Getting human values

We can get human values :

• on our own, through our own initiative, by learning and observing

• through religious teachings

• at school

• with our parents and family

These different ways complete each other:

• Our first awareness of human values is brought to us by our parents and family when we are infants. It's parents that first transmit human values to thier children, to build their identity and help them function in the outside world. This way of transmitting human values differs from all other ways because parents can best accompany their messages and instructions with affection and love. Young children are particularly receptive to this learning because they feel that their parents are helping them grow into adults, because they truly care for him. Parents are also the best persons to give their children guidemarks for how to behave when a conflict arises between brothers and sisters, or at school or in the street, and how to avoid giving or receiving blows.

• Then, School takes over, but in a complementary way: here one learns how to live with others, what are rules and regulations about, the importance of one's country's Constitution. it's at school that children socialise or enter into conflict with other schoolchildren and where mediation and conflict management techniques are starting to be taught.

• Religious teachings are also very complementary. They teach that moral and human values are not to be transgressed, through sacred texts and other writings. The more these teachings emphasise openness and respect for the other, the more they help children practice human and moral values.

• Learning and developing on one's own one's human and moral values is somthing we each do throughout our lives, even before adolescence. We do this by speaking and sharing with others, by observing what takes place around us, by reading, by thinking about what we don't want others to do to us and by meditating on how to reach inner happiness.