Values/Moral Education: Current Conceptions and Practices in Philippines Schools

Abstract

“Values/Moral Education,” unlike “Science” and “Mathematics,” is an extremely ambiguous expression. Attempts to stabilize or clarify it proved difficult as it continues to admit conflicting, if not inconsistent, conceptions about its place in education. A non-sectarian organization, for instance, may take Values/Moral Education as a tool for transmitting a certain set of “transcultural” values to the students. A sectarian institution, on the other hand, may require that values that are central to its faith must likewise be inculcated in the students.1 There are also those organizations that maintainthat Values/Moral Education should aim at getting the students to learn how, rather than what, to think, choose, and value. These are some of the conceptions of Values/Moral Education that contribute to the difficult disagreements on its purpose and content in the Philippine schools. It may be said further that it is unfortunate that some of the remedies from such conceptions appear to be a problem in themselves.
In this work, the name “Values/Moral Education” is used to include both the idea of moral valuing and non-moral choice making. The said expression refers to “evaluative discourse” alone, and therefore is confined to the argumentative language of non-moral and moral valuing.