live— that really made me realize how much some things I really want more than others. I really valued that a lot." For some, touching inward was related to reaching outward. As one person succinctly stated--"I recognized that I have a direct relationship with the world." While a number of students seemed to grow inwardly and outwardly, another portion of students seemed relatively untouched by the value clarification procedures. During almost every phase of this unit, a kernel of students were uninterested, bored, and sometimes defensive. Usually, these were students who were generally unsuccessful in school. The resistance to value clarification may be cir­ cumscribed by a general rejection of school, but it may also raise more fundamental questions about value clarification.

Conclusions The presentation and description of the data do seem to warrant the following assertions regarding the use I 133 of specific value-clarification learning approaches with these one hundred and fifteen secondary students: 1. Value clarification assisted the students in becoming more aware of their own value prior­ ities. 2. Students became more sensitive to the gaps between their words or ideals and their actions in specific situations. 3. Students were more able to see interrelation­ ships among their own diverse personality traits. 4. Values approaches often generated personal feelings that expanded into student reflection and active involvement with the issue under con­ sideration. 5. The valuing process of choosing, prizing, and acting was incorporated in the daily lives of some students. 6. Value clarification facilitated the development of self-awareness and acknowledgment of intrin­ sic feelings and attitudes. 7. The intensive values emphasis influenced some students to recognize their direct relationship to others and to their society. 8. The relationship between values clarification procedures and the literature content was often unclear. While the above conclusions reflect the trend of the data, it must be understood that these assertions are tentative. The data compiled are limited on many accounts (grade levels, social setting, analysis techniques, etc.). A goal of this exploratory study was to provide a framework for more rigorous investigations of personal valuing in educational settings. A basis for making reasonable claims 4 134

about direct relationships between values clarification and the development of an integrated valuing process is still in a formative phase. Indeed, there was a body of evidence gathered that

tended to counter the objectives of this values study. A representative sampling of student counter statements may be found in Appendix D. There seemed to be two major reasons for these counter reactions. Many suburban students are attracted to competitive, college-oriented classroom approaches. Values clarifica­ tion, to the contrary, focuses on personal and interpersonal growth. To some students, this emphasis on knowing oneself and knowing others seemed like an unnecessary departure from the central task of an English class— to learn skills in writing and reading. The personal nature of the values activities was threatening to some students. The "you" questions and the confrontation precipitated by many of the approaches made

it difficult for students who lacked the confidence to be open with themselves and honest with others. Sometimes this uneasiness would translate into defensive behavior, sometimes quiet, indifferent behavior, and sometimes this counter behavior would be in the form of joking and mock laughter. 135 Implications Traditionally, values have often been transmitted in authoritarian ways. To some degree, we have all soaked in values from the moralizers, the modelers, the persuaders, the restricters, the inspirers, and the dogmatizers. Indeed, there is an argument to be made for these approaches to valuing. However, it has been held in this study that the above approaches rest on the tenuous assumption that a person will directly adopt the values that characterize his immediate external surroundings. In reality, though, a modern youth is bombarded from all sides. Instead of the home and the community being a refuge that imprints a narrowed spectrum of values, our youth have become a part of an interdependent world. This throbbing world dictates new urgencies for education. No longer can youth be just preparing for the future; they vicariously participate in the overwhelming present. Assassinations are not read about, they are seen and re-seen in all their grisly horror. Rock groups pulsate into every imaginable sector of the country— their hair, clothes, movements, and lyrics communicating values messages far more titillating than the local football coach. This onslaught of people, ideas, lifestyles, and information creates a type of value shock. To hold onto some clarity in the face of this electronic overload, students need a 4 136 valuing process that puts the whirr of modern life into a more integrated frame of reference. Part of this urge for unity may be reflected in the expressed value preferences of the students. The results of the Value Survey suggest a pull to a highly subjective valuing pattern among the students. The values held in the highest regard tend to be individualistic and non- materialistic in nature. In a sense, the high rankings of values like freedom, inner harmony, wisdom, and salvation may point to the need for intense personal experiences to balance the impersonality that earmarks much of the educa­ tional process. In stark contrast, the terminal values thought to be least important by this student group are those that tend to be external to the student's dialogue with life. For example, national security seems far removed from direct involvement and control. Salvation, though it is professed by some to be imminently real, is no doubt an other-worldly enigma to many. Social recognition, as important as it is to many, often requires a negation of individual uniqueness in deference to the expectations of an outside group. Even a comfortable and pleasurable life is vaguely suggestive of concessions to some faceless external force that may slowly reel in the already knotted strands of our identity. 137 But how about the reduced status of the reflective qualities— intellectual and logical? There is, among a surprising number of contemporary students, a shadowy fear of the future. Part of that fear probably stems from the realization that progress, usually associated with scien­ tific thinkers, has brought our world to the brink of disaster. Rightly or not, words such as intellectual, logical, and computer connote a distorted, de-humanized image that causes a knee-jerk reaction in many students. This is yet another symptom that attests to the need for structures that facilitate fusion rather than isolation of human activities.

Can values clarification processes provide a foot­ hold for a more balanced value formation in a society that is becoming more escapist and subjective? There was a marked tendency, among the students, to prefer values related to personal feelings. National security, social recognition, and obedience gave way to inner harmony, friendship, and self-respect. But seeking such emotional states has its own perils, especially if a romantic over­ reaction to externalized values ignores the need for restraint. Self-control, however, is seen by many young people as being somewhere between conformity and weakness. Inner strength is directly related to a larger and more 4 138 thoughtful vision of the world than the ultra-individualists would allow. As adjuncts to literature, the value approaches did foster active thought. Students perceived a relationship between the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee and the "Violence Just for Fun" value film. When a backdrop of values could be applied to a content assignment, participation and integration of material was more evident. If the violent behavior erupting from a class activity could be related to the excessive violence of a book, the class was responsive to both. Too often, however, a value strategy would not stand in and of itself. The "Miracle Workers" and "Ways to Live" were both filled with possible larger meanings about purpose in life. The specific activities, however, seemed to have a surface effect on most of the participants. The lacking ingredient may have been a larger experience, outside of oneself, that could have made the value experience a con­ tributing part of the larger flow of life. Therefore, if the close at hand value experiences could have been more creatively linked to literature— the re-creations of other men's experiences— the import of the whole process would have been deepened. This larger integration of experience did occur to some extent. One person exclaimed that, "I was surprised 139 that I could relate many of the meanings of the books and values to my own life." Such assimilation of experience suggests that values clarification holds promise as a unifying link in education. Educators that are committed to this kind of larger awareness may see values clarifica­ tion as one means of connecting the far-off with the close- at-hand. It is important to resist the cozy retreat offered by a limited application of values clarification. One such risky implication of values clarification is the way that a partial application can fuel a retreat into a self-created world. Many of the value techniques bridge from introspective questions and immediate experi­ ences. There were many student commentaries about how the unit triggered self-thought, personal appraisal, and individual beliefs. There were fewer references to the impact of the experience of others and how it related to the individual's life pattern. There was a strong under­ current toward lifting from the external world only those phenomena that may be used by the individual for his own purposes. Personal identity is, for some, only possible when external conditions are sealed from the individual consciousness. Consequently, the temptation of the individual who is overloaded by the barrages of interna­ tional media is to ward off the outside. In its place, the private subjective experience is paramount. The difference i 140 being that the solely subjective creates the illusion of private control and certainty. The implication for values clarification, then, is to recognize the danger of the subjective aberration of the valuing process. This is made all the more deceptive because there is often the appearance of involvement with others during the activities. This involvement, however, may well be transitory unless it is battened down to some lasting concepts of the human experience. Like many "new" approaches, values clarification may be ushered alongside other progressive notions that separated technique from content richness. Valuing, as an educational tool, can be a mergering agent. In a world that seems to be ever-changing and fluid, valuing exercises can point to some lasting truths about human compassion, greed, envy, escape, and goodness. The defiance shown in a values activity, however, needs to be rubbed against the angry actions of Martin Luther and the quiet defiance of Rosa Parks. The pursuit of profit at any price, as often demonstrated in values games, must be connected to the decay and fall of Willy Loman or the materialism of the fourth century Greeks. The hesitancy to assert moral judgments so we can remain "cool and loose" should be braced against the moral vacuum reflected in The Great Gatsby or the capitulations at Munich in the 1930's. 4

141 If value clarification is enriched by the ongoing memory of human experiences, it can be more than a passing fancy. Part of this living memory is the record of imbal­ ance and confusion. By applying the principles of valuing, many students responded to a sort of creative tension about their own experiences. This may be an important in-road for humanistic education. If values activities can spur students to face the irrationality and inconsistency in their own value system, then perhaps they will be more open to learning from the experiences of others. But how can value clarification measures begin to build toward this type of sensitive and thoughtful value formation? The first step is to distinguish between the art of valuing and placement valuing. Placement valuing is a way to refer to the attitudes and actions from the par­ ticular conditions of our environment. Our experiences at home, with friends, at school, in church, etc. are, in one sense, unique to each of us; but in another sense, the values that surround us have a way of creeping into our life with certain common tendencies. In our rush to acquire and advance in our society, we may hurry past our yellow signals that would have us pause to reconsider our motivations and actions. Instead of recognizing the imprint of our society's group norms on our own feelings, thoughts, and 142 actions, we continue to swirl within the dome placed over our heads. Artful valuing, to the contrary, is the construction of a value framework based on generation and re-generation. Although this way of valuing is also strongly influenced by locale, it refuses to be contained by region and circum­ stance. The word art suggests the constant shaping, struggling, and re-shaping of belief patterns. It also implies gradual evolvement and frustration. The ongoing dialogue with life is the sounding board for this mode of valuing. By actively resisting the passive adoption of one's surroundings, artful valuing stays in touch with the timeless strengths and weaknesses of humankind. This sort of creative valuing also brings pain, as a fine poem must bring sweat and sorrow. Values clarification is a way to slow down the pace of life and look at it more carefully. It is a way to confront others, listen to others, and walk away from others a little less sure of your opinions. It is a way to act upon ideas, to stand up for a belief, and to face incon­ sistencies in human behavior. But perhaps foremost, it is a way of being actively linked with one's world. It recognizes the reality we live in and is committed to acting upon that world. It recog­ nizes that there is no such thing as non-involvement in a is 143 compressed and interdependent world. In such a world, the art of valuing cannot fall prey to the singular elements of feeling, thinking, or acting. Values clarification, if it is to be an enduring concept in education, must be a way to combine these parts of humanity.

