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Alberta Education Guiding Statments and Values

The following is reprinted here from Inspiring Action on Education: A Discussion Paper. Is presented here for discussion and comment on developing a value based medium.

Guiding Statements
The vision, values and principles describe the purpose, motives and intentions that underpin our education system, and which guide and are reflected in each area of policy and governance.
Vision
To inspire and enable students to achieve success and fulfillment as engaged thinkers and ethical citizens with an entrepreneurial spirit within an inclusive education system.
Values
Values describe the ideals we seek to embrace and fulfill in the operation of the education system. This discussion paper adopts the following values from the Inspiring Education Steering Committee Report:
Opportunity: Learners are exposed to rich learning experiences that enable them to discover their passions and achieve their highest potential.
Fairness: Learners have access to the programs, support services, and instructional excellence needed to achieve desired outcomes.
Citizenship: Learners have pride in their community and culture. They have a sense of belonging and work to improve both the community and the world.
Choice: Learners have a choice of both programs and methods of learning.
Diversity: Learners’ differing needs, cultures, and abilities are respected and valued within inclusive learning environments.
Excellence: Learners, teachers, and governors achieve high standards.

Lovely

Lovely: delightful; highly pleasing, of a great moral or spiritual beauty (Random House Dictionary)

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

         Be acceptable in Your sight, 
         O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer." (Psalm 19:14, NKJV)

"The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD, 

      But the words of the pure are pleasant." (Proverbs 15:26, NKJV)

"The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD,
      But the prayer of the upright is His delight." (Proverbs 15:8, NKJV)

"For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men." (Romans 14:17-18, NKJV)

Pure

Pure: untainted with evil; innocent; free of or without guilt; guiltless (Random House Dictionary)

"Blessed are the pure in heart, 

For they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8, NKJV)

"Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?

         Or who may stand in His holy place?
 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
         Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, 
         Nor sworn deceitfully.
 He shall receive blessing from the LORD,
         And righteousness from the God of his salvation." (Psalm 24:3-5, NKJV)

"Your word is very pure;
         Therefore Your servant loves it." (Psalm 119:140, NKJV)

Whereas justice refers to the presence of righteousness, purity refers to the absence of evil. For something to be pure, it has to be completely free of any defect; even the slightest defect means it is not pure. Morally, adhering to a standard of purity means that it is not a matter whether one thing is better or more righteous than another, for if it has the slightest immorality, it is no longer pure.

When evaluating media based on purity, one must first decide whether it is just and noble. Then one must ask, "Is the justice or nobility of the message in any way diminished by some condoning of evil, or is the message pure?"


This definition needs to be reworked; by these standards nothing can be defined as pure.

Just

Just: guided by truth, reason, justice, and fairness; righteous (Random House Dictionary)

"He has shown you, O man, what is good; 

      And what does the LORD require of you 
      But to do justly, 
      To love mercy, 
      And to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8, NKJV)

"For He repays man according to his work,

      And makes man to find a reward according to his way." (Job 34:11, NKJV)

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD,

      But a just weight is His delight. " (Proverbs 11:1, NKJV)

Truth and justice are very closely related. Being just is not possible without the true standard, yet justice is what puts truth into action. In the Bible, "just" is used similarly to "righteous." It goes beyond simple legal justice, to doing what is moral and right. Justice is truth and righteousness in action.

In terms of evaluating media based on whether it is just, one must ask, "Is this telling me to do what is right or wrong? Does it have a moral message or an immoral one?"

True

True: being in accordance with the actual state or conditions; conforming to reality or fact; not false; real; genuine; authentic; sincere, not deceitful (Random House Dictionary)

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life'." (John 14:6, NKJV)

"Jesus answered, 'You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me'." (John 18:37)

"God is not a man, that He should lie,

      Nor a son of man, that He should repent. 
      Has He said, and will He not do? 
      Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19, NKJV)

"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth." (John 17:17, NKJV)

"Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD,
      But those who deal truthfully are His delight." (Proverbs 12:22, NKJV)

"Therefore, putting away lying, 'Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,' for we are members of one another." (Ephesians 4:25, NKJV)

We live in a postmodern culture that denies the existence of absolute truth. Everything is relative and subjective, they say. The problem with holding to relative truth is that it acts as a license for anything, regardless of values. In fact, a value system cannot exist without a definition of truth, for there can be no values without a true standard to compare it to.

