The very notion of any school being value-neutral is nonsense. It is impossible for people to live life without some form of expression of their values.

Values are like the settings on a plane’s autopilot. Changing the settings (values) changes the course the plane takes. The autopilot guides the plane in a particular direction when all is well, however, when conditions change, it is necessary to override the settings (values) to steer a different course. For example, if a pilot observes that there is a severe storm ahead, the passengers would not be very happy with the pilot if she didn’t change the values (settings) of the autopilot to steer around the storm. So it is with peoples’ values. If we say the values of private schools are the values that should guide all children, as John Howard, Peter Costello and others seem to be suggesting, our children run the risk of heading down a path that may not be appropriate for their wellbeing or that of society.

The key skills that schools ought to be teaching children are: (1) how to identify the range of value choices that are available, (2) how to determine what values are important to them as individuals, (3) how to explore why these values are important, (4) how to change their values if they believe a change will create a better life for them and others, and (5) how to explore the consequences of living their values to the full given that their values shape those of society.

The last point is very important, as Stephen Covey says in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, "even thieves have values, it’s how we live our values that matters."

It seems appropriate to finish with one more quote:

Teaching values, recently a political theme, can’t be done. So, while the candidate for office declares, "We need to teach our kids family values!" the fact is that our children form their own values. Most often, they have very good values. What they need to learn is how to use their true values as a basis for making decisions. Let’s adjust our political candidate’s talking point to say, "We need to teach our kids how to organize their lives around their own values!’" While this doesn’t sound as good on the stump, and our candidate may lose the election by a landslide, at least our politician was honest. (Robert Fritz)

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Paul Chippendale is Fellow in Values & Ethics at the International Management Centres Association. He is also coordinator of the Minessence Group, an organisation dedicated to helping people and organisations create contexts for success though identifying and living their values to the full.