False Dr. Sidney Simon Quote

"It is definitely a false quote. I defy anyone to show where it appeared in print under my byline or a tape of those words from any speech I gave.

From the start, Values Clarification proudly stood for:

Less Moralizing, less indoctrinating, less inculcating, and less preaching and shaming. All of us, among the early scholars and writers, had lived through the Nazi period. We saw the impact of brain washing, propaganda, and the use of tools for manipulating people's thoughts.

We saw our work as just the opposite. We were committed to helping students search, process, and, by God, think. Our focus was not on having one set of values to inculcate, but on teaching people how to sort out the Chaos and Confusion of life.

Look at the seven values criteria. A value must be:
1. Prized and cherished.
2. Chosen from among Alternatives
3. After due reflection and awareness of consequences
4. Must be publicly affirmed
5. And acted on, and acted on repeatedly
6. It must be consistent with your other values.
7. And they must be chosen freely.

I'm proud to say that no one I know who has done the Values Clarification work ever hustled one set of values. It was always the process. The effort to close the gap between our creeds and our deeds, as Dr. Louis Raths, the real father of Values Clarification used to say.

The seven criteria above are not easy to live by. They demand much of both the students and the teachers who walk that exciting path.

Peace,

Sidney B. Simon, Professor Emeritus, Univ. of Massachusetts, 11-29-2007"
 -- Editor, Liberty Quotes