Should We Teach Jewish Values?

Publication Date: January 1992

Publisher: Melton Center for Jewish Education in the Diaspora

Author(s): Barry Chazan

Research Area: Education; Social conditions

Keywords: World Jews; Jewish education; Academic research

Type: Report

Abstract:

In: Studies in Jewish Education 6, 66-83. The concern for teaching values has spawned an extensive theoretical and practical literature around such questions as: What are values? Are they social or individual? Are they principles or practices? How do we teach them? What materials should we use? A range of answers has been given by Emile Durkheim, John Dewey, Lawrence Kohlberg, Louis Rath, Merrill Harmin, Sidney Simon, Carol Gilligan and John Wilson. The disagreements among them are many and intense. However, they all share the belief that the activity of teaching values is in itself inherently valid and legitimate for schools.