Recommendations This exploratory plunge into values education focused on the process of value clarification and its contribution to integrated learning. It is suggested that subsequent studies be aware of some limitations of this investigation: 1. There is a need to conduct an experimental study that exerts more control over the materials used and the participants involved in the study. 2. There is a need for case studies and in-depth interviews so that individual patterns of response to values education may be more clearly identi­ fied . 3. There is a need to conduct a values clarification study in a different socio-economic setting. 4. There is a need to include younger and older age groupings in further studies. 5. There should be more research done on how to interrelate value clarification materials and academic content. 6. There should be value clarification research done with students in a non-school setting. APPENDIX A

VALUE CLARIFICATION STRATEGIES USED DURING THE STUDY

144 VALUE CLARIFICATION STRATEGIES

The following value clarification strategies were taken from: Sidney Simon, Leland Howe, and Howard Kirschenbaum, Values Clarification: A Handbook of Practical Strategies for Teachers and Students (New York: Hart Publishing Company, Inc., 1972). These strategies were used throughout this investigation and are implied in value discussion situations. The eleven practical strategies chosen and illustrated in this section are: "Values Grid," pp. 35-37 "Value Survey," pp. 112-115 "Public Interview," pp. 139-142 "I Learned Statements," pp. 163-165 "The Values Journal," pp. 168-170 "Values Focus Game," pp. 171-17 3 "Alternative Action Search," pp. 198-203 "The Fall-Out Shelter Problem," pp. 281-286 "Rogerian Listening," pp. 295-298 "The Miracle Workers," pp. 338-342 "Ways to Live," pp. 343-3 52

145 VALUES CLARIFICATION 35

STRATEGY NUMBER 2

Values Grid

PURPOSE

The Values Grid usually drives home the point that few of our beliefs or actions fit all seven of the valuing processes. This activity indicates what steps we must take in order to develop stronger and clearer values.

PROCEDURE

The teacher either gives students, or asks them to con­ struct, a “values grid,” as shown below:

Is s ue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1

2

3

4 5

Etc. 36 VALUES CLARIFICATION Then the teacher and the students name some gen­ eral issues, such as Vietnam, water pollution, popula­ tion control, abortion, race relations, a specific election, a school issue, etc. The students list these issues on the lines on the left-hand side of their papers. Next to each of these general issues the student is to privately write a few key words that summarize for him his position or stand on that issue. The seven numbers heading the columns on the right-hand side of the paper represent the following seven questions: 1. Are youproud of (do you prize or cherish) your position? 2. Have youpublicly affirmed your position? 3. Have you chosen your position fromalternatives ? 4. Have you chosen your position afterthoughtful consideration of the pros and cons and conse­ quences? 5. Have you chosen your positionfreely ? 6. Have youacted on or done anything about your beliefs? 7. Have you acted withrepetition, pattern or con­ sistency on this issue? The teacher can read these seven questions to the students, or write them on the board, or the students can write the key words (those that are underlined) at the top of each column. The students then answer VALUES CLARIFICATION 37 each of these seven questions in relation to each issue. If they have a positive response to the question on top, they put a check in the appropriate box. If they can­ not answer the question affirmatively, they leave the box blank.

TO THE TEACHER

After they have completed marking their grids, the students can form trios, with each student discussing one of the issues, his position on it, and how it did or didn’t meet the seven valuing processes. Your students have undoubtedly engaged in many discussions of the issues they have listed in the values grid. It is worth­ while for the students to note how the approach here differs from discussions they may have had previously. It should become apparent that here they are not be­ ing called on to defend the content of their beliefs, but are rather being asked to evaluate how they ar­ rived at their convictions and how firm they are in their beliefs. The students should understand the seven processes, which are the basis for the values strategies they are doing. Many teachers post the seven processes perma­ nently in the classroom. The students might want to save their papers and look at them again at some future date. They will be able to see not only whether the content of their be­ liefs has undergone any change, but, more important, whether there have been any changes in the quality and degree of their convictions. 112 VALUES CLARIFICATION

STRATEGY NUMBER 7

Value Survey4

PURPOSE One of the pioneers in values research was Milton Rokeach. Although in this book we are more interested in the process of valuing than in the content of the values (which interested Rokeach) his listing of values makes an excellent exercise, similar to the Forced Choice Ladder (Strategy Number 6). This strategy helps students identify the priorities in their own value system.

-PROCEDURE Teacher reads aloud or gives students dittoed sheets with the following instructions: Below is a list of 18 values arranged in alphabetical order. Your task is to arrange them in order of their importance to YOU as guiding principles in YOUR life.

4 By Milton Rokeach 1967; used with permission of George Spear, Associate Dean for Continuing Education, University of Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri. VALUES CLARIFICATION 113 Study the list carefully. Then place a I next to the value which is most important foryou; place a 2 next to the value which is second most important to you, etc. The value which is least important, relative to the others, should be ranked18. Work slowly and think carefully. If you change your mind, feel free to change your answers. The end result should truly show how you really feel. The following list of values may be posted on the board or dittoed:

A Com fortable Life ( a prosperous life)

E q u a l it y (brotherhood, equal opportunity for a ll)

A n E x c it in g L i f e (a stim ulating, active life)

F a m il y S e c u r it y (taking care of loved ones)

F r e e d o m (independence, free choice)

H a p p in e s s (contentedness)

I n n e r H a r m o n y (freedom from inner conflict)

.M a t u r e L o v e (sexual and spiritual intimacy)

N a t io n a l S e c u r it y (protection from attack)

P l e a s u r e (an enjoyable, leisurely life)

S a l v a t io n (deliverance from sin, eternal life)

S e l f -R e s p e c t (self-esteem )

A Sense of Accomplishment(making a lasting contribution) 114 VALUES CLARIFICATION

S o c ia l R e c o g n it io n (respect, adm iration)

True Friendship(close companionship)

W is d o m (a m ature understanding of life)

A W orld at Peace (freedom from war and conflict)

A W orld of Beauty(beauty of nature and the arts)

TO THE TEACHER

After students have completed their rankings, they may be divided into small groups for discussion; or if the class wishes to make their choices public, they may tally the results of their listings and see how much similarity or diversity there is. The following is an additional list of 18 values. The student ranks each item according to the importance of the characteristic for him.

A m b it io u s (hard-working, aspiring)

B r o a d m in d e d (open-minded)

C a p a b l e (com petent, effective)

C h e e r f u l (lighthearted, joyful)

C l e a n (neat, tidy)

_C o u r a c e o u s (standing up for your beliefs)

F o r g iv in g (willing to pardon others) VALUES CLARIFICATION 115 H elpful (working for the welfareof others)

H o n e s t (sincere, truthful)

I m a g in a t iv e (daring, creative)

I n d e p e n d e n t (self-reliant, self-sufficient)

I ntellectual (intelligent,reflective)

.L o g ic a l (consistent,rational)

L o v in g (affectionate, tender)

O b e d ie n t (dutiful, respectful)

P o l it e (courteous, well-mannered)

S e l f -C o n t r o l l e d (restrained,self-disciplined) VALUES CLARIFICATION 139

STRATEGY NUMBER 12

Public Interview

PURPOSE

This strategy gives the student center stage in the classroom and the opportunity to publicly affirm and explain his stand on various values issues. Later on, inevitably, the student goes over his answers in his mind and thoughtfully considers what he has said publicly. It is one of the most dramatic values strat­ egies and one of the students’ favorites.

PROCEDURE

The teacher asks for volunteers who would like to be interviewed publicly about some of their beliefs, feel­ ings and actions. The volunteers sit at the teacher’s desk or in a chair in front of the room, and the teacher moves to the back of the room and asks the questions from there. The first few times, the teacher reviews the ground rules. The teacher may ask the student any question about any aspect of his life and values. If the student answers the question, he must answer honestly. How­ 140 VALUES CLARIFICATION ever, the student has the option of passing if he does not wish to answer one or more of the questions which the teacher poses. The student can end the in­ terview at any time by simply saying, “Thank you for the interview.” In addition, he may, at the comple­ tion of the interview ask the teacher any of the same questions that were put to him.

SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (for general use)

1. Do you get an allowance? What kind? Do you have to do anything for it? 2. Do you go to Sunday school or religion class? Do you enjoy it? Are you getting anything out of it? 3. Does your family do anything together that is fun? 4. If you could be any age, what age would you like to be? 5. Did you go on a vacation this year? If you could go anywhere in the world you wanted to next year, where would you go? 6. Will you be a cigarette smoker? Why? 7. Do you wish you had a larger family or a smaller family, or is your family just the right size? 8. As you look at the world around you, what is something you sometimes wonder about? VALUES CLARIFICATION 141 TO THE TEACHER

The Public Interview strategy is especially useful at the beginning of the year for helping students get acquainted with each other on a more personal basis. Each interview should usually be kept rather brief, five to ten minutes at the most, unless everyone is really involved and wants to hear more. With younger children the interview period should be even shorter. The teacher can use the interview questions sug­ gested here or make up his own. He may find it help­ ful to write the questions on a 3 x 5 card. Above all, the teacher must listen to what the student answers and show he is interested. The best questions, in the long run, are not the prearranged ones, but the ones that occur to the teacher spontaneously as he looks at the interviewee and thinks about what he is saying. When students are being asked questions in front of the class, they often can’t remember the questions you asked them when it is their turn to ask you ques­ tions. It sometimes helps to allow the other students to remind the interviewee of the questions you asked. (“Ask him the one about....”) Too many questions back to the teacher may take the focus off the student interviewee. Some teachers set a limit of three on the number of questions the student can ask back. Some teachers do not have each student ask questions back. Instead, they sometimes volunteer to be interviewed by one of the students. Occasionally, the teacher may invite other members of the class to answer any of the questions the inter- 142 VALUES CLARIFICATION viewee was asked. As the teacher becomes more adept at conducting the interview, he might suggest that students select the topic they would like to be interviewed about. If the teacher has posted a list of areas of confusion and conflict (see list given at beginning of this book), this will be a rich source of questions for both the student and the teacher. Sometimes, instead of conducting the interview himself, the teacher may select a student to conduct the interview. Care should be taken, however, to se­ lect students who know the ground rules well and are sensitive to and considerate of their classmates’ feelings.