Truth is the accordance with an actual state. It is what is not false or deceitful. Truth is honest and sincere. Truth is required for trustworthiness; if something is not true, it cannot be relied on. To the Christian, Jesus Christ is truth itself, as he said "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." God is also truth, and the Word of God is truth. If something is true, it aligns with the truth of God, Jesus Christ, and the Word of God.

To evaluate media based on the value of truth, one must ask "Is this true or is it false? Is it sincere or is it deceitful? Is it trustworthy or is it unreliable?" If it attempts to convince people of untrue things, or for untrustworthy reasons, it is deceitful and not true. Knowledge of what is true is needed to evaluate media based on the value of truth.

Since fiction is a form of media imagined by its author, it by definition cannot be evaluated by the same standard of truth as nonfiction. However, rather than classifying it as untrue by default, it has its own standard by which it can be evaluated for truth. It is not the content of a work of fiction that must be evaluated for truth, but the themes. When evaluating fiction, one must not ask "Is this factual?" but rather "Is the message of this work true, or does it try to deceive me?"

P4:8 Values Index

"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things." (Philippians 4:8, NKJV)

Paul's words to the Philippians above still apply to every Christian today. Rather than providing an explicit list of dos and don'ts, Paul asks the Christian to be discerning about what they think about. Here, we are attempting to expand upon and explain what Paul wrote for Christians today, to allow them to easier discern what is right to focus on and what is wrong.

The P4:8 Values is a system to evaluate media based on whether they are:

• True
• Noble
• Just
• Pure
• Lovely
• Of Good Report
• Virtuous
• Praiseworthy

Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Information Age

Quentin J. Schultze's book, Habits of the High-Tech Heart, serves as a warning to those living in the information age, surrounded by technology, and substituting information for knowledge and the transfer of information for community. He laments the lack of morality in technology, and emphasizes six "habits of the heart" that are needed to live morally amidst the information age.

The first habit is discernment. Schultze says that by putting the focus on information we are becoming passive observers, and are losing the ability to distinguish between truth and fiction. This allows people to act amorally and untruthfully online. Cultivating discernment will result in living truthfully, and not just exchanging information.

The second habit is moderation. With ever-increasing technological advancements and ability to trade information better, our culture sees this as a license to use these technologies to their limits without regard to moral usage of said technologies. Cultivating moderation recognizes that more does not mean better, and results in a focus of how to use technologies morally rather than just more.

The third habit is wisdom. Schultze points out that cyberculture is very shallow and lacks experience-based wisdom, instead relying on facts and figures in place of wisdom. Cultivating wisdom allows people to take more into account when making decisions than simply relying on databases.

The fourth habit is humility. Our increasing potency from information technology is resulting in pride, Schultze argues, and results in blind faith and belief in the infallibility of our technology. Cultivating humility allows us to laugh at ourselves, and realize the fallibility of technology, as we are fallible.

The fifth habit is authenticity. The Internet allows us to hide behind a mask and present ourselves any way we want, allowing individuals to lie to others over the Internet. Cultivating authenticity will allow us to say what we mean and mean what we say.

The sixth habit is diversity. In cyberculture, anything that is not technologically productive is considered worthless by the cyber-elite, regardless of their cultural significance. Cultivating diversity will result in appreciation of other cultures and tradition.

Finally, Schultze concludes by criticizing Internet "community" for not being community at all, but rather a gathering of people with similar interests, which he says is not community. He urges people to return to more traditional communities with geographical proximity.

The habits of the heart that Schultze lists in his books are worth cultivating. However, the book itself is not without faults.

For one, never once in his book does Schultze define what is moral. Through several instances of the book it is evident that Schultze has a far broader definition of morality than most people, and as he does not specifically communicate what he means by morality, this can lead to misunderstanding of his book. Many readers may find his talks of morality inapplicable to certain situations as a result. Furthermore, readers may not agree with what Schultze's faith-based assumptions, which could cause them to be hostile to his book.

Schultze appears to ascribe the cause of the amorality of our culture to the Internet and information technology alone. However, the causal relationship is in fact quite the opposite. For instance, many in our culture are undiscerning of information on the Internet not because the Internet obscures what is true and false, but because postmodern culture denies the existence of absolute truth. To quote Megan Maloney's review of this book:

"If people agree to the objects of their love, it is not the objects (cybertechnologies) that determine their hearts, but their hearts that determine what they love. Schultze consistently confuses the order of causation, granting agency to cybertechnologies and obscuring the root of our misdirected loves.

