essay on need of values

Essays About Values: 5 Essay Examples Plus 10 Prompts

Similar to how our values guide us, let this guide with essays about values and writing prompts help you write your essay.

Values are the core principles that guide the actions we take and the choices we make. They are the cornerstones of our identity. On a community or organizational level, values are the moral code that every member must embrace to live harmoniously and work together towards shared goals. 

We acquire our values from different sources such as parents, mentors, friends, cultures, and experiences. All of these build on one another — some rejected as we see fit — for us to form our perception of our values and what will lead us to a happy and fulfilled life.

5 Essay Examples

1. what today’s classrooms can learn from ancient cultures by linda flanagan, 2. stand out to your hiring panel with a personal value statement by maggie wooll, 3. make your values mean something by patrick m. lencioni, 4. how greed outstripped need by beth azar, 5. a shift in american family values is fueling estrangement by joshua coleman, 1. my core values, 2. how my upbringing shaped my values, 3. values of today’s youth, 4. values of a good friend, 5. an experience that shaped your values, 6. remembering our values when innovating, 7. important values of school culture, 8. books that influenced your values, 9. religious faith and moral values, 10. schwartz’s theory of basic values.

“Connectedness is another core value among Maya families, and teachers seek to cultivate it… While many American teachers also value relationships with their students, that effort is undermined by the competitive environment seen in many Western classrooms.”

Ancient communities keep their traditions and values of a hands-off approach to raising their kids. They also preserve their hunter-gatherer mindsets and others that help their kids gain patience, initiative, a sense of connectedness, and other qualities that make a helpful child.

“How do you align with the company’s mission and add to its culture? Because it contains such vital information, your personal value statement should stand out on your resume or in your application package.”

Want to rise above other candidates in the jobs market? Then always highlight your value statement. A personal value statement should be short but still, capture the aspirations and values of the company. The essay provides an example of a captivating value statement and tips for crafting one.

“Values can set a company apart from the competition by clarifying its identity and serving as a rallying point for employees. But coming up with strong values—and sticking to them—requires real guts.”

Along with the mission and vision, clear values should dictate a company’s strategic goals. However, several CEOs still needed help to grasp organizational values fully. The essay offers a direction in setting these values and impresses on readers the necessity to preserve them at all costs. 

“‘He compared the values held by people in countries with more competitive forms of capitalism with the values of folks in countries that have a more cooperative style of capitalism… These countries rely more on strategic cooperation… rather than relying mostly on free-market competition as the United States does.”

The form of capitalism we have created today has shaped our high value for material happiness. In this process, psychologists said we have allowed our moral and ethical values to drift away from us for greed to take over. You can also check out these essays about utopia .

“From the adult child’s perspective, there might be much to gain from an estrangement: the liberation from those perceived as hurtful or oppressive, the claiming of authority in a relationship, and the sense of control over which people to keep in one’s life. For the mother or father, there is little benefit when their child cuts off contact.”

It is most challenging when the bonds between parent and child weaken in later years. Psychologists have been navigating this problem among modern families, which is not an easy conflict to resolve. It requires both parties to give their best in humbling themselves and understanding their loved ones, no matter how divergent their values are. 

10 Writing  Prompts On Essays About Values

For this topic prompt, contemplate your non-negotiable core values and why you strive to observe them at all costs. For example, you might value honesty and integrity above all else. Expound on why cultivating fundamental values leads to a happy and meaningful life. Finally, ponder other values you would like to gain for your future self. Write down how you have been practicing to adopt these aspired values. 

Many of our values may have been instilled in us during childhood. This essay discusses the essential values you gained from your parents or teachers while growing up. Expound on their importance in helping you flourish in your adult years. Then, offer recommendations on what households, schools, or communities can do to ensure that more young people adopt these values.

Is today’s youth lacking essential values, or is there simply a shift in what values generations uphold? Strive to answer this and write down the healthy values that are emerging and dying. Then think of ways society can preserve healthy values while doing away with bad ones. Of course, this change will always start at home, so also encourage parents, as role models, to be mindful of their words, actions and behavior.  

The greatest gift in life is friendship. In this essay, enumerate the top values a friend should have. You may use your best friend as an example. Then, cite the best traits your best friend has that have influenced you to be a better version of yourself. Finally, expound on how these values can effectively sustain a healthy friendship in the long term. 