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS

Questions for Intermediate and Secondary Students and Adults 1. Do you like to take long walks? Which place do you like to walk to the most? 2. About how much money do you plan to spend on Christmas gifts this year? Is that more or less than last year? 3. Do you watch TV much? How much? 4. What is your opinion on public welfare? (or any other political issue the teacher may think is appropriate) 157

VALUES CLARIFICATION 163

STRATEGY NUMBER 15

I Learned Statements*

PURPOSE

This strategy serves several purposes. It provides the group and the teacher with feedback about the last activity they participated in. It helps clarify and re­ inforce what the students have learned. It crystallizes new learnings which many students might not have realized were taking place. It sets a very powerful searching tone in the group. Finally, it provides a good summary or wind-up for almost any activity.

PROCEDURE

The teacher prepares a chart with the following (or similar) sentence stems. The chart may be posted per­ manently in the room, or it may be posted just when it is to be used. I learned that I . . . I realized that I . . .

’ Our thanks to Jerry Weinstein of the Center for Humanistic Educa­ tion, University of Massachusetts, for this exercise. 164 VALUES CLARIFICATION I re-leamed that I . . . I was surprised that I . . . I noticed that I . . . I was pleased that I . . . I discovered that I . . . I was displeased that I . . . Right after a values activity or discussion, the teacher asks the students to think for a minute about what they have just learned or re-learned about them­ selves or their values. Then they are to use any one of the sentence stems to share with the group one or more of their feelings. Students are not called on, but volunteer to speak whenever they feel comfortable about it.

TO THE TEACHER Sometimes it is helpful the first time around to have students write down a few I Learned Statements be­ fore sharing them aloud. It is also helpful if the teacher provides students with one or two examples of I Learned Statements. For example, “I realized that I was not clear about my own religious beliefs.” “I was surprised that I felt disappointed when someone gave an opinion about Vietnam that was different from mine.” The teacher should not allow discussion to interrupt the free flow of I Learned Statements; it tends to destroy the mood and intensity of the activity. State­ ments should be kept short and to the point. Students should make their statement but not attempt to ex­ plain or defend it. Try to help students focus on personal learnings VALUES CLARIFICATION 185 rather than on general, intellectualized learnings. There is a tendency to say, "I learned that people . . . rather than 4,I learned that I Reassure the students that there are no right answers. And students should always have the free­ dom to pass or sit the activity out without saying any­ thing. If the teacher thinks it advisable, he may break up the class into small groups of from three to five mem­ bers and have these students share and discuss their I Learned Statements with one another. Sometimes students can simply compile a list of I Learned Statements in writing which they date and put into their Values Data Bank (Strategy Number 17). It is not always necessary to share these ideas with others. 168 VALUES CLARIFICATION

STRATEGY NUMBER 17

The Values Journal or The Values Data Bank

PURPOSE Value clarification methods encourage students to ex­ amine their own lives in the same way that the scien­ tific method helps the scientist explore his area of study. The scientist collects as much information or data as he can about his subject. He tries to under­ stand the data by looking for explanations and pat­ terns. Eventually, he hopes to gain control over his subject of study — whether it is atomic energy or cancer or a new synthetic substance. In much the same way, the student who is forg­ ing his own values places himself under a microscope and studies his own patterns of choosing, prizing and acting. The goal of his search is to make sense out of all the data he has collected about himself in order to achieve direction and control over his own life and be less at the mercy of inner compulsions and external pressures. The Values Journal, also called the Values Search Data Bank, provides the student with a simple storage and retrieval system for the information he collects L6L VALUES CLARIFICATION 169 in his search for values.

PROCEDURE

The teacher introduces the Values Journal by talking about the importance of collecting information about ourselves — about how we choose, what we choose, how we feel about what we choose, and how we act upon our choices. He asks each student to keep a journal or a special section in his notebook for “Values.” All the notes from values activities — Privacy Circles, Values Grids, I Learned Statements, etc. — go into this journal or data bank. Students can also use their values journals to jot down values-related thoughts and feelings whenever they occur, in school or out. In other words, like the scientist, the student stores the information he collects about himself in his search for values. The teacher stresses that this is to be the student’s own private property and no one will be allowed to look at it, not even the teacher, without the student’s permission. Any student may show his journal to the teacher if he wants to. The teacher may write in his responses, if the student requests it. The student may choose never to show the journal to anyone. He may use it just to help himself clarify his own thinking and for his own reference. The teacher may, if he thinks it appropriate, set aside part of a file cabinet in the classroom where students could keep their data bank folders. They could go to the file cabinet at appropriate times to 162

170 VALUES CLARIFICATION file information or the teacher might pass out the folders and then collect them after a values activity. From time to time, the teacher can ask the students questions about their journals. For example: Are your values concerns at all different from what they were a month ago? Are you any clearer on any values issues now than before? Are some issues more confusing now? Or the teacher may ask the student to read or talk about one item in his journal. Of course, any student may pass. Or some of the students may want to write compositions about an item in their journals. VALUES CLARIFICATION 171

STRATEGY NUMBER 18

Values Focus G am10 e

PURPOSE The search for values is facilitated when there is a supportive and accepting environment. To encourage this land of climate in the classroom, both the teacher and the students must learn to respect each others right to hold different views and to act in accordance with their different convictions. The Values Focus Game is designed to help students be open to, accept and understand even if they do not agree with, dif­ ferent points of view. The objective of this activity is to help students understand more effectively another persons point of view, rather than to attempt to change the person’s mind through attack or debate.

PROCEDURE

To introduce the game, the teacher has the students complete in writing several stem sentences. Two that

10 An adaptation of the Positive Focus Game developed by Seville Sax, NEXTEP Program, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Illinois. 1 6 4

172 VALUES CLARIFICATION work very well in this context are: “I feel best when I am in a group of people that . . “I feel worst when I am in a group of people that ...” After each student has completed his unfinished sen­ tences, the teacher asks the class to arrange them­ selves into groups of three. Each student in the group is to have the focus — the full attention of the other two group members — for a period of five minutes. During this period the focus person is to talk about his responses. The group's interaction is to be governed by the following rules:

1. The Rule of Focusing. Each group member is to be the focus person for a period of five minutes. Do not let the attention of the group shift from the focus person until his time is up or until he asks to stop. Maintain eye contact with the focus person at a comfortable level. Questions may be asked of the focus person if they do not shift the focus to another group member. 2. The Rule of Acceptance. Be warm, supportive and accepting of the focus person. Nods, smiles and ex­ pressions of understanding when sincerely given help communicate acceptance. If you do not agree with the focus person, do not express disagreement or negative feelings during the discussion part of the game. There will be time for this later on. 3. The Rule of Drawing Out. Attempt to understand VALUES CLARIFICATION 173 the focus person’s position, feelings and beliefs. Ask questions which will help to clarify the reasons for the focus person’s feelings. Make sure that your questions do not shift the focus to yourself, or reveal negative feelings which you may have about the focus person or about what he is saying.

Each student is provided with a copy of the rules and the teacher explains them fully.

TO THE TEACHER

The Values Focus Came can be used with almost any values activity that requires small group discus­ sion. It really teaches listening. The rule of focusing can be dropped, if need be, to facilitate a more free- floating discussion. Upon completion of the game, especially the first few times, the teacher may suggest that students rate themselves and each other, on a five point scale, to assess how well they were able to follow the three rules. These rates should then be shared and discussed in the small group with the intent of helping students become more proficient at really listening to others and understanding their feelings and ideas. After the students have rated themselves and each other on how well they listened, time can be taken for students to react to each other’s positions. They voice their agreement or disagreement, and discuss their various points of view. 196 VALUES CLARIFICATION

STRATEGY NUMBER 24

Alternative Action Search

PURPOSE Frequently, we find ourselves acting one way in a situation and later regretting it or wishing we had behaved differently. The clearer people are about their values, the more congruent their actions are with their feelings and beliefs and, therefore, the less often they later regret their actions. This strategy enables students to consider alterna­ tives for action in various specific situations. The goal is to encourage students to bring their everyday ac­ tions more consistently into harmony with their feel­ ings and beliefs.

PROCEDURE The teacher may introduce this activity by initiating a discussion about things that we did that we later regretted. Then the students are presented with a specific situation or vignette (see examples below) which calls for some proposed action. The teacher then asks, “Now, given all your beliefs, feelings and VALUES CLARIFICATION 199 values related to this vignette, ideally, what would you want to do in this situation?” Each student, individually, is to write out briefly what he would do in the given situation. Then the students break up into groups of three or four to dis­ cuss their proposals and try to decide which of their solutions would be the most desirable. They may not necessarily end up in agreement, but they should try. After ten or fifteen minutes, the discussion can move to the whole class.

