A values crisis seems to have struck in contemporary, industrialized society. The deterioration of the family, the community, and the church has weakened the channels through which the cultural heritage has traditionally been transmitted. The failure of many young people to acquire a satisfactory values system has been speeded up by the negative influence of world events, the effects of the mass media which popularized the "generation gap" and glamorized the new iife styles, and the disconcerting effects upon youth of being exposed to varying and often inconsistent value systems. In their book, Values and Teaching , Raths, et al., (1966, p. 7) ask, "Could it be, we wonder, that the pace and complexity of modern life has so exacerbated the problem of deciding what is good and what is right and what is worthy and what is desirable that large numbers of children are finding it increasingly bewildering, even overwhelming, to decide what is worth valuing, what is worth one's time and energy?" The same authors (1966, p. 7) contend that "few would deny that there are far too many children in the schools today who do not seem to learn as well as they might because they simply are not clear about what their lives are for, what is worth working for."
Raths et al. (1966) have proposed a values continuum. At one end are those individuals who can be classified as "becoming" or "self-actualizing"
people. They can be labeled as being positive, purposeful, enthusiastic, and proud. On the other end are those other individuals who, due to their inability to cope with their surroundings, have adopted quite different behavior patterns. They are characterized as being (1) apathetic, (2) flighty, (3) uncertain, (4) inconsistent, (5) drifters, (6) overconformers, (7) overdissenters, and (8) role players. Obviously, many people fall somewhere between the extremes. However, the point the authors make is that the positive group has very clear-cut values while the others do not.
Values are acquired during the course of the socialization process. If they are not, special programs must be instituted to insure that a functional, harmonious values system is developed. The basic approaches to values acquisition are summarized as follows by Rest (1974):
7. Socialization or Indoctrination. In this approach, youths are told what is right, what is to be valued.
2. Behavioristic. Youths are conditioned to react within certain predetermined patterns.
3. Humanistic. Humanistic psychologists stress experience and transitory states of feeling.
4. Values Clarification. This approach is essentially neutral. The goal is to give youngsters an insight into the process of clarifying exactly what their values are.
5. Developmentalist. Developmentalist psychologists focus on the development of conceptual frameworks, problem-solving strategies, and structured competencies which can be transferred to other situations and which serve to enhance and enrich later life. They hold that the individual's cognitive structure is the basis for comprehending and interpreting her affective experiences. They do not accept the ethical relativity and the value neutrality of the values clarification approach.
Raths et al. conceive of values as being an outgrowth of three processes: choosing, prizing, and acting. According to their viewpoint it is essential that each individual be allowed to choose "freely," "from alternatives," and "after thoughtful consideration of the consequences of each alternative." After choosing, individuals indicate the extent to which they prize their choice by "being happy with the choice," and by being "willing to affirm the choice publicly." If they prize the choice, then they will confirm their values in action by "doing something with the choice repeatedly, in some pattern of life." Individual's values are revealed by their goals and purposes, aspirations, attitudes, interests, feelings, beliefs and convictions, activities, and worries and problems (Raths, Harmin, & Simon, 1966, p. 30). The teacher interested in pursuing "person" education should sensitize herself to the various manners in which individuals express their values. Based on her observations and analysis of the students' strengths and/or weaknesses, she can institute
procedures to take advantage of the strong aspects of each student and to build up those areas in which growth and development would be beneficial to each personally, socially, and academically.