We all have that one defining experience that has forever changed how we see life and the values we hold dear. Describe yours through storytelling with the help of our storytelling guide . This experience may involve a decision, a conversation you had with someone, or a speech you heard at an event.  

With today’s innovation, scientists can make positive changes happen. But can we truly exercise our values when we fiddle with new technologies whose full extent of positive and adverse effects we do not yet understand such as AI? Contemplate this question and look into existing regulations on how we curb the creation or use of technologies that go against our values. Finally, assess these rules’ effectiveness and other options society has. 

Highlight a school’s role in honing a person’s values. Then, look into the different aspects of your school’s culture. Identify which best practices distinct in your school are helping students develop their values. You could consider whether your teachers exhibit themselves as admirable role models or specific parts of the curriculum that help you build good character. 

In this essay, recommend your readers to pick up your favorite books, particularly those that served as pathways to enlightening insights and values. To start, provide a summary of the book’s story. It would be better if you could do so without revealing too much to avoid spoiling your readers’ experience. Then, elaborate on how you have applied the values you learned from the book.

For many, religious faith is the underlying reason for their values. For this prompt, explore further the inextricable links between religion and values. If you identify with a certain religion, share your thoughts on the values your sector subscribes to. You can also tread the more controversial path on the conflicts of religious values with socially accepted beliefs or practices, such as abortion. 

Dive deeper into the ten universal values that social psychologist Shalom Schwartz came up with: power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, universalism, benevolence, tradition, conformity, and security. Look into their connections and conflicts against each other. Then, pick your favorite value and explain how you relate to it the most. Also, find if value conflicts within you, as theorized by Schwartz.

Make sure to check out our round-up of the best essay checkers . If you want to use the latest grammar software, read our guide on using an AI grammar checker .

Yna Lim is a communications specialist currently focused on policy advocacy. In her eight years of writing, she has been exposed to a variety of topics, including cryptocurrency, web hosting, agriculture, marketing, intellectual property, data privacy and international trade. A former journalist in one of the top business papers in the Philippines, Yna is currently pursuing her master's degree in economics and business.

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Essay on Values for Students and Children

500+ words essay on values.

Importance of Values

For an individual, values are most important. An individual with good values is loved by everyone around as he is compassionate about others and also he behaves ethically.

Values Help in Decision Making

A person is able to judge what is right and what is wrong based on the values he imbibes. In life at various steps, it makes the decision-making process easier. A person with good values is always likely to make better decisions than others.

Values Can Give Direction to Our Life

In life, Values give us clear goals. They always tell us how we should behave and act in different situations and give the right direction to our life. In life, a person with good values can take better charge.

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Values Can Build Character

If a person wants a strong character, then he has to possesses good values such as honesty , loyalty, reliability, efficiency, consistency, compassion, determination, and courage. Values always help in building our character.

Values Can Help in Building a Society

If u want a better society then people need to bear good values. Values play an important role in society. They only need to do their hard work, with compassion, honesty, and other values. Such people will help in the growth of society and make it a much better place to live.

Characteristics of Values

Values are always based on various things. While the basic values remain the same across cultures and are intact since centuries some values may vary. Values may be specific to a society or age. In the past, it was considered that women with good moral values must stay at home and not voice their opinion on anything but however, this has changed over time. Our culture and society determine the values to a large extent. We imbibe values during our childhood years and they remain with us throughout our life.

Family always plays the most important role in rendering values to us. Decisions in life are largely based on the values we possess. Values are permanent and seldom change. A person is always known by the values he possesses. The values of a person always reflect on his attitude and overall personality.

The Decline of Values in the Modern Times

While values are of great importance and we are all aware of the same unfortunately people these days are so engrossed in making money and building a good lifestyle that they often overlook the importance of values. At the age when children must be taught good values, they are taught to fight and survive in this competitive world. Their academics and performance in other activities are given importance over their values.

Parents , as well as teachers, teach them how to take on each other and win by any means instead of inculcating good sportsman spirit in them and teaching them values such as integrity, compassion, and patience. Children always look up to their elders as their role models and it is unfortunate that elders these days have a lack of values. Therefore the children learn the same.

In order to help him grow into a responsible and wise human being, it is important for people to realize that values must be given topmost priority in a child’s life because children are the future of the society. There can be nothing better in a society where a majority of people have good values and they follow the ethical norms.

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• Essay On Values

Essay on Moral Values

500+ words essay on moral values.

