Values - obsevation and class

So it was quite interesting today between my observation and class. In class, we went through the 5 elements of philosophy and we talked about axiology, about values. Several people pointed out that it was important not force your values on the students, and yet, we always want to portray "good" values. I got to experience that today while talking to my Co-op teacher. She was telling me about a student who had said that they "forgot" their reading log at home. Later, she comes to hand it to my Co-op with a parent's signature (they need to get it signed). However, my Co-op was looking at it and noticed that the signature was in pencil and had been erased a couple of times and so my Co-op teacher was a little suspicous. Since she had all the parents sign a letter in the beginning of the year she knew what the signature was supposed to be. She compared the two and turns out that the sudent had forged the signature. Now, not only did the student have a detention for turning it in late, my Co- op had to figure out what to do with the student. She wasn't entirely sure what she was going to do but she did tell me that she is going to stress the severity of the situation. In a way, my Co-op was going to stress her values and even though it was a bad thing that the student did, it made me realize how easy it is to stress your own values onto others, even though you may not be realizing it.

Class was really good today because it gave me a lot of avenues to look at to start my Philosophy of Education paper. I like the more discussion based classes like this one.