1) Values

What are values? They have been defined as "the standards or criteria against which individual behavior and group behavior are judged." (National Council for the Social Studies Task Force, 1989, p. 378) What do people in a democratic nation have in common? What standards have been established? The writers of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights have established standards.

2) Beliefs

Related to values or standards are beliefs. A definition of beliefs is stated as follows: "Something believed or accepted as true; especially a particular tenet, or a body of tenets, accepted by a group of persons." (Morris, 1973, p. 121).

The National Council for the Social Studies (1980, p.2) defined democratic beliefs as follows:

Fundamental beliefs drawn from the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution with its Bill of Rights form the basic principles of our democratic constitutional order. Exemplary school programs do not indoctrinate students to accept these ideas blindly, but present knowledge about their historical derivation and contemporary application essential to understanding our society and its institutions. Not only should such ideas be discussed as they relate to the curriculum and to current affairs, they should also be mirrored by teachers in their classrooms and embodied in the school's daily operations.

These democratic beliefs depend upon such practices as due process, equal protection, and civic participation, and are rooted in the concepts of:

Justice

Responsibility

Diversity

Equality

Freedom

Privacy

3) Attitudes

Attitudes are "a state of mind or feeling with regard to some matter;" (Morris, 1973, p. 85)

In summary then in a democratic nation we have 1) standards or values which are 2) accepted as true and we have 3) feelings about them.

Attitudes Toward Learning About Others

Public school teachers and administrators need to know about the value and belief systems represented in a classroom in order to understand attitudes, actions, words, habits, and customs of students. Teaching of values must begin with teachers who have knowledge about a wide variety of value and belief systems. The result need not be professionals who say one system is as good as another but rather people who understand and acknowledge the existence of the systems.

The beliefs of people cannot be separated from their being. The beliefs of a person in a public school cannot be filtered out by a metal detector or "belief detector." Beliefs permeate every aspect of a person's being. A baker puts yeast into dough. The leavening agent spreads throughout the entire bread and cannot be separated from it. What is inside of a public school teacher, administrator, or student will be reflected in every action or lack of action on the part of the individual and is indicative of that person's beliefs.

Morris, W. & Others (Ed.). (1973). The American heritage dictionary of the English language. Boston: American Heritage Publishing Co.

Schneider, D. (1994). Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Washington, D. C. : National Council for the Social Studies.