Moral values are considered an essential aspect of human life. Moral values determine one’s nature, behaviour and overall attitude towards life and other people. In our lives, our decisions are primarily based on our values. The choices we make in our lives impact us and our society, organisation and nation. It is believed that a person with good values makes wise decisions that benefit everyone. On the contrary, people who have no moral values think only of themselves. They don’t care about others’ needs or society and make choices based solely on their needs. They create an unfriendly and sometimes unsafe environment around themselves.

Importance of Moral Values

The value of a person reflects their personality. Moral values help us understand the difference between right and wrong, good and evil and make the right decisions and judgements. They empower and drive a person to be a better human being and work for the betterment of society. Some moral values a person can inculcate in themselves are: dedication, honesty, optimism, commitment, patience, courtesy, forgiveness, compassion, respect, unity, self-control, cooperation, care and love. A person becomes humble and dependable with good values. Everyone looks up to a person with good values, whether personally or professionally.

If a person has good values, he spreads love, joy, and positive vibes. A person with good values works for the upliftment of society, along with taking care of their life. Such people are always considerate of the needs of others and understand the importance of unity and teamwork. They don’t lose their temper very easily and forgive others. People with good values are an asset to the organisation they work in and the society they live in.

Values Must Be Imbibed

We need to imbibe good values to function as humans and live in a society. Good values include dedication towards work, honesty, respect, commitment, love, helping others, taking responsibility for others’ deeds and acting responsibly. All these values are essential for the positive growth of an individual.

If you want to become a true leader and inspire others, you need to have good values. People always show respect and love to a person with good values. Additionally, they’ll trust and depend on a person of good values because they get proper advice and opinion from such a person.

Ethics Must Be Followed

A person with good values behaves ethically. We often hear of an ethical code of conduct. These are a set of rules or codes an individual is expected to follow. For example, talking politely with others, respecting elders/co-workers, handling difficult situations calmly, maintaining discipline and acting responsibly. Following these ethics helps create a healthy and safe work environment. So, it is essential for everyone to follow the ethical code of conduct.

The Role of Parents and Teachers

Moral values are not just born in a person but must be taught and inculcated right from childhood. When we talk about raising or nurturing children with good values, the credit goes to parents and teachers. It is their responsibility to teach children good values and should make them understand why it’s necessary to follow ethical behaviour. Schools should also take the responsibility to have a separate class dedicated to teaching ethics and moral values from the beginning. They should also train the students so that they imbibe these values.

An individual should imbibe good moral values to do well both in their professional and personal lives. A person with good values is also recognised among the crowd and is always appreciated for his behaviour and attitude towards others. On the contrary, people who lack good values often get into trouble and are not accepted in society. So, we should make sure that we teach our children good values and ethical behaviour from an early age. It is our responsibility to make our future generation learn moral values and ethics. This will help them become good human beings and upstanding citizens of the world. Additionally, it will give them the strength and courage to achieve great things in their lives.

The importance of moral values cannot be overstated. A nation with a high proportion of good values will undoubtedly progress and develop more rapidly than where people lack values. Moral values nurture us individually, build strong character and help create a better world around us.

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Needs, Values, Truth: Essays in the Philosophy of Value

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Needs, Values, Truth brings together of some of the most important and influential writings by a leading contemporary philosopher, David Wiggins; they are drawn from twenty-five years of his work in the broad area of the philosophy of value. The author passes to and fro between problems of ethics, meta-ethics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of logic and language. The following themes are prominent: the elucidation of the ideas of truth, objectivity, subjectivity and intersubjectivity the scope and limits of the attribution of the status of plain truth among the judgements of morals, politics and aesthetics the compatibility of moral cognitivism both with criticism and with a 'no-foundations' view of morals, politics and aesthetics the part played in the fixation of the sense of evaluative language by the antecedent possibility of agreement not only in judgements but also (the Humean addendum) in sentiments the philosophical ineliminability of explanations that explain a subject's thought by vindicating it, and the indispensability of evaluative and subjective categories to such vindications the irreplaceability and irreducibility for practical or valuational thinking of such ideas as those of need, self and metaphysical freedom. For this third edition the author has added a new essay on incommensurability, in addition to making minor revisions to the existing text. The volume will stand as a definitive summation of his work in this area.

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How to Find, Define, and Use Your Values

• Irina Cozma

Your values should reflect the most important aspects of your life.

There’s so much power in understanding what your values are — they can help you make decisions, guide your career, and even live a happier life. But how can you think about your values in an intentional way?

