ASSESSING THE VALUES TO BE ADOPTED IN YOUNG PEOPLE

Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes. As such, values reflect a person‟s sense of right and wrong or what “ought” to be. “Equal rights for all”, "Excellence deserves admiration", and “People should be treated with respect and dignity” are representative of values. Values tend to influence attitudes and behavior. For example, if you value equal rights for all and you go to work for an organization that treats its managers much better than it does its workers, you may form the attitude that the company is an unfair place to work; consequently, you may not produce well or may perhaps leave the company. It is likely that if the company had had a more egalitarian policy, your attitude and behaviors would have been more positive. The values and attitudes we live by affect how we relate to other people and to all our activities in the environment, and so are a major influence on our prospects for achieving a sustainable future. Although they cannot be separated from cognitive understanding, values and attitudes relate to the affective (or emotional) dimension of human behaviour. While values and attitudes are similar in this regard, they differ in several important ways. Values are generally long-term standards or principles that are used to judge the worth of an idea or action. They provide the criteria by which we decide whether something is good or bad, right or wrong. 7 8 Attitudes predispose us to respond in particular ways to people and events. They are not so deeply felt as values and quite often change as a result of experience. Value education is important to help everyone in improving the value system that he/she holds and put them to use. Once, we understand our values in life, we can examine and control the various choices we make in our lives. It‟s our duty to uphold the various types of values in life such as cultural values, universal values, personal values and social values. Value education is always essential to shape a student‟s life and to give him an opportunity of performing himself on the global stage. The need for value education among the parents, children, teachers etc, is constantly increasing as we continue to witness increasing violent activities, behavioral disorder and lack of unity in society. The family system in India has a long tradition of imparting value education right from the ancient practice of the gurukul system. But with modern developments and a fast changing role of the parents, teachers.