SAMPLE VIGNETTES

1. You are walking behind someone. You see him take out a cigarette pack; withdraw the last cigarette; put the cigarette in his mouth; crumple the package and nonchalantly toss it over his shoulder onto the sidewalk. You are twenty-five feet behind him. Ideally, what would you do? 2. There is a boy in your class who has a body odor problem. You know the general sentiment is, “He’s not such a bad kid, but I just hate to get near him.” You hardly know him — you just have sort of a nodding acquaintance at a friend­ ly distance. Ideally what would you do? 3. You are pushing a shopping cart in a super­ market and you hear a thunderous crash of cans. As you round the corner you see a two year old being beaten, quite severely, by his mother, ap­ 200 VALUES CLARIFICATION parently for pulling out the bottom can of the pyramid. Ideally, what would you do? Additional vignettes are given below:

TO THE TEACHER

The Alternative Action Search is an excellent activity for role playing. Members of the small group can enact the situation as described, and try out the pro­ posed solutions to see the possible consequences. An excellent little book on the use of role playing is Chesler, Mark and Fox, Robert.Role Playing Meth­ ods in the Classroom. Palo Alto, ‘California: Science Research Associates, Inc., 1966.

Additional vignettes for the Alternative Action Search:

1. You are on a vacation trip and are driving to the beach with your parents. You would like to go to the amusement park, but you are concerned because you have spent most of the money you had saved for your vacation earlier. Your father stops for gasoline and you get out and walk around. A lady is walking back to her car and you see her purse fall open and her wallet fall out. You walk over, pick up the wallet just as the lady gets into her car to drive away. The edges of several ten dollar bills are sticking out of the wallet. No one saw you pick it up. What would you do? 16?

VALUES CLARIFICATION 201 2. You have forgotten your last two dentist’s ap­ pointments. The dentist was furious the last time. You have an appointment today. You look up and see it is exactly 2 p.m ., which is when you’re supposed to be there. It is a 20-minute walk to his office and there are no buses. What would you do? 3. You see a kid three or four years younger than you shoplifting at the local discount store. You’re concerned that he’ll get into serious trouble if the store detective catches him. What would you do? 4. You’re driving on a two lane road behind an­ other car. You notice that one of his wheels is wobbling more and more. It looks as if the nuts are coming off, one by one. There’s no way to pass him, because cars are coming in the other direction in a steady stream. What would you do? 5. At a picnic, there is a giant punch bowl. One of the little kids, much to everyone’s horror, accidentally drops his whole plate of spaghetti into the punch. What would you do? 6. You’re at another picnic. The hostess is serving the dessert. You know that she is very fussy about cleanliness, but you see that the piece of cream pie she has given your wife is infested with ants. But only her piece seems to be like that. What would you do? 202 VALUES CLARIFICATION 7. You’re taking a really lousy course at the Uni­ versity. You’re not doing well in the course. On the day of the final exam, someone offers to sell you a copy of what he claims is the final for only $5.00. What would you do? 8. You’ve raised your son not to play with guns. Your rich uncle comes for a long-awaited visit and, of course, he brings your son a .22 rifle with lots of ammunition. What would you do? 9. Your father has been giving you a lot of flack about how much TV you watch. One day you come home from school and the TV set isn’t working. You suspect your father has done some­ thing to the set. What would you do? 10. Your family is having a discussion about abor­ tion and you notice that your 12-year-old daugh­ ter becomes extremely upset. What would you do? 11. You are new in town and you take your car to what is supposed to be the best garage in town. You tell him you need points and plugs, and you ask, routinely, if he would save the old plugs and points so you can see them. He says, “What’s the matter, don’t you trust me?” What would you do? 12. You have been active in the civil rights move­ ment. At a dinner party you attend, two guys spend a half hour matching each other with race VALUES CLARIFICATION 203 jokes. What would you do? 13. You're late. Your dad said you had to have the car back by midnight, or it would be real trouble for you. Two blocks away from your house, you hit a dog who runs across the street. What would you do? 14. Your mother tells you that the doctor has just told her that your dad has cancer and has only two months to live. She has decided not to tell him. What would you do?

Most of these situations have come from the real lives of the authors. Students and teachers can suggest situational dilemmas from their own lives as examples for the Alternative Action Search. VALUES CLARIFICATION 281

STRATEGY NUMBER 48

The Fall-Out Shelter Problem30

PURPOSE

This is a simulated problem-solving exercise. It raises a host of values issues which the student must attempt to work through in a rational manner. It is often a very dramatic example of how our values differ; how hard it is to objectively determine the “best” values; and how we often have trouble listening to people whose be­ liefs are different from our own.

PROCEDURE The class is divided into groups of six or seven, who then sit together. The teacher explains the situation to the groups. “Your group are members of a department in Wash­ ington, D.C. that is in charge of experimental stations in the far outposts of civilization. Suddenly the Third World War breaks out and bombs begin dropping. Places all across the globe are being destroyed. Peo-

-u The authors learned this strategy from Joe Levin. 282 VALUES CLARIFICATION pie are heading for whatever fallout shelters are avail­ able. You receive a desperate call from one of your experimental stations, asking for help. “It seems there are ten people but there is only enough space, air, food, and water in their fall-out shelter for six people for a period ofthree months— which is how long they estimate they can safely stay down there. They realize that if they have to decide among themselves which six should go into the shelter, they are likely to become irrational and begin fight­ ing. So they have decided to call your department, their superiors, and leave the decision to you. They will abide by your decision. “But each of you has to quickly get ready to head down to your own fall-out shelter. So all you have time for is to get superficial descriptions of the ten people. You have half-an-hour to make your decision. Then you will have to go to your own shelter. “So, as a group you now have a half-hour to decide which four of the ten will have to be eliminated from the shelter. Before you begin, I want to impress upon you two important considerations. It is entirely pos­ sible that the six people you choose to stay in the shel­ ter might be the only six people left to start the human race over again. This choice is, therefore, very important. Do not allow yourself to be swayed by pressure from the others in your group. Try to make the best choices possible. On the other hand, if you do not make a choice in a half-hour, then you are, in fact, choosing to let the ten people fight it out among them- VALUES CLARIFICATION 283 selves, with the possibility that more than four might perish. You haveexactly one half-hour. Here is all you know about the ten people:

1. Bookkeeper; 31 years old 2. His wife; six months pregnant 3. Black militant; second year medical student 4. Famous historian-author; 42 years old 5. Hollywood starlette; singer; dancer 6. Bio-chemist 7. .Rabbi; 54 years old 8. Olympic athlete; all sports 9. College co-ed 10. Policeman with gun (they cannot be separated)

The teacher posts or distributes copies of this list, and the students begin. The teacher gives 15, 10, 5 and 1-minute warnings and then stops the groups exactly after a half-hour. Each group can then share its selections with the other groups and perhaps argue a bit more, if there is time. Then the teacher asks the students to try to dis­ regard the content of the activity and to examine the process and the values implications. He asks questions like: How well did you listen to the others in your group? Did you allow yourself to be pressured into changing your mind? Were you so stubborn that the 284 VALUES CLARIFICATION group couldn’t reach a decision? Did you feel you had the right answer? What do your own selections say to you about your values? These questions may be thought about or written about privately, or they may be dis­ cussed in the small groups or by the whole class.

VARIATIONS

1. Instead of eliminating four people from the shel­ ter, students may be asked to rank order, as in a Forced Choice Ladder (Strategy Number 6), the ten candidates from the most desirable to the least desirable. (There is also nothing sacred about four. It could be three or five, for example.) 2. After each member of the class has ranked the . ten people, they can try to come to consensus on who is to be admitted to the shelter. 3. Instead of choosing six candidates for a remote shelter, each group may be instructed to pick four out of the ten to accompany them to their own shelter. 4. Other problem situations may be invented. For example, three (or more) people need a heart transplant and will more than likely die in three weeks if it is not performed. However, only one operation can be performed. The students are to assume the role of the doctor who will perform the operation and must make the decision of who will live. VALUES CLARIFICATION 285 5. The descriptions of the ten people can be changed to introduce additional values issues. For example: a. A 16-year old girl of questionable IQ; a high school drop-out; pregnant. b. The same policeman with gun; thrown off the force for police brutality (or given a community-relations award). c. A clergyman; 75 years old. d. A 36-year old female physician; unable to have children (or known to be a confirmed racist). e. A 46-year old male violinist; served seven years for pushing narcotics; has been out of jail for six months. f. A 20-year old male Black militant; no special skills. g. A 39-year old former prostitute; “retired” for four years. h. An architect; homosexual. i. A 26-year old male law student. j. The law student’s 25-year old wife; spent the last nine months in a mental hospital; still heavily sedated. They refuse to be sepa­ rated.

TO THE TEACHER If one of the fall-out-shelter candidates that we have provided, or that you may create yourself, gets con- 288 VALUES CLARIFICATION sistently eliminated, simply give that candidate(s) more skills, or make him more attractive in some way; for example, lower his age. VALUES CLARIFICATION 295

STRATEGY NUMBER 51

Rogerian Listening”

PURPOSE

Part of the valuing process is considering alternatives. To be open to alternatives we must be able to really listen to other people. According to Dr. Carl Rogers, good listening involves:

1. Not only hearing the words of the speaker, but hearing the feelings behind the words as well. 2. Empathizing with the speaker; that is, feeling his feelings and seeing the world through the speak­ er’s eyes. 3. Suspending one’s own value judgments so as to understand the speaker’s thoughts and feelings as he himself experiences them.

This strategy teaches students to really listen. Par­ ticipants learn that communication is a two-way street.

11 Excerpted front Kinchenbaum, Howard, “The Listening Game,” Colloquy, October, 1970. Reprinted with permission. 296 VALUES CLARIFICATION They begin to understand how difficult it is really to listen to another person, especially if you disagree with him, and they come to realize how much of normal conversation is really talkingat rather than with one another.

