For some time there have been calls for schools to teach values. For these reasons, even though some of the calls come from prominent and influential New Zealanders, they are likely to be overlooked or seen as little more than another demand on schools. Our problem is largely one of language. Preferences and principles are opposites.
Preferences are subjective while principles are objective.
The confusion over the use of the word values, in the context of moral beliefs and attitudes, is not surprising, given the comparatively short period it has been used in that sense. Just over one hundred years ago the German philosopher, Friedrich Vilhem Nietzsche began to speak of values in a new way. Neitzsche used the word consciously and repeatedly to signify what he believed to be the most profound event in human history. There would be no good or evil, no virtue or vice. Because it seemed so familiar and unthreatening it was absorbed unconsciously and without resistance into the vocabulary and ethos of modern society.