Before the economic crisis exploded in our mouths and overflowed the political and social agendas, we were fully immersed in two other crises. On the one hand, there was the ecological crisis (everything will be fine) and on the other hand we had what was very aptly called the “crisis of values” .

The latter was often interpreted from the dangerous nuance of the word crisis, implying that values were in danger of disappearing, leading to moral anarchy, and the task was to preserve them. Let us remember, however, that crisis’ also means change’, and thus also opportunity’, and the next generations could count on moral systems and ethical scales that are more refined than ours.

So… what is happening with educational values? Are they evolving so fast that we have not yet realized their transformation, or are they in the process of dissolving into nothingness?

Educational values and generational change

The most important thing is that the predominant values are not disappearing , but are being relegated to the background or are starting to coexist with new emerging values. A key agent in this process is the rise of social networks, which allow the expression and transmission of certain values normally repressed by the mass media and that favour a globalisation process that implies the import and export of such values.

Therefore, we find ourselves with an infinite number of values, all of them legitimate but many contradictory to each other, which means that the actions and feelings of the same person may not be in harmony, giving rise to cases in which a discomfort known in psychology as cognitive dissonance is produced, and making it very complicated to be politically correct in almost any official or social situation.

This being so, it is difficult not to fall into a post-modern relativism that leads us to the conclusion that everyone and no one is right, and beyond that, to a moral war in which I can admit to being wrong , but I will fight stubbornly to defend my values, which is why I have chosen them.

Combating relativism

In extreme cases, human rights are often used to justify the erroneous nature of certain values. However, from this relativistic perspective, these rights are the result of a consensus dependent on a particular culture and time , which would, in the end, be considered arbitrary.

That is why many sectors are pointing to a solution, and that is that we are fortunate to have a whole educational network, with buildings, professionals and politicians fully dedicated to this respect, which gives us an unparalleled opportunity to instil positive values in the young minds that will make up the majority of our population in just 15 or 20 years. We have achieved an education in contents and we are on the way to achieving an education in competences, perhaps it is time to enter into an education in values.

Should values be taught in school?

Analysing it from a pragmatic point of view, the function of the school consists of guaranteeing students all those competences necessary in the society they are going to join that are not guaranteed by non-formal educational environments. Taking into account the political and social conflicts of the world in which we live, we would say that values are indeed fundamental and that they are not working wonderfully, so, following this logic, yes, it seems that the responsibility falls once again on schools.

The million dollar question is: what values do we choose? If we do not want to fall into relativism, we must define which are those values that are optimal for our society… respect, companionship, fraternity…? I wish it were that easy!

Obviously, we face several problems. On the one hand, values should be defined through behaviours and ideas associated with them, but we cannot be sure that those in charge of defining these values do not make them subject to certain interests, not to mention that instilling predefined values in the malleable young minds is still an indoctrination whose dangers are evident in the history books. Finally, as we do not control what happens in the schools of other states, we are still not safe from relativism .

However, there is a tool for citizens to respond in an adaptive way to their moral environment without falling into interventionism. To be sceptical of the information provided by interested parties, to contrast it , to consider the reasons that lead other people to take opposite solutions… That is, to develop critical thinking.

The importance of developing your own criteria

Developing critical thinking in our society is vital for forming values without going into indoctrination, and education is a tool at our disposal of incalculable power. Perhaps if we start to follow this path we will stop seeing the crisis of values as a danger , and we may see fewer and fewer conflicts between groups that are only separated by such trivial elements as colours, geographical location… or flags.