• Step 1: Find your values. Your values aren’t hiding. Even if you haven’t vocalized them, they’re a reflection of the most important aspects of your life. To identify yours, reflect on what’s important to you, create a list of the top three things, and rank them if you can.
• Step 2: Define your values. Write down what each of the values you identified really means to you, and try to keep your definition as short as possible — you want to be able to easily remember your values and how you define them. Ask yourself: If somebody were to wake me in the middle of the night and ask me to define my values, could I answer?
• Step 3: Use your values. You’ll know you have identified your values and truly defined them once you find yourself looking at the world around you through the framework of your values. One way to practice using your values is to reflect on a situation that’s frustrating you. Ask yourself: What is lurking behind my frustration? Is one of my values not being met?

What are your values?

• Irina Cozma , Ph.D., is a career and executive coach who supports professionals to have better career adventures. She coached hundreds of Fortune 500 executives from global organizations like Salesforce, Hitachi, and Abbott. Irina also coaches startups and the Physicians MBA at the University of Tennessee. Download her free career guide to help you prepare for your next career adventure.

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How to Focus on Your Values in Your Personal Statement

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by CEG Essay Specialist Kaila Barber in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

What’s Covered: 

Identifying your own values, demonstrate your values with examples.

• Reflecting on Your Experiences

It’s important to keep in mind what your reader is hoping to learn from your personal statement. The statement is an opportunity to reflect on your experiences and demonstrate how you think about and relate to the world around you. Specifically, what are some of your values? What’s meaningful to you? What do you find important? 

Personal values can be things like communication, patience, nature, health, personal development, courage, self-love, authenticity, healthy boundaries, or even humor. Before you start drafting your personal statement, take a moment to reflect on the things that you find important and why. 

We’re all very different people coming from different backgrounds, and we have different experiences that impact our individual values. While some of your values will overlap with those of other people, your personal reflection on the values that resonate most with you will separate your statement from someone else’s. 

The best way to include your values, skills, and traits in your essay is to pair them with specific examples and anecdotes. Each anecdote should align with at least one of the values that you find most important and should be accompanied by your personal reflection on the value and its related experience. 

Here’s an example. A student does not have a parent or guardian around to shoulder the expenses of caring for them and their younger sibling. In their outline, the student says that they value autonomy, financial stability, and family. Throughout the essay, they demonstrate these values by talking about getting a part-time job to help support the family and caring for their sibling at home. They also excel academically and even petition to have an AP Physics II course offered at their school. 

The student has shown autonomy by taking the initiative to petition for the new course and by getting a job. They have also demonstrated that both financial stability and family are important to them by pitching in to support their parent and sibling.

Your examples should show your reader your values by being specific and personal to your background and experiences.

Reflecting on Your Experiences 

Reflecting on your values is an equally important part of the personal statement. Your reflections or insight should focus on not only your experiences but also who you are and who you want to become. The insight you include in your essay shows that you’ve really found meaning from your personal experiences.

Insight can take a few forms. A common way to show insight is by writing about a growth experience. Show how you went from point A in your life to point B, and share the lessons you’ve learned along the way. For example, people often reflect on how navigating a strenuous activity or challenge changed the way that they thought about themselves and what they could handle. Reflecting on that change in confidence is one way to demonstrate insight.

One of the clearest ways to explore insight is to self-reflect and write about how something has either connected you to, influenced, or reframed how you think of your own values. Maybe you once pushed yourself too hard, and that experience showed you the value of rest and mindfulness. Or perhaps a change in circumstances shifted or redefined your values to an extent. 

For example, a person might say that while they craved stability as a child because of their home life, they now see the value of risk-taking and adventure in enriching their own knowledge and experiences. In this example, both security and risk are important to the speaker, but their experiences ultimately shifted weight from one value to another.

Regardless of how you approach your personal statement, insight is the overarching meaning that you take away from the relevant experiences and values you’ve shared.

Are you looking for more guidance as you draft your personal statement? Check out this post on how to come up with a strong topic that wows your admissions reader!

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• Values Essay

Essay on Values

Values are principles or moral standards that define someone’s behavior and judgment about what is important in life. Human society cannot sustain itself if there are no values instilled in humans. They are the essence of our personality and influence us to make decisions, deal with people and organize our time and energy in our social and professional life. Values differ greatly among individuals. The character of each person is shaped by the set of values he cherishes. Along with our academic courses, we are also educated to follow certain values throughout life. This value-oriented education helps us to develop the temper of our mind, compassion in our heart, cooperation with others, tolerance towards others, respect for the culture of other groups, etc. Helpfulness, honesty, self-discipline are all examples of personalized values.

