I said that the process of value or normative education proceeds along three ascending levels, that is understanding the meaning of values, accepting values and finally, voluntarily committing oneself to values. The success of normative education also depends upon the way we select and combine values and value systems to be introduced to the students. Whether we lead them toward acceptance of core values like integrity, honor, empathy and humanity, or whether we merely introduce them to marginal values like physical beauty, material wealth, status in the hierarchy systems and the like. The key to making education a significant cultural force lies in how we define values and value systems to be taught, and how we guide and encourage students toward upholding and defending values and value systems. If we do these two things correctly, then education will become a cultural force that moves a generation and a nation.
Political dynamics is just another aspect of such a cultural force.
It is in this sense that there is a relationship between education and politics. Another important topic discussed during the conference was how to conduct nonformal civic education. There was a consensus among the participants that if a civil society is to materialize in emerging democracies, civic education has to be carried out both inside and outside the school. Both the young and the old generation need to be informed about the necessity for citizens in free societies to be responsible for what is going to happen in the society, and responsible also for averting conditions that may threaten the security and welfare of the society. This topic was, in my opinion, not exhaustively discussed.