PROCEDURE

This listening exercise can be done in groups of three or more participants. One person serves as “monitor,” the others as discussants. The monitor helps the discus­ sants find a subject of mutual interest, but on which the discussants have different views or feelings. The first discussant states his position on the issue and a discus­ sion follows. In the typical discussion, we are so concerned with what we are going to say next, or so involved with plan­ ning our response, that we often tune out or miss the full meaning of what is being said. In this exercise, be­ fore any discussant offers his own point of view, he must summarize the essence of the previous speaker’s state­ ment, so that the previous speaker honestly feels his statement has been understood. It is the monitor’s role to see that this process takes place. Here is an example:

f h e d : . . . and what’s why I’m in favor of a guar- teed, minimum annual income. j e r r y : Okay. You’re saying you favor the guaran­ teed income because you think it will break the cycle of people staying on welfare and because it will put more money in circula- VALUES CLARIFICATION 207 tion and thus create more jobs. Is that right? f r e d : You got it.

j e r r y : Okay. But I think just the opposite would happen. You’d have people knowing they’d get a decent wage if they didn’t work so

f r a n : But that’s ridiculous; Why would . . . m o n i t o r: Hold it, Frank. Hold it. First of all, Jerry didn’t finish his point Second of all, you didn’t restate it before responding. f r a n : Sorry.

j e r r y : Well, my point was, if somebody thinks he doesn’t have to work and hell get paid any­ way, then why should he work? f r a n : Well, 111 tell you. He’ll work because . . . m o n i t o r : Hold it, again. What did Jerry say?

f r a n : Oh, yeah. Jerry’s worried this won’t work. But I think . . . m o n i t o r : Wait a minute. Jerry, are you satisfied that Fran understands your argument? j e r r y : No. monitor: Fran, do youwant to try it again? Or do you want Jerry to repeat his point?

This exercise can last as long as the groups seem in­ terested and involved in their discussions. Every now and then, the teacher asks the monitor to change roles with one of the discussants. The exercise can be followed by I Learned State* 298 VALUES CLARIFICATION ments (Strategy Number 15) or by a discussion about listening.

TO THE TEACHER When tempers flare, when tension rises, when parents and children, students and teachers, Blacks and whites, or any group of people stop listening to one another, this listening exercise can reduce conflict and facilitate communication. 338 VALUES CLARIFICATION

STRATEGY NUMBER 66

The Miracle Workers3*

PURPOSE

This strategy poses a problem that confronts the stu­ dent with many attractive alternatives to choose from. It helps him get in touch with his feelings about what is important to him.

PROCEDURE The teacher provides students with the worksheet be­ low containing the names of fifteen miracle workers. Each student works alone and chooses the five mira­ cle workers he values the highest; that is, the five whose gifts the student would most like to receive. Then, each student is asked to pick five more names. This leaves five miracle workers in the least desirable group. Then students form into groups of three to discuss their choices and see if they can discover any patterns.

29 Developed by, and used with the permission of, Mark Phillips, Center for Humanistic Education, University of Massachusetts. VALUES CLARIFICATION 339 Some helpful questions are: What seems to link to­ gether the five most desirable people and what joins the five least desirable to you? What values were you upholding in your choices? Are there any choices that somehow seem out of place with the others in that grouping? At this point, the discussion can take different forms. Some teachers invite students to share their feelings about a miracle worker in their most or least desirable group. Or the class can role play the miracle workers, with each person arguing for why he is more power­ ful, more needed, more useful for mankind than the others. Then the teacher asks the students a difficult ques­ tion: “What are you now doing to achieve what your top five miracle workers could do for you? Make a list, in your Values Journal (Strategy Number 17), of what you are doing or could do.” Finally, the teacher asks for some Self-Contracts (Strategy Number 59) based on the learnings from this exercise. The implication is that each of us is a miracle worker. What miracles do we want to strive for? Where do we begin? How can we help each other?

WORKSHEET

A group of 15 experts, considered miracle workers by those who have used their services, have agreed to provide these services for the members of this class. Their extraordinary skills are guaranteed to be 100% 1 8 4 340 VALUES CLARIFICATION effective. It is up to you to decide which of these people can best provide you with what you want.

The experts are: 1. Dr. Dorian Grey — A noted plastic surgeon, he can make you look exactly as you want to look by means of a new painless technique. (He also uses hormones to alter body structures and sizel) Your ideal physical appearance can be a reality. 2. Baron VonBarrons — A college placement and job placement expert. The college or job of your choice, in the location of your choice, will be yours! (He also provides immunity from the draft if you wish.) 3. Jedediah Methuselah — Guarantees you long life (to the age of 200) with your aging process slowed down proportionately. For example, at the age of 60 you will look and feel like 20. 4. Drs. Masters Johnson and Fanny Hill— Experts in the area of sexual relations, they guarantee that you will be the perfect male or female, will enjoy sex and will bring pleasure to others. 5. Dr. Yin Yang — An organismic expert, he will provide you with perfect health and protection from physical injury throughout your life. 6. Dr. Knot Not Ginott —An expert in dealing with parents, he guarantees that you will never have VALUES CLARIFICATION 341 any problems with your parents again. They will accept your values and your behavior. You will be free from control and badgering. 7. Stu Denpower — An expert on authority, he will make sure that you are never again bothered by authorities. His services will make you immune from all control which you consider unfair by the school, the police, and the government (the armed forces included!). 8. “Pop" Larity — He guarantees that you will have the friends you want now and in the future. You will find it easy to approach those you like and they will find you easily approachable. 9. Dr. Charlie Smart — He will develop your com­ mon sense and your intelligence to a level in excess of 150 I.Q. It will remain at this level through your entire lifetime. 10. Rocky Fellah — Wealth will be yours, with guar­ anteed schemes for earning millions within weeks. 11. Dwight D. DeGawl — This world famed leader­ ship expert will train you quickly. You will be listened to, looked up to, and respected by those around you. 12. Dr. Otto Carengy — You will be well-liked by all and will never be lonely. A life filled with love will be yours. 1 8 6

342 VALUES CLARIFICATION 13. Dr. Claire Voyant — All of your questions about the future will be answered, continually, through the training of this soothsayer. 14. Dr. Hinnah Self — Guarantees that you will have self-knowledge, self-liking, self-respect, and self-confidence. True self-assurance will be yours. 15. Prof. Val U. Clear — With his help, you will always know what you want, and you will be completely clear on all the muddy issues of these confused days.

TO THE TEACHER Even though there may be a great deal of noise and joking during this discussion, it is more than likely to be deadly serious. Don’t be put off by the noise and bombast. Underneath, students will be trying very hard to make some sense out of the lives they lead. Some good follow-up exercises could be the Values Survey (Strategy Number 7) or the Ways of Living (Strategy Number 67). The game format of the Mira­ cle Workers makes it a good first experience of the three; it is somewhat more involving and less threat­ ening than the other two strategies. VALUES CLARIFICATION 343

STRATEGY NUMBER 67

Ways To Live

PURPOSE This strategy asks students to formulate their own phi­ losophy of life by responding to 13 other ways to live. It leads to the consideration of alternative life styles, and causes students to more thoughtfully consider their own life styles.

PROCEDURE The teacher passes out copies of the worksheet, Ways To Live. ( See below.) When students have responded to the 13 ways to live, they are to rank order all 13, from their first preference to their last. The teacher then has the students choose partners. Each pair discusses one or two ways to live to which they had quite different reactions. They spend five minutes discussing their differences and trying to un­ derstand the other person’s point of view. Then each one finds a new partner and repeats the discussion procedure. This may be repeated several times. Then, each student writes out his own way to live 1 8 8

344 VALUES CLARIFICATION statement, reflecting his own philosophy of life at this point in his life. Students can borrow phrases or sen­ tences from any of the 13 described here, or they can create their own wording and ideas. Finally, students are asked to think of ten things they have done in the last week that are consistent with the philosophy of life or the way to live they have just described. This bridges the gap between a general philosophical statement and the way we actually live. I Wonder Statements (Strategy Number 16) are a good conclusion to this thought-provoking exercise.

WORKSHEET

Ways To Live30 Instructions: Below are described thirteen ways to live which various persons, at various times, have advo­ cated and followed. You are to write numbers in the margin to indicate how much you yourself like or dislike each of these ways to live. Do them in order, one after the other. Remember that it is not a question of what kind of life you now lead, or the kind of life you think it prudent to live in our society, or the kind of life you think would be good for other persons, but simply the kind of life you personally would like to live. Use the following scale, and write one of these

:lu Reproduced with permission of author. Questionnaire fromVarie­ ties of Human Value by Charles Morris, University of Chicago Press, 1956. pp. 15-19. VALUES CLARIFICATION 345 numbers in the margin alongside each of the ways to Jive:

7 I like it very much 6 I like it quite a lot 5 I like it slightly 4 I am indifferent to it

3 I dislike it slightly 2 I dislike it quite a lot 1 I dislike it very much

W ay 1: In this design for living the individual actively participates in the social life of his community, not primarily to change it but to understand, appreciate, and preserve the best that man has attained. In this life style, excessive desires are avoided and modera­ tion is sought. One wants the good things of life, but in an orderly way. Life is to have clarity, balance, refinement, control. Vulgarity, great enthusiasm, irra­ tional behavior, impatience, indulgence are to be avoided. Friendship is to be esteemed, but not easy in­ timacy with many people. Life is marked by disci­ pline, intelligibility, good manners, predictability. So­ cial changes are to be made slowly and carefully, so that what has been achieved in human culture is not lost. The individual is active physically and socially, but not in a hectic or radical way. Restraint and intelli­ gence should give order to an active life. 340 VALUES CLARIFICATION W a y 2: In this way of life, the individual for the most part goes it alone, assuring himself of privacy in living quarters, having much time to himself, attempt- to control his own life. Emphasis is on self-sufficiency, reflection and meditation, knowledge of oneself. Inti­ mate associations and relationships with social groups are to be avoided, as are the physical manipulation of objects and attempts at control of the physical en­ vironment. One should aim to simplify one’s external life, to moderate desires which depend upon physical and social forces outside of oneself. One concentrates on refinement, clarification, and self-direction. Not much is to be gained by living outwardly. One must avoid dependence upon persons or things; the center of life should be found within oneself.

