Family and Personal Values
Senior 3 · History and Citizenship
Family and Personal Values
Lesson 1 of 3
20 min
Igiti kigororwa kikiri gito. "A tree is straightened while it is still young."
Uburere buruta ubuvuke. "Upbringing counts for more than birth."
Source A. Two Kinyarwanda proverbs.
Analysing the source. Both proverbs are about how people learn to tell right from wrong. The first says that values are best formed early, in childhood, as a young tree is guided before its trunk hardens. The second says that what a person becomes depends more on how they were raised than on the family or place they were born into. Together they make a claim this lesson will test: values are learned, and the people and places around us teach them.
Definition
Value: a belief about what is important, good or right, which guides how a person chooses and behaves. Example: honesty.
Personal values: the values an individual has chosen to live by.
Family values: the values shared and passed on within a family, such as respect, love and hard work.
Moral values: values about right and wrong in how we treat others, such as fairness and kindness.
Norm: an unwritten rule of behaviour that a group expects its members to follow, such as greeting elders first.
Attitude: a settled way of thinking or feeling about something, which shows in behaviour.
No one is born with values. They are learned from many sources at once, as the diagram shows.
| Source | How it teaches values | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Example, advice, praise, correction and stories | A grandmother tells why we share food with neighbours |
| School | Rules, teachers' example, clubs and lessons such as this one | A class agrees rules for respectful debate |
| Religion | Scripture, teaching and community worship | Christian and Muslim teaching both command respect for parents (Lesson 3) |
| Culture and elders | Proverbs, songs, ceremonies, itorero | Proverbs such as those in Source A |
| Friends and peers | What the group admires or mocks | Friends who cheer someone for refusing to cheat |
| Media and internet | Films, music, adverts and social media | An online campaign against bullying |
| Laws and the Constitution | Rules that protect rights and set duties | The Constitution forbids discrimination |
| Own experience | Learning from what happens to us and to others | Someone who was lied to learns how much honesty matters |
Values matter because they guide behaviour, and behaviour has consequences.
Sources do not always agree. Friends or social media may admire things that family or religion reject. Part of growing up is weighing these messages and choosing values you can defend with reasons.
Worked example: identifying values in a situation
Situation: Mugisha's friends plan to copy answers in a test. He refuses and tells them he would rather fail honestly than pass by cheating. Identify two values he shows, and one source each may come from. (4 marks)
Value 1: honesty (integrity), which may come from his family or religion.
Value 2: courage, standing up to his peers, which may come from his own experience or from examples at school.
Each value is named, linked to the behaviour, and given a likely source.
Which source has shaped your values most so far: family, school, religion, friends or the internet? Has that changed since you were in primary school?
Tip
Value, behaviour, source. In questions about a situation, name the value, point to the behaviour that shows it, and suggest where it was learned.
Practice
Sources and credits
