Values clarification

The "values clarification" curriculum is a secular humanist program designed to help children to rebel against the traditional values of their parents. It tells students they are absolutely justified to choose whatever values they want, regardless of the impact that choice has on other people. In other words, it promotes an utter self-centered perspective.

The curriculum is promoted under the guise of simply "clarifying" values but actually encourages children to think completely independent of parents, church or the larger society. The idea that one should be dedicated to something bigger than oneself is forbidden: teachers are not allowed to "impose" this value on children!

• Children who are subjected to this technique are taught that there are no absolutes and that one is free to choose any value one likes. Teachers who use values-clarification this way are actually teaching the student that whatever he or she decides is right, is right. This is exactly what the humanists have claimed in their manifesto: "Ethics is autonomous and situational, needing no theological or ideological sanction."

In the seventies I and many others waged the war against values clarification, which was later renamed "critical thinking," which regardless of the label-and there are bound to be many more labels on the horizon-is nothing but pure, unadulterated destruction of absolute values of right and wrong upon which stable and free societies depend and upon which our nation was founded.