W a y 3: This way of life makes central the sympathetic concern for other persons. Affection is the main thing in life, affection that is free from all traces of the im­ position of oneself upon others, or of using others for one’s own purposes. Greed in possessions, emphasis on sexual passion, striving for power over persons and things, excessive emphasis upon intellect, and undue concern for oneself are to be avoided. These things hinder the sympathetic love among persons which alone gives significance to life. Aggressiveness blocks receptivity to the forces which foster genuine personal growth. One should purify oneself, restrain one’s self­ assertiveness, and become receptive, appreciative, and helpful in relating to other persons. VALUES CLARIFICATION 347

W a v 4 : Life is something to be enjoyed — sensuously enjoyed, enjoyed with relish and abandonment. The aim in life should not be to control the course of the world or to change society or the lives of others, but to be open and receptive to things and persons, and to delight in them. Life is a festival, not a workshop or a school for moral discipline. To let onself go, to let things and persons affect oneself, is more impor­ tant than to do — or to do good. Such enjoyment re­ quires that one be self-centered enough to be keenly aware of what is happening within in order to be free for new happiness. One should avoid entanglements, should not be too dependent on particular people or things, should not be self-sacrificing; one should be alone a lot, should have time for meditation and awareness of oneself. Both solitude and sociability are necessary for the good life.

W ay 5: This way of life stresses the social group rather than the individual. A person should not focus on himself, withdraw from people, be aloof and self- centered. Rather he should merge himself with a social group, enjoy cooperation and companionship, join with others in resolute activity for the realization of com­ mon goals. Persons are social, and persons are active; life should merge energetic group activity and co­ operative group enjoyment. Meditation, restraint, con­ cern for one’s self-sufficiency, abstract intellectuality, solitude, stress on one’s possessions all cut the roots which bind persons together. One should live out­ wardly with gusto, enjoying the good things of life, 348 VALUES CLARIFICATION working with others to secure the things which make possible a pleasant and energetic social life. Those who oppose this ideal are not to be dealt with too tenderly. Life can’t be too fastidious.

W a y 6: This philosophy sees life as dynamic and the individual as an active participant. Life continuously tends to stagnate, to become comfortable, to become sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought. Against these tendencies, a person must stress the need for constant activity — physical action, adventure, the real­ istic solution of specific problems as they appear, the improvement of techniques for controlling the world and society. Man’s future depends primarily on what he does, not on what he feels or on his speculations. New problems constantly arise and always will arise. Improvements must always be made if man is to pro­ gress. We can’t just follow the past or dream of what the future might be. We have to work resolutely and continually if control is to be gained over the forces which threaten us. Man should rely on techni­ cal advances made possible by scientific knowledge. He should find his goal in the solution of his prob­ lems. The good is the enemy of the better.

W ay 7: This philosophy says that we should at various times and in various ways accept something from all other paths of life, but give no one our exclusive allegiance. At one moment one way may be more appropriate; at another moment another is the most appropriate. Life should contain enjoyment and action VALUES CLARIFICATION 349 and contemplation in about equal amounts. When any one way is carried to extremes, we lose some­ thing important for our life. So we must cultivate flexi­ bility; admit diversity in ourselves; accept the tension which this diversity produces; find a place for de­ tachment in the midst of enjoyment and activity. The goal of life is found in the dynamic integration of enjoyment, action, and contemplation, and in the dy­ namic interaction of the various paths of life. One should use all of them in building a life, and not one alone.

W a v 8: Enjoyment should be the keynote of life. Not the hectic search for intense and exciting pleasures, but the enjoyment of the simple and easily obtainable pleasures; the pleasures of just existing, of savoring food, of comfortable surroundings, of talking with friends, of rest and relaxation. A home that is warm and comfortable, chairs and a bed that are soft, a kitchen well stocked with food, a door open to friends — this is the place to live. Body at ease, relaxed, calm in its movements, not hurried, breath slow and easy, a will­ ingness to nod and to rest, gratitude to the world that feeds the body — so should it be. Driving ambition and the fanaticism of ascetic ideals are the signs of discontented people who have lost the capacity to float in the stream of simple, carefree, wholesome enjoyment.

W a y 9: Receptivity should be the keynote of life. The good things of life come of their own accord, and 1 9 ^

350 VALUES CLARIFICATION come unsought. They cannot be found by resolute action. They cannot be found in the indulgence of the sensuous desires of the body. They cannot be gathered by participation in the turmoil of social life. They cannot be given to others by attempts to be helpful. They cannot be garnered by hard thinking. Rather do they come unsought when the bars of the self are down. When the self has ceased to make de­ mands and waits in quiet receptivity, it becomes open to the powers which nourish it and work through it; sustained by these powers, it knows joy and peace. Sitting alone under the trees and the sky, open to nature’s voices, calm and receptive, then can be wis­ dom from without enter within,

W ay 10: Self-control should be the keynote of life. Not the easy self-control which retreats from the world, but the vigilant, stem, manly control of a self which lives in the world, and knows the strength of the world and the limits of human power. The good life is rationally directed and firmly pursues high ideals. It is not bent by the seductive voices of comfort and desire. It does not expect social utopias. It is dis­ trustful of final victories. Too much should not be expected. Yet one can with vigilance hold firm the reins of self, control unruly impulses, understand one’s place in the world, guide one’s actions by reason, maintain self-reliant independence. And in this way, though he finally perish, man can keep his human dignity and respect, and die with cosmic good manners. VALUES CLARIFICATION 351

W a y 11: The contemplative life is the good life. The external world is no fit habitat for man. It is too big, too cold, too pressing. It is the life turned inward that is rewarding. The rich internal world of ideals, of sensitive feelings, of reverie, of self-knowledge is man’s true home. By the cultivation of the self within, man becomes human. Only then does there arise deep sympathy with all that lives, an understanding of the suffering inherent in life, a realization of the futility of aggressive action, the attainment of contemplative joy. Conceit then falls away and austerity is dissolved. In giving up the world, one finds the larger and finer sea of the inner self.

W a y 1 2 : The use of the body’s energy is the secret of a rewarding life. The hands need material to make into something; lumber and stone for building, food to harvest, clay to mold. The muscles are alive to joy only in action: in climbing, running, skiing and the like. Life finds its zest in overcoming, dominating, conquering some obstacle. It is the active deed which is satisfying; the deed that meets the challenge of the present, the daring and the adventuresome deed. Not in cautious foresight, not in relaxed ease does life attain completion. Outward energetic action, the ex­ citement of power in the tangible present — this is the way to live.

W ay 13: A person should let himself be used. Used by other persons in their growth, used by the great objec­ tive purposes in the universe which silently and ir­ 352 VALUES CLARIFICATION resistibly achieve their goal. For persons’ and the world’s purposes are basically dependable and can be trusted. One should be humble, constant, faithful, uninsistent. Grateful for affection and protection, but undemanding. Close to persons and to nature, and willing to be second. Nourishing the good by devotion. One should be a serene, confident, quiet vessel and instrument of the great dependable powers which move to fulfill themselves. .

APPENDIX B

SUMMARIES OF "SEARCHING FOR VALUES" FILMS

197 *

SUMMARIES OF VALUES FILMS

This film anthology is a series of films created by selecting specific scenes from contemporary motion pictures that focus on human values and attitudes. The edited film segments present a value dilemma. The situation is left unresolved and becomes a starting point for personal value activities. The following summaries were taken from a guide booklet, "A Teacher's Manual for Searching for Values Films," distributed by Learning Corporation of America, Long Island City, New York.

"I WHO AM, WHO AM I?" - A man who has lost the external symbols of his life finds that he has to look else­ where for his identity. Ned Merrill is without family, job and material possessions, but has not been able to psycho­ logically acknowledge their loss to himself. Unconsciously, he starts out on an allegorical journey in search of himself. Arriving at a neighbor's pool, he declares that he is an explorer determined to swim home by going from one pool to the next. His friends regard his bizarre behavior with a mixture of pity and bemused curiosity; they know what has happened to him, but cannot see the rationale behind his behavior. At one pool, he meets a young girl who was his daughter's friend and invites her to go along. Intrigued but uncomprehending, she accompanies him, but when he reaches out for her affection and friendship, she repulses him. At the town's public swimming pool, his relationship to the storeowners in town is cruelly revealed; he hasn't been able to pay any bills for weeks. They take pleasure in his comedown. Finally, Ned arrives at his own house and pathetically bangs on the door to be let in. Nobody is

198 199 home; the backyard and tennis courts are grown over with weeds, and the house is locked. He slumps to the ground, moaning like a lost animal. He has recognized his isola­ tion at last.

"MY COUNTRY - RIGHT OR WRONG?" - Rejection of the Vietnam War, and a parental and societal pressures, force a crisis in the life of a college student, impelling him to make crucial decisions about his values, and his future. Being drafted against his will seems problematic to Jerry, and to his father, but their views on patriotic duty differ greatly. Without informing his parents, Jerry leaves college, moves in with his girlfriend, and auditions for the music conservatory. While waiting to hear if he's been accepted, his father informs him that he's been reclassified 1-A and must report for a physical. Jerry assures him that being in the conservatory will keep him out of the service. The conservatory, however, turns Jerry down, and he decides to go to Canada. He asks his girlfriend to go with him, but she feels unable to commit herself. Jerry returns home to say goodbye to his parents, who quarrel over his decision. He and his father go to a gas station to have his car fixed. Jerry is stunned when he overhears his father demanding that the mechanic sabotage the car to prevent his son from leaving. Months later, Jerry's father, satisfied that he was right in this action, falls asleep during a news broad­ cast that shows his son's death in action.

