Dialogue: Values revolution may be key to safer nation

JUDY LAWLEY* says New Zealand's downward spiral in too many areas demands a clear shift in our values and priorities.

On 125th Street West, off Broadway in New York, I recently passed a little cadre of NYPD cars with lights flashing and sirens blasting as greetings. Not a customer in sight.

But clearly in sight were the core values of the NYPD writ large on the blue car doors - courtesy, professionalism and respect.

So the New York Police Department is doing it, ethical businesses are doing it, banks are doing it and city councils, too.

A city without values is a city without direction, states the introduction to the Auckland City Council's 2000 booklet for Auckland citizens. The vision and values of the city are then stated large, bold and colourfully - sustainable environment, diversity, prosperity, accessibility and communication that is open, honest, culturally appropriate and undertaken with integrity.

All successful organisations have a vision that paints the future picture which, in turn, sets out the reason for being. And every wise leader knows that the vision is nothing more than fantasy if there is not a set of values to guide both the long-term and the everyday decisions that will make it happen.

In the Herald's common core debate, two crucial questions need answering:

What are the common values that drive all New Zealanders in the same direction and give us pride as a nation?

How do we live, love, play and work together when, as many different peoples, we hold values that often differ and conflict?

I care deeply about values that unite the people of a nation, police department, university, school or family. I care most about values that protect children, and I am grateful that the Herald is encouraging New Zealand to search for a national identity that, when found, will strengthen our dignity and pride and preserve our children.

Some readers may find such words as excitement, gratitude, caring and pride to be somewhat at odds with the usual Kiwi way - minimalist and reserved in manner, unflappable and unfussable, yet kind in our own funny way, dependable and enterprising.

I, for one, am not too endeared with minimalism and reserve right now. They just won't do for halting the tragedy of New Zealand's downward spiral in too many areas of life, a spiral that demands appropriate emotional outrage and a clear shift in our values priorities.

Here are a few values priorities commonly found in New Zealand culture:

Parents' rights are more important than children's rights.

Individual and family privacy, and autonomy, are more important than the common good.

Not interfering in other people's business is more important than caring about someone who is suffering.

Is it possible that values like these account for the appalling lives and deaths of many New Zealand children? Some of our citizens are at last showing concern that we are not treating our children very nicely.

Liz Gunn showed passion about children and got a public crucifixion for her trouble. How dare we be so incredibly cruel to someone who cared enough to be enthusiastic, passionate and sincerely apologetic for an error?

How dare we stifle someone who cared? But dare we did. We showed in that disgraceful public incident some weeks ago that we are willing to hang people who stick their necks out for the value of caring.

That said, the picture is not all doom and gloom. There is an answer. It is, of course, long-term and it lies in values education - learning about our values so we can take responsibility for our actions.

There is a quiet revolution taking place in the schools of New Zealand, Australia, Britain, the United States and many other countries. Schools are at last stating what they value and what they stand for.

From there, it follows that they make public and specific commitments to live out those values. This is the key to the happiness and success of children at school.

It is almost too simple and effective to be believable. There has been an appalling gap in the education of so many of us - big and little people alike. We don't know what our values really are.

We act without knowing what values lie behind our decisions. Okay, so we may not want to examine what values decided what we ate for breakfast this morning. But people, especially those with the assigned power to make decisions that affect other people's lives, who do not know the values that direct their priorities and decisions are dangerous people.

They do not truly understand what they are doing if they do not understand their own values, and that is dangerous.

If we understand our own values, we have some chance of understanding the values of others. An example of this relates to the subject of bullying in schools.

An anti-bullying project in Denmark found that school bullies did not understand the value of empathy. They had not learned it at home. Some direct teaching on empathy brought significant improvement in the bullies' behaviour.

How simple. How effective. This work will save the lives of victims who could commit suicide, and it will improve the quality of life for victims and bullies alike.

Education is by definition our face of the future. Values education is happening in schools. It needs to happen in all spheres - business, medicine, media, justice systems, the private and public lives of all New Zealanders. As a nation, we can follow the example being set by schools.

We can consider our core values in a more honest and upfront manner so that we can say with some degree of integrity: "We know what we stand for, we know how to practise that and we do practise that."

* Judy Lawley is director of the Ministry of Education's Living Values Project.

Herald Online feature: Common core values

We invite to you to contribute to the debate on core values. E-mail dialogue@herald.co.nz.