Frow Steeman

As we move into the 21st century, the search for ways to improve the quality of education is global. One area of focus has been that of values, attitudes, and behavior and how to develop these aspects of character in a positive and productive way. How do we empower individuals to choose their own set of values? What kind of specialized training is necessary for educators to integrate values into existing programs? How can values-based education prepare students for lifelong learning in their communities? 

The Call for Values 

The call for values is currently echoing throughout every land, as educators, parents and more and more children are increasingly concerned about and affected by violence, growing social problems, the lack of respect for each other and the world around them, and the lack of social cohesion. World leaders struggle with a myriad of problems. Educators are, therefore, once again being asked to address problems which have arisen within their societies. As UNESCO?s Commission, headed by Jacques Delors, reports in Learning: The Treasure Within, "In confronting the many challenges that the future holds in store, humankind sees in education an indispensable asset in its attempt to attain the ideals of peace, freedom and social justice. The Commission does not see education as a miracle cure or a magic formula opening the door to a world in which all ideals will be attained, but as one of the principal means available to foster a deeper and more harmonious form of human development and thereby to reduce poverty, exclusion, ignorance, oppression and war." Living Values: An Educational Program (LVEP) has been produced in response to the call for values.

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Delors, Jacques, et al. Learning: The Treasure Within, Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century. UNESCO Publishing, 1996. ISBN 0 7306 9037 7

What Kind of Program Is LVEP?
 
Living Values: An Educational Program (LVEP) is a values education program. It offers a variety of experiential values activities and practical methodologies to teachers and facilitators to enable children and young adults to explore and develop 12 key universal values: Cooperation, Freedom, Happiness, Honesty, Humility, Love, Peace, Respect, Responsibility, Simplicity, Tolerance, and Unity. LVEP also contains special units for use with parents and caregivers, and refugees and children-affected-by-war.

LVEP is already in use at over 7000 sites in 74 countries. Results from schools indicate that students are responsive to the values activities and become interested in discussing and applying values. Teachers report not only a decrease in aggressive behavior, but also note that students are more motivated and exhibit an increase in positive and cooperative personal and social skills.

History of Living Values
 
Living Values: An Educational Program (LVEP) grew out of an international project begun in 1995 by the Brahma Kumaris to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations. Called Sharing Our Values for a Better World, this project focused on 12 universal values. The theme -- adopted from a tenet in the Preamble of the United Nations? Charter -- was "To reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person ...." Living Values: A Guidebook was created as part of the Sharing Our Values for a Better World Project. The guidebook -- which provided value statements on the 12 core values, offered an individual perspective for creating and sustaining positive change, and included facilitated group workshops and activities -- contained a small section of values activities for students in the classroom. That sketchy classroom curriculum became the inspiration and impetus for Living Values: An Education Initiative (LVEI). 

Living Values: An Education Initiative (LVEI) was born when twenty educators from around the world gathered at UNICEF Headquarters in New York City in August of 1996 to discuss the needs of children, their experiences of working with values, and how educators can integrate values to better prepare students for lifelong learning. Using Living Values: A Guidebook and the "Convention on the Rights of the Child" as a framework, the global educators identified and agreed upon the purpose and aims of values-based education worldwide -- in both developed and developing countries. 

Living Values Educators? Kit became available for piloting in March of 1997, and by late Spring that year was being piloted at 220 sites in over 40 countries. It is currently in 74 countries, and activities have extended to over 7000 sites.