As Jesus once said to a people confused about the source of uncleanness: “It is what comes out of a man’s heart that makes him defiled.” Orality, which Schultze touts as a more perfect form of communication than high-tech messaging, is no exception to this rule: The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart.… The mouth, no more or less than the keypad, depends on the heart."

In sum, the Internet is not what affects our morality; it is our morality that affects our use of the Internet. This is a subtle yet very important distinction. Schultze would benefit from a class in sociology to learn how to properly study causal relationships.

Schultze also makes blanket statements about how individuals use cybertechnology. His claims about how we use technology do not necessarily reflect how everyone uses technology, though the way he makes these claims sends across this message. In fact, some of these claims seem to be more based on the potential that technology has to be abused, rather than the abuse itself.

In addition, his assumptions, such as that communication online is not moral and true relationships cannot develop online may not be entirely accurate. He gives little support to back up his assumptions, and there are several counter-examples.

Finally, Schultze tries to force real-world morality onto the virtual world. However, since they fundamentally operate by different rules, this may not be wise. This is not to say that morality and values are meaningless in cyberculture, but critical judgment should be used to create a set of values and morals that apply to virtual reality and the real world.

Though his book does have some issues, at the basic level his habits of the heart do have worth. There is great value in emphasizing and cultivating them.

See on Amazon: Habits Of The High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Informaiton Age

For other reviews:

http://www.acton.org/publications/mandm/mandm_review_128.php

http://www.wfs.org/revschultze.htm

http://www.denverseminary.edu/article/habits-of-the-high-tech-heart-living-virtuously-in-the-information-age/

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3664/is_200310/ai_n9328445/

Image & Text Based

Current media  and emerging educational focus on image and technological stimulation  likely affects  brain development  in negative ways  see - Ira Smolensky. "Endangered Minds." Magill Book Reviews. Salem Press, 1990. eNotes.com. 2006. 25 Nov, 2009 http://www.enotes.com/endangered-minds-salem/endangered-minds

Right and Wrong

• "All of our social problems arise out of doing the wrong thing righter..." see Quote of the Day: Right and wrong 
• One of the ways we can do the wrong thing righter is to use technology to replace time for personal interaction see Technology strengthening family ties
  

Towards Developing a Value Based Rating System:

Current movie ratings look at how much negative content can be tolerated by certain audiences. FACTS is proposing an alternative rating systems based on positive values as illustrated in the following links:

• Values of the Counter Culture of the 60s Revisited
• Quotes from Alberta Furtures Summit and Premier Ed Stemach -Values
  
• Woodhaven Middle School Values

And the following references:

• 
  
  

  Habits Of The High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Informaiton Age

University of Alberta Values

Excellence in teaching that promotes learning, outstanding research and creative activity
that fuel discovery and advance knowledge, and enlightened service that builds citizenship;

The centrality of our students and our responsibility to provide an intellectually superior
educational environment;

Integrity, fairness, and principles of ethical conduct built on the foundation of academic
freedom, open inquiry, and the pursuit of truth;

A diverse, yet inclusive, dynamic collegial community that welcomes change and seizes
opportunity with passion and creativity;

Pride in our history and traditions, including contributions from Aboriginal people and other
groups, that enriches and distinguishes the University.

From http://www.president.ualberta.ca/pdfs/D2DVisionDocumentFINAL.pdf

Exerpt from Premier Stelmach's Address Oct. 09

"I'm deeply proud of our province—its unique heritage and landscape. This is the land my grandparents first homesteaded when they came to Canada, and where Marie and I have raised our family. My grandparents came here for the very same reason many choose Alberta—they see it as a land of opportunity, a place where you can achieve your dreams. Those dreams weren't so different from what Albertans dream of today: a place where you can set your own path … where hard work is rewarded … where you can be a part of a safe community and raise a family."