Inculcate Values from Childhood

People learn most of their values in the early years of their life from those they see around them. Children absorb these values from their parents and teachers. Families and educators play a crucial role in building values in children and students as they see them as role models. One can also learn about the morals of the good life from the holy and religious books. Childhood and the teenage period is the most crucial phase in a person’s life because it is at this time that one cultivates most of his normal principles or values. Human values are formed by different stages and incidents in one’s life, especially in teenage and college life. Education without values tends to make a man miserable. Hence, it becomes of the utmost importance to impart correct and positive values among children and students. 

Diminishing of Values in Modern Times

In modern times, people have become extremely self-centered and have forgotten their instincts. They run behind success and want to win at any cost. It has become a rat race and humans have become mechanical like robots without feelings and values. They have become heartless and lack morals. Success may come to us but in the end, we do not feel a sense of fulfillment because of the lack of values within us. It is very important to taste success in life by keeping values at the top of anything else. This will give us joy from the inside that can never be destroyed. Values such as sharing, patience, hard work, curiosity, politeness, kindness, integrity, and other good behavioral attitudes help us to get through in life. These positive instincts will bring true success in life. One can never feel happiness and peace if one tries to build a castle at the cost of someone else’s happiness. Good nature never allows one to perform under pressure or greed. It is important to have a sharp and bright mind but it is far more important to have a good heart. 

Importance of Values in Life

Value creation is an ongoing process. It also means amending one’s wrong behavior. Schools and colleges must conduct regular counselling sessions and moral education classes to help in this regard. Apart from this, since early childhood, parents and guardians should talk about the importance of values with their children. 

Teaching children to help in household activities, making them share their toys and other stuff with their siblings, teaching them to respect their grandparents, etc., help in inculcating some most important values like patience and sharing among them. 

Participation in school activities like organizing events, doing group projects results in students learning values like adjustment, cooperation, perseverance and tolerance. There are also values fundamental to identifying one’s culture. 

Values Important for Society

As human values play a vital role in society, they are regarded as the basis for human beings to lead better life. Hence, the importance of values in a civilized society is immense. People with the right values in life will be a pillar for the development of society and the nation. They will not only go in the right direction themselves but will also teach others to do the same. With the right beliefs and values, one can make the right decisions in life. Being humble, empathetic towards others, self-discipline, having courage and integrity will not help one to climb the ladder of success but also make one strong so that he can make breakthroughs in all obstacles and challenges in life.

An individual's values determine the decisions that he or she makes. Using these opposing things as a basis, an individual must choose between two things. The life of someone with good values is always prosperous, whereas a person with bad values is a liability to society. Individuals' values are shaped by the schools they attend, their parents, their homes, colleagues, and friends.

A child can be made into a good person by being molded and motivated. If one were to follow such a path, they would be prevented from engaging in corrupt practices. This prevents him or her from leading an unethical life. This gives him or her a deeper understanding of what is right and wrong. In an ideal world, a person should have all moral values in place, be disciplined, and have good manners. Life in an ideal world would be simple. Life is rich and luxurious in that respect.

Values should be instilled from a Young Age

Most people learn their values from the people around them in the first few years of their lives. Parents and teachers help instill these values in children. Educators and parents play an important role in the development of values in students, as the latter view them as role models. The holy and religious books can also instruct the reader about good morals. During childhood and adolescence, a person forms the majority of the values that she or he uses in everyday living. Values are formed by different phases and incidents in a person's life, especially as they develop in the teenage and college years. Man can become miserable without values. Educating children and students about correct and positive values becomes extremely important. 

Values have diminished in Modern Times

Modern society has become extremely self-centered and has forgotten its instincts. Success is the ultimate goal, and they will do anything to win. People are becoming more robotic and valueless like robots, and they have turned into a rat race. Their morals have become skewed and they have become heartless. Even if we achieve success, we may not feel fulfilled because we lack moral values. Keeping values at the top of our priorities is vital for tasteful success in life. Doing so will give us inner happiness that we can never lose. In life, values like supporting each other, being patient, hardworking, curious, being polite, being kind, being honest, being true, and having integrity will help us succeed. We must apply these traits to succeed in the world of work. Building a castle at the expense of the happiness of others will never bring happiness and peace. It is inconceivable for a good-natured person to perform under pressure or greed. The richness of a good heart far outweighs the importance of a sharp and bright mind.