"VIOLENCE: JUST FOR FUN" - Roman spectators applaud the destruction of human lives for entertainment, easily accepting violence as an enjoyable aspect of "civilized life." With weapons and armor, gladiators are trained to fight each other. Losers will be killed, victors applauded. The battles are savage and vicious— gladiators fall into pits of fire, get eaten by lions, stabbed, beaten, and run over with chariots. Watching this circus of humans killing humans are crowds of spectators who laugh and shout their approval and desire for blood. One gladiator refuses to kill his opponent. He is sentenced to death as an example to others who might choose to defy the will of the crowd. Another gladiator, armed only with a spear, defeats a sadistic opponent who has all the advantages, a chariot, armor, net, and experience. The spectators roar with approval as the defeated gladiator is dragged around the ring by his own chariot and horses. The victor signals to the crowd to spare the opponent's life. The crowd, in a tumult of emotion, demands that he be killed, and as it is done, leaps to its feet, laughing and applauding with 2 0 0 enthusiastic approval, elated at the pleasure just experi­ enced .

"LOVE TO KILL" - Six young boys, repulsed by their encounter with "killing for sport," take action and become the victims themselves of society's violence. The boys, at summer camp, are taken by their counselor to visit a com­ mercial buffalo preserve. When they arrive they see hunters indiscriminately killing buffalo. Even their counselor takes a turn. The boys are shocked. They can't believe what they are witnessing. They call the hunters "killers." It is explained to them that these buffalo are old and/or sick. When they get back to their camp their counselor accuses them of being bleeding hearts. The boys vow to sneak out at night and free the buffalo before more are killed. The hunters catch them freeing the buffalo, attempt to stop them and in so doing they shoot and kill one of the boys.

"LONELINESS...AND LOVING" - A young man, estranged from his family, his past, and himself, returns home to face emotions and conflicts he has chosen to keep suppressed. Robert's sister has asked him to come home and see his father, who is paralyzed by a stroke and cannot speak or even acknowledge his son's presence. Robert's past rela­ tionship with his father seems to have been one of great strain to them both. Also home is Robert's older brother, with whom he can't communicate and his brother's girlfriend, Catherine. The family is deeply involved in music, as Robert himself used to be. Robert insists that music no longer means anything to him; he seems to have put distance between himself and all of his emotional ties. Catherine gets him to play the piano, but he rejects the emotions that she finds reflected in his playing. She hopes that music will be a way to reach him. He, however, is unwilling to give anything of himself. Finally alone with his father, he breaks down and shows some understanding of the state of his existence: "I move around a lot, not because I'm looking for anything really, but because I'm getting away from things that get bad if I stay." Robert again takes leave of his family— his new insights, if any, unacknowl­ edged— seemingly headed for a continuation of the life he has chosen for himself.

"THE RIGHT TO LIVE: WHO DECIDES?" - In the face of general condemnation and at great personal risk, a ship's captain obeys his conscience and makes the agonizing A

2 0 1

decision to sacrifice some lives in order to save others. A ship has sunk, leaving as survivors its captain, and more crew members and passengers than its one lifeboat is equipped to carry. The situation suddenly becomes very desperate when storm clouds gather, and one of the sailors reports that the lifeboat will never survive, loaded the way it is. Despite the horrified protests of the others, the captain decides that some people will have to be put over the sides in life jackets, and that he will be the one to choose them. The criteria he establishes are based upon physical stamina and the ability to survive what might be many days at sea and the long row to the coast of Africa. With unshakeable determination, the captain chooses those who must leave the boat, including a sick woman whose lungs are filled with fuel oil, an elderly man and his wife, too weak to help in the rowing, and a young sailor whose strength is ebbing quickly. The people in the lifeboat, including the crew, refuse to help put the others overboard until ordered at gunpoint to do so by the captain. A dozen people ere set adrift. A day later, a freighter appears and rescues those remaining. The people in the lifeboat look at the captain. They are safe, and know that now he alone will have to answer for the responsibility of leaving the others behind.

"WHEN PARENTS GROW OLD" - Faced with the problem of a suddenly widowed father whose health is failing, a young man on the verge of marriage must decide where his responsi­ bilities lie. Gene's mother has died suddenly, and while his father protests that he's perfectly able to take care of himself, Gene and his sister are advised by the doctor that he should not be left alone. Gene's sister suggests getting a full-time housekeeper, but the father rejects this arrangement. Gene's sister has had no contact with her father since her marriage to a man whom he refused to accept. She points out to her brother that their father has always been selfish, and will stand in the way of his happiness, if Gene lets him. Gene is appalled as he imagines the state of dependency to which his father may be reduced. Their relationship has been strained in the past, but now Gene's resentment gives way to compassion and con­ cern. The distant spectre of his own aging compounds the conflicts Gene is feeling; he is angry at the thought of how old men who are no longer productive are treated by society. He visits an old-age home, but imagining his father among the residents there appalls him, and he rejects this alter­ native. His conflict is left unresolved. <

APPENDIX C

SAMPLE VALUE SHEETS

2 0 2 VALUE SHEETS

These sheets were used to add focus and thought to the value clarification procedures. The students were given time in class to read and write out reactions to these value sheets.

Value Sheet Used with "My Country— Right or Wrong?" 1. To me, patriotism is one's love or devotion to one's country. Having its roots in religion, it includes respect for our leaders, honor for our heroes, belief in our ideals, and a stout defense of the integrity of America. — J. Edgar Hoover 2. Many men have assumed that blind support of their country "right or wrong" is the very essence of patriotism. But I agree with the view that "he loves his country best who strives to make it best." Our schools will produce true patriots capable of saving this nation and all that makes it dear only if they turn out young­ sters alert and alive to our society's short­ comings and weaknesses; only if they instill in our children a social conscience, a fervor for righting old wrongs, defying old fears, surmount­ ing old prejudices, and banishing old social taboos. — Carl T. Rowan 3. We love our country, in the final analysis, because it is ours, because it is an extension of ourselves, and because we love ourselves. . . . But the highest ethical command is to love others as we love ourselves. The best patriotism, then, does not exclude and despise the foreigner, but gives him the love and respect to which all men are entitled. — Steve Allen 203 204 4. To me, strong "national patriotism" is undesirable. What we need is devotion to self and all mankind. Rather than more persons blindly loyal to a particular group, we need more persons who see that in this shrinking world all humans must share responsibilities for each other's trouble and joy. — Tamaji Harmin 5. Write out your own conception of patriotism. Instructions: Rank order these four conceptions of patriotism according to your own beliefs and feelings about patriotism. Place a "1" next to the statement that comes closest to what you believe patriotism should mean. Then place a "2" next to the definition that you consider next best; a "3" next to the third best; and a "4" next to the one that you consider the worst of the group. Finally, write out your own conception of patriotism.

The following two poems were used as part of the follow-up with the value film, "Loneliness... and Loving."

Loneliness I was about to go, and said so; And I had almost started for the door. But he was all alone in the sugar-house, And more lonely than he'd ever been before. We'd talked for half an hour, almost, About the price of sugar, and how I like my school, And he had made me drink some syrup hot, Telling me it was better that way than when cool. And I agreed, and thanked him for it, And said good-bye, and was about to go. Want to see where I was born? He asked me quickly. How to say no? The sugar-house looked over miles of valley. He pointed with a sticky finger to a patch of snow Where he was born. The house, he said, was gone. I can understand these people better, now I know. — Brooks Jenkins The Time It Takes to Love You In the time it takes to get to know you well enough to love you, I could be on my way and gone. Like the smoke up the chimney I could take what love you give me and be off in the misty crystal dawn. Travelin' on In the time it takes to love you. We might have had us a big time Out in Chicago or Cheyenne And I 'd have ended up With one more dependent and been a different kind of man. I know I'm not the first to love you, Maybe even not the best But I tried hard to be faithful in my fashion That sets me off from all the rest. — Rod McKuen

Used with Value Topic "When to Tell the Truth" Is lying always wrong? Do you remember the first time you lied? How did you feel? Is it easier to do as you get older? Are there some situations where lying is justified What are some of the reasons— causes for lying? What were some of the consequences? What are the alternatives to lying? Do they seem worse than lying?

Used with Value Film "The Right to Live— Who Decides?" Do you believe that anyone has the right to decide life or death as the skipper did? If you would have had the responsibility on this boat, what decisions would you have made? it 206 Do you think it was right for the skipper to force the "weak" to abandon ship? Is "survival of the fittest" the logical necessity in this case? Was it right to separate the family against their wishes? Have you ever been in a situation where you had to make a lonely and difficult choice? Please describe your feelings.

Used with Value Film "Love and Loneliness" Do you think Robert has any right to expect love in return? What do you think about Robert leaving or moving on when things would "get too bad if he stayed"?

TRAITS FORMING THE SELF-CONSISTENCY MEASURE

List I (Positive) List II (Negative)

Optimistic Impatient Studious Worrier Honest Self-conscious Considerate Moody Reliable Rebellious Kind Immature Sincere Quick-tempered Friendly Easily influenced Cautious Lazy Independent Gullible Practical Envious Happy Often feel misunderstood Sensitive Disorganized Tolerant Guilt-ridden Idealistic Stubborn Adventurous Self-centered Intelligent Noisy 207

SELF-CONSISTENCY MEASURE

Instructions: 1. Choose those five traits from each of the two lists (Positive- Negative) which describe you most accurately. 2. List the ten chosen traits down the side and across the bottom of a 10 x 10 matrix. 3. Compare each trait with each of the others, and for each comparison indicate the degree of consistency on a four-point scale: 0 = The two traits are generally compatible, go hand in hand 1 = The two traits are somewhat compatible, still closer together than apart 2 = The traits are more contradictory than similar, more differences than similarities 3 = The two traits are generally incompatible, little or no consistency is apparent 4

APPENDIX D

STUDENT COUNTER STATEMENTS

208 1

COUNTER STATEMENTS

The following statements are taken from personal interviews, value papers, and completed sentence stems relating to values clarification activities. They are representative student expressions of attitudes and behavior that was counter to the objectives of the study.

