Why do our societal values feel unmoored? 

Our society began to lose its moorings with a German philosopher named Nietzsche. He claimed that “Whatever has value in our world now does not have value in itself, according to its nature—nature is always value-less, but has been given value at some time, as a present-and it was we who gave and bestowed it. Only we have created the world that concerns man!”  

 In other words, there is no objective value or worth to anything, only that which a human being gives it. This type of philosophy says that if you don’t like what is being valued, you can just change it.  

Yet, here’s the thing: without virtue as the guide, what happens to society? People become divided and polarized, anxious and aimless, and lose trust and connection to their community. If this sounds like the world you live in, it’s because our society has embraced Nietzsche’s personal values over guiding, unifying principles. How can a child or a teenager growing up in such a world know what is right, who they are, and how to navigate the ever-changing values around them? 

How are virtues different than values? 

The key to anchoring our kids in a society with ever shifting values is teaching virtue. But how are virtues different than values? While a value is a personal preference, virtues are an objective standard of excellence—like the standard that makes an excellent basketball player—for how we behave and who we are. In fact, the root word in Latin for virtuous means excellent; indeed, it literally means a completely developed man, someone who has obtained the peak of excellence as a human being. The qualities of an excellent person include wisdom, temperance, fortitude, and justice, among others.  

Can we not all agree that justice is better than injustice? Isn't wisdom better than foolishness? And yet we often see virtue pushed aside as being antiquated and unimportant today, to the point that it isn’t even taught in most schools. How does a student know they are excellent? Instead of measuring themselves against the virtuous standard of excellence, they are being measured by grades, peers, and social media. They are “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind” of opinion and values (James 1:6 NIV). The anchor in this storm is teaching virtue.  

Why does teaching virtue help? 

To understand why virtue helps anchor our soul in a value-less society, let’s first consider why an anchor works. A good anchor is heavy enough that the ship is rooted in one place, even as the sea pushes and heaves to try and move it. In other words, a good anchor keeps you where you want to be. Without an anchor, the sea and the wind will drive you to places you never intended to go, often away from the safety of land.  

To make this more concrete, let’s consider the French Revolution. During the revolution, the guiding value was loyalty to “The Revolution,” but without a single standard of right and wrong—of virtue— “the Revolution [devoured] its children.” In other words, moderate revolutionaries were executed by the Jacobins, they were executed by The Directory, and then they were ousted by Bonaparte, all in the name of loyalty to “The Revolution.” The only problem was that the goal posts for loyalty changed. Virtue does not change.  

What it means to be virtuous—to pursue justice, temperance, wisdom, and fortitude—has been consistent for over two thousand years. Having a consistent measure of right and wrong means that we are never guessing or unsure about the correct course. We know what’s right, and that is calming to the soul, because virtue is living “in accord with [our] nature”as human beings.

How do we teach virtue? 

Unfortunately, even though virtue is living “in accord with nature,” it doesn’t come naturally—anyone who has raised a child knows that. Luckily, it can be taught! Virtue is taught in two ways: by great models and great books. James Baldwin, the civil rights activist, said, “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” If we hope to have virtuous children, we must start with ourselves. As they watch us living virtuously, they will emulate that too. Being virtuous will develop virtuous kids infinitely faster than lecturing on virtue because they need to see virtue in action to know what to do.   

However, we sometimes need other examples of virtue, too. That is where great books come in. Who can teach friendship better than Frog and Toad? Who shows greater determination than Pinocchio? What better example of grit can we find than in Where the Red Fern Grows, or of justice and mercy than we find in Huckleberry Finn? By deliberately reading virtuous stories, your child with learn and want to emulate virtue. They will know what is right and when the wind of values shifts, it will anchor their soul to the excellent way of living.

Why virtue? 

There are so many other values in the world, so why should virtue be any better than others? The answer is surprisingly simple—does anything else fill your soul? After searching in many places, Aristotle concluded that “human good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue…But we must add ‘in a complete life’. For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.”

Virtue, consistently lived, makes human beings blessed and happy. Nothing else ever has, and nothing else ever will, because it is in our nature. So, instead of merely sending kids to school to be social, to learn skills, to get a job, or to get them out of our hair, let’s send them to school to learn how to be happy and excellent; teaching virtue will do exactly that.