Jewish Group Backs Teaching of Values in Public Schools

NEW YORK —  A leading American Jewish civil rights organization is endorsing the movement to teach values in public schools, claiming “moral relativism” represents a greater danger than the possibility of church-state abuses.

The American Jewish Committee, overcoming fears that values education could be “a smoke screen for teaching religious precepts,” has approved a report by a task force that encourages schools to define, teach “and put into action” values that are at the foundation of a democracy.

“I think what happened over the last 20 years . . . was a certain kind of moral relativism did enter in. There was confusion about right and wrong,” said Irving M. Levine, the committee’s director of national affairs. “What you have now is a reinsertion of the ethno-cultural-religious traditions and an attempt to develop a consensus around those traditional values.”

A copy of the report, to be released next month, was obtained by the Associated Press. It is considered significant because of the past reluctance of many groups representing minority religions to enter into the issue.

“The easiest thing to do is let’s not touch it because it’s too risky,” said Arnold Gardner, vice president of the American Jewish Committee and chairman of the task force that wrote the report. “I think it’s a natural evolution of our attitude and the ability to distinguish between matters of religious faith and shared values.”

The role of the public school in teaching values is coming under increasing scrutiny as educators and others debate the effect of “value-free education.” In a 1986 speech that focused national attention on the issue, New York Gov. Mario Cuomo said, “When you get kids for eight years in an elementary school and you never say anything to them about values, I suspect what you’re saying to them is there are no values.”

A panel of educators brought together by the Assn. of Supervision and Curriculum Development recommended in its final report last year “that schools define and teach a morality of justice, altruism, diligence and respect for human dignity.”

The National Council of Churches, representing mainline Protestant denominations, last year launched an experimental program for churches, schools and teacher-education colleges to help communities establish a consensus on values that should be taught.

Churches and schools have “used the church-state separation principle as a reason to hide. That’s turning around significantly,” said Margaret L. Shafer of the council’s Division on Church and Society.

The Jewish committee’s report said that in many cases, religious and civic values are identical. Among these are compassion, regard for human worth and dignity, integrity and justice. The report said a nonsectarian consensus can be reached on what values should be taught.