Excerpts from Personal Interviews "Some of the games were OK but some of the games just didn't go off at all . . . I don't think I changed much . . . ." "I didn't think that we changed as much as we should have. We had the same people in every group . . . we didn't get to know somebody on the other side of the room, it just sort of split up in little sections. I think we should have drawn lots, or something like that, and split everyone up so we could get different opinions of everybody else instead of just one person. After a while, you would just get to know what the other guy would think."

Excerpt from a Value Paper "I find no interest in sitting down and talking about values and prejudice. It does not 'turn me on,' in fact, I find it boring. The first weeks of this class I found interesting, but it steadily went down­ hill as we got into values. I continually find myself drifting away in this class, which is bad news because it tends to drag into other classes. As of late, it has lingered on from one day to another."

209 Completed Sentence Stems "I enjoyed the reading part of the course but dis­ liked the values studies."

"I was displeased that I couldn't do all of the activities that were given to us." "I was displeased that I didn't get to know more of my classmates better." "I don't feel that the values section was that worthwhile." "The values section was unmeaningful to me." "I learned that I can get bored fast." "I was displeased that I didn't get to know more people in this class." "I realized that I never spoke much in class." "I learned that I don't value my life very much and the only reason I am living is because that's the way God wants it." "I recognized that I hate school very much— I don't like anything about it except my friends who go here." "I wonder why we had all these values." "I was displeased that I did not get more outof the books I read and speakers and movies, etc." "I was surprised that I was bored with the value games." "I was (not) pleased that I didn't find out more about myself." "I learned that I hated value games and I never want to see one again." "I was surprised that I really got nothing out of the values games." "I was pleased that I finished all my value games." "I was displeased that I didn't feel like discussing the topics- I would have rather just sat here and listened. The topics were good, but I just didn't feel like discussing." "I wonder why I disliked this class." "I realized that I don't have any opinions." "I wonder why we wasted so much time in this class on dumb things." APPENDIX E

VALUE SURVEY SUMMATIONS

2 1 2 VALUE SURVEY SUMMATIONS

The following summations illustrate the polar values as indicated by the students' rankings of eighteen terminal and eighteen instrumental values listed on the "Value Survey."

Top and Bottom Rankings from the "Value Survey" Pre-Test Number of people out of 115 ranking the listed values among the top four places (number 1, 2, 3, or 4)*

Top Three Terminal Values Top Three Instrumental Values Freedom 55 Honest 48 True Friendship 43 Responsible 46 Happiness 41 Loving 45

Number of people out of 115 ranking the listed values least among the top four places

Bottom Bottom Three Terminal Values Three Instrumental Values Social Recognition 7 Obedient 7 National Security 7 Clean 7 Equality 14 Polite 12 World of Beauty 14

*The index was computed by summing the number of students who ranked the value in either the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place on the survey.

213 214 Top and Bottom Rankings from the "Value Survey" Post-Test Number of people out of 115 ranking the listed values among the top four places (number 1, 2, 3, or 4)*

Top Three Terminal Values Top Three Instrumental Values True Friendship 54 Loving 43 Freedom 39 Honest 37 Happiness 36 Independent 31

Number of people out of 115 ranking the listed values least among the top four places

Bottom Bottom Three Terminal Values Three Instrumental Values Social Recognition 3 Obedient 2 National Security 5 Polite 6 Equality 8 Clean 8

*The index was computed by summing the number of students who ranked the value in either the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place on the survey. iI

BIBLIOGRAPHY

215 t

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books Allport, Gordon. Pattern and Growth in Personality. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961. Anshen, Ruth, ed. Alfred North Whitehead: His Reflections on Man and Nature. New York: Harper and Row, Inc., 1961. Bruner, Jerome. The Process of Education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960. Callahan, Raymond. Education and the Cult of Efficiency. London: The Cambridge Press, 1966. Combs, Arthur. "An Educational Imperative: The Humane Dimension." In To Nurture Humaneness, pp. 173-188. Edited by Mary-Margaret Scobey. Washington, D.C.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Develop­ ment, 1970. Cremin, Lawrence. The American Common School, an Historic Conception. New York: Bureau of Publications, Columbia University, 1951. ______. The Transformation of the School. New York: Random House, 1964. Dewey, John. Experience and Education. New York: The Macmillan Company, 197 0. ______. Moral Principles in Education. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1919. ______. The School and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1913. Erikson, Erik. Identity, Youth and Crisis. New York: W. W. Norton, 1968. Fitzgerald, Frances. Fire in the Lake. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1972.

216 4 217 Frankl, Victor. Man's Search for Meaning. New York: Washington Square Press, 1963. Fromm, Erich. Man for Himself. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1947. ______. The Revolution of Hope. New York: Harper and Row, 1968. Gardner, John. Self-Renewal. New York: Harper and Row, 1968. Hofstatler, Richard. Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1956. Holt, John. How Children Fail. New York: Pitman Pub­ lishers, 1964. Illich, Ivan. Deschooling Society. New York: Harper and Row, 1970. Inlow, Gail. Values in Transition: A Handbook. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1972. James, William. Talks on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals. New York: Dover Publica- tions, 1962. Jung, Carl G. The Development of Personality. New York: Pantheon Press, 1964. ______. The Integration of the Personality. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, Inc., 1939. Kelley, Earl. Education For What Is Real. New York: Harper Publishers, 1947. Kerlinger, Fred. Foundations of Behavioral Research. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1967. Kimball, Solon T., and McClellan, James E. Jr. Education and the New America. New York: Random House, Inc., 1962. Kohl, Herbert. The Open Classroom. New York: Random House, 1969. Kohler, Wolfgang. The Place of Value in a World of Facts. New York: Liveright Publishers Corporation, 193 8. t 218 Kozol, Jonathan. Death at an Early Age. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967. McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media. Toronto: Univer­ sity of Toronto Press, 1965. ______. Counterblast. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1969. ______, and Fiore, Quentin. The Medium is the Massage. New York: Bantam Publishers, 1967. Maslow, Abraham. Toward a Psychology of Being. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1962. May, Rollo. Love and Will. New York: Norton Publishing Company, 1969. ______. Power and Innocence. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 197 2. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: The Viking Press, 1958. Morris, Desmond. The Naked Ape. New York: Dell Publishing Company, Inc., 1967. Myrdal, Gunnar. "A Methodological Note on Valuations and Beliefs." In A Preface to Our Times, pp. 527-536. Edited by William E. Buckler. New York: American Book Company, 1968. Packard, Vance. A Nation of Strangers. New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1972. Pepper, Stephen. The Sources of’Value. Berkeley: Univer­ sity of California Press, 1958. Perkinson, Henry. The Imperfect Panacea: American Faith in Education. New York: Random House, 1968. Phenix, Philip. Realms of Meaning. New York: Washington Square Press, 1964. Raths, Louis; Harmin, Merrill; and Simon, Sidney. Values and Teaching. Columbus: Charles Merrill Publish­ ing, 1966. Reich, Charles. The Greening of America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1970. * 219 Robinson, John, and Shaver, Philip. Measures of Social- Psychological Attitudes. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969. Rokeach, Milton. Beliefs, Attitudes and Feelings. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1968. Russell, Bertrand. The Conquest of Happiness. London: Allen and Unwin, 1952. Schlesinger, Arthur. The Rise of the City 1878-1898. New York: Macmillan and Company, 1933. Silberman, Charles. Crisis in the Classroom. New York: Random House, 1970. Simon, Sidney; Howe, Leland; and Kirschenbaum, Howard. Values Clarification: A Handbook of Practical Strategies for Teachers and Students. New York: Hart Publishing Company, 1972. Skinner, B. F. Beyond Freedom and Dignity. New York: Random House, 1971. Sontag, Susan. "The Aesthetics of Silence." In Styles of Radical Will. New York: Random House, 1965. Stern, Alfred. The Search for Meaning. Memphis: The Memphis State University Press, 1971. Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1945. Toffler, Alvin. Future Shock. New York: Random House, 1970. Whitehead, Alfred North. The Aims of Education and Other Essays. New York: The New American Library, 1929. Wylie, Ruth. The Self-Concept. Omaha: The University of Nebraska Press, 1961.

Articles in Journals or Magazines Armstrong, Delores. "Values Are the Basis of Ethical Behavior." The Personnel and Guidance Journal 50 (December 1971): 295-297. 4

2 2 0 Bruner, Jerome. "On the Continuity of Learning." Saturday Review, March 1973, pp. 21-23. Dow, Peter. "Man: A Course of Study in Retrospect: A Primer for Curriculum in the 70's." Theory Into Practice, June 1971, pp. 168-174. Glasser, William. "The Civilized Identity Society." Satur­ day Review, February 19, 1972, pp. 26-31. Halek, Loretta. '"A Basis for Action' Follows Analyzation of Value Positions." The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin 4 (Summer 1970): 21-26 Illich, Ivan. "Convivial Tools." Saturday Review, May 1973, pp. 62-67. "The Alternative to Schooling." Saturday Review, June 19, 1971, pp. 16-22. Kozol, Jonathan. "Moving On— To Nowhere." Saturday Review, January 19, 1973, pp. 6-14. Maslow, Abraham. "Peak Experiences in Education and Art." Theory Into Practice, June 1971, pp. 149-153. Michalak, Daniel A. "The Clarification of Values." Improving College and University Teaching 2 (Spring 1970): 100-101. Peterson, Fred. "School, Teacher, and Real World." Improving College and University Teaching 2 (Spring 1970): 108-109. Pilder, William F. "Values as a Process of Encounter." Educational Leadership 5 (February 1970): 449-451. Sherwood, John J. "Self-Identity and Referent Others." Sociometry 28 (March 1965): 66-81. Simon, Sidney, and Karnes, Alice. "Teaching Afro-American History with a Focus on Values." Educational Leader­ ship 3 (December 1969): 222-224. Simon, Sidney, and Kirschenbaum, Howard. "Teaching English with a Focus on Values." .English Journal 7 (October 1969): 1071-1073, 1113.