… and why are they important?
Values are principles / objectives that guide us. They are based on our (shared) ideas of what we think is good and right – in terms of living together. If we lived alone, there would be no need for them.
Values therefore underlie the rules/laws that organize our coexistence. They serve to balance interests and satisfy needs without restricting those of others. Accordingly, values themselves must sometimes be weighed up.
Values therefore form the basis, the foundation of our community. The community can be, for example, the family, the sports club, the school, the company, the neighborhood, the country, or the continent. This is where the term “community of values” comes from.
In Germany, dignity is a high collective value that guides our laws and our jurisprudence. For example, the first sentence of Article 1 of the Basic Law reads: „Human dignity is inviolable. It is the duty of all state authority to respect and protect it.“
What this sentence means is: “No human being may be treated as an object, completely deprived of their rights, subjected to inhuman and degrading punishment and treatment, tortured, or destroyed as a so-called life unworthy of life.” [[1]]
It is important to me that my child treats others with respect and is aware of his own dignity, so that any insults or humiliation cannot damage his self-esteem. To convey this to him, I try to be a good role model, highlight his strengths, and tell him appropriate stories.
Secondly, since the concept of values is still somewhat abstract for a eight-year-old, I used the compass as a vivid example of orientation, since he knows it from his pirate ship😉
Now that this post has answered the question “What are values?”, you will find examples of values in the next blog post.
Translated from German with DeepL.com (free version)
[1] Thurich, Eckart: pocket politik. Demokratie in Deutschland. Neuausgabe 2006. Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung 2006. Lexika für politische Bildung unter www.bpb.de