From Part 4 of Premier Stelmach's Address on the "The Way Forward" 

Summary of Woodhaven Middle School Values

1. Live for Others

Link Woodhaven Middle School Values

Alberta Values: A Summary

Alberta Values from Alberta Future Summit 2002


Economics
•Hard work
•Self reliance
•Free enterprise
•Freedoms that come from democracy and our system of justice
•Government that is accountable


Education
•Continuous learning
•Innovation
•Knowledge and research
•Opportunities to enjoy arts, culture, sports, and recreation


Safety
•Keep children safe from abuse and neglect
•Safe, secure communities
•Health and Wellness


Human Rights
•Respect
•Acceptance of cultural diversity and individual differences
•Fairness
•Equality
•Inclusiveness
•Openness
•Freedom of Choice
•Personal freedom


Character
•Patience
•Compassion
•Trust
•Community service with a true spirit of volunteerism
•Honesty
•Integrity

Identifying Common Alberta Values

Alberta has a rich heritage culturally and naturally (Natural resources, Parks etc.) and we want to pass this on to future generations. The following excerpts and links attempt to begin identifying the values that need to be passed on so that can happen.

Alberta Futures Summit

“Albertans identified the personal values they live by. Honesty, integrity, hard work and self-reliance were cited most often. Albertans also value patience, respect, acceptance of diversity, faith, compassion, openness and trust…

Albertans value children and families and mentioned family values in a variety of contexts. Some Albertans cited the need to emphasize and sustain family values. Some commented on the need for balance between family life and work. Some discussed families in relation to children: they spoke of the need to invest in children and keep them safe from neglect and abuse.

Albertans value freedom—freedom of choice, personal freedom, free enterprise and the freedoms that come from democracy and our system of justice.

Albertans value fairness, equality, respect and social responsibility. Many touched on the need to care for those less able to help themselves and the need to help one another. Respect was discussed in terms of respect for each other, for the environment, for elders and for the past. Equality referred to the equality of individuals and opportunities for all.

Albertans value inclusiveness, cultural diversity and acceptance of individual differences. They value safe, secure communities that provide opportunities to enjoy the arts, culture, sports and recreation.

Albertans value education as the door to the future and recognize children and young people as an important part of that future. They value continuous learning, innovation, knowledge and research. Albertans value health and wellness. They value their province’s natural environment and believe it should be protected. They value their communities and believe in community service with a true spirit of volunteerism. They also value good government—government that accountable, accessible, fiscally responsible and responsive to the needs of its citizens.”

(Alberta Future Summit 2002 report page 14-15)

Premier Ed Stelmach

*In preparing for this evening, I got thinking about how a person develops his or her character.
Even from a young age, children are bombarded with so many messages, from their parents, from television, from their friends and from their teachers.
With every kid, it's what sticks that counts. The more we can influence future generations with positive messages, the better off they will be. The better off we'll — be.
When I was young, I was fortunate to have many positive influences in my life, starting with my grandparents...
*We have laid out five priorities for action, based on what we've heard from Albertans.

• The first is to broaden and strengthen the next generation economy, so Albertans will have security, prosperity and opportunity for today and tomorrow.
• The second is to provide the schools, hospitals and roads our province needs.
• The third is to ensure that Albertans get the health care they need, when and where they need it.
• The fourth is to make Alberta a global leader in clean and sustainable energy development.
• And finally, to make sure our province retains its sense of community, and quality of life as it continues to grow and change...

*We want to build a province with the same character of community and hard work that we inherited from those who built our province in its formative years.

For example, every year the government gives out our Great Kids Award...
*I want nothing more than for these kids to have a bright future in our province…
And we can make it happen by living the way they do — with our eyes on the world around us.
*I believe those in public life have a responsibility to uphold the values that are important to Albertans.
Those values are not unlike those of my parents and grandparents.
They include hard work… personal responsibility… the importance of family and community…caring for the vulnerable… and faith....

*For me, I owe so much to my family and community for instilling in me a love for our province and the people in it.
I also owe a lot those Albertans who are working in their communities every day to make them better.
I see their commitment as both a mirror and an inspiration for government action.
I believe people in public life should work every day to continue to earn the respect of the people they serve.
That is why I am committed to governing in an open and accountable manner.
*Staying true to the values of Albertans is the best and only way to move our province into the future.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who built this province. We really do. It's a debt we can never repay…but we can pay it forward.
We can do that by continuing to build this amazing province.
*We can do that by supporting our churches and charities…our schools and service clubs…that make our communities strong.
We can manage what we have today wisely, and protect the environment for tomorrow.
*And, most importantly, we can instill an appreciation for our province and its people in our children and grandchildren.
We can be their greatest influences..."

From Premier Ed Stelmach: La Vie Society Engaging the City — Moral Convictions in Public Life speech-2008-June-10-. © 1995 - 2008 Government of Alberta

Also see:

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