Values are Important in Life

The process of creating value is ongoing. To create value, one must also rectify undesirable behavior. Counseling programs and moral education classes in schools and colleges are helpful in this respect. Moreover, parents and guardians need to talk to their children about values from early childhood. 

Children are taught some very important values including sharing and patience by helping with household chores, sharing their toys and other belongings with their siblings, respecting their grandparents, etc. 

Students learn values such as adjustment, cooperation, perseverance, and tolerance through school activities such as organizing events, doing group projects. Cultural values are also essential to understanding oneself. 

Society's Values

Considering that human values are regarded as a basis for achieving a better quality of life, they are considered an essential part of society. A civilized society, therefore, places great importance on values. In order to develop society and the country, people should have the right values in their lives. Those who follow the right course will not only lead themselves in the right direction but will also instruct others. Making the right choices in life is possible with the right beliefs and values. The attributes of humility, empathy, self-discipline, courage, and integrity not only enable one to succeed in life but will also help one to overcome obstacles and develop resilience in the face of challenges.

Values as Characteristics

The value of something is always determined by many factors. Although some values might differ from culture to culture, some values have remained intact for centuries. Cultures and eras may have different values. Women with moral values were previously considered to be expected to stay at home and not express their opinions, but this has changed over time. Values are largely determined by culture and society. Our childhood years are the time when we imbibe values that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

When it comes to valuing something, the family is our top priority. Our values influence our choices in life. They are rarely altered. You can always tell who someone is by the values they possess. An individual's personality and attitude are constantly determined by his values.

We learn about some good and bad actions through education, but we learn how to distinguish between them by virtue of values. An educational experience should be as rich in moral values and character as possible. Education filled with values can empower a student to become virtuous. With values-laden education, poverty, corruption, and unemployment can be eliminated while social ills are banished. Having high values instills self-motivation and helps a person progress in the right direction. 

Respect for elders, kindness, compassion, punctuality, sincerity, honesty and good manners are important values. Little ones are often seen throwing rocks and garages at animals, pelting stones at animals on the roadside, teasing animals, and bullying their friends and younger siblings. They might ultimately commit big crimes in the future if no steps are taken to check on these activities.

People with high moral values are respected in society. That contributes to their spiritual development. Valuable characteristics define a person as a whole. The path of righteousness motivates people to reach their goals by following all good values. A person is also responsible for instilling values in the upcoming generations. It is important that people never stray from their morals and always motivate others to pay attention to the same. 

Education teaches about good and bad actions while values help us to differentiate between them. Real education should come with moral values and character. Education with values can lead a person to the path of virtue. Education laden with values can help to eradicate poverty, corruption, and unemployment and remove social ills. A person can be self-motivated and advance in the right direction only when he is instilled with high values. 

FAQs on Values Essay

1. What Do You Understand By Values?

Values are principles or moral standards that define someone’s behaviour and judgment about what is important in life.

2. How Can Parents and Teachers Help Children to Learn Values of Life?

Parents and teachers must teach children about values of life with their own life experiences. They should discuss the moral values taught in the holy and religious books. Teaching them to help each other by doing household chores, sharing toys and other stuff with their siblings and respecting their elders and grandparents will inculcate good values in their lives. Participation in school activities like organizing events, doing group projects result in students learning values like adjustment, cooperation, perseverance and tolerance.

3. What are the Behavioural Attitudes a Man Must Have?

A man must have humility, empathy, courage, integrity, kindness, perseverance, and self-discipline as behavioural attitudes.

4. How is Value Important for Society?

People with the right values in life will be a pillar for the development of society and the nation. They will not only go in the right direction themselves but will also teach others to do the same. With the right beliefs and values, one can make the right decisions in life. Being humble, empathetic towards others, self-discipline, having courage and integrity will not help one to climb the ladder of success but also make one strong so that he can make breakthroughs in all obstacles and challenges in life.

5. How can We inculcate Values into Young Children in Five Innovative Ways?

Children can be inculcated with values in five innovative ways:

Show movies and pictures that inspire.

Organizing.

Providing the opportunity for Service.

A self-reflection exercise.

Observation. 

6. What are the Most Important Values that Need to be Taught to Children?

Be respectful of elders.

A willingness to sacrifice.

Education is of great importance.

Love for the family.

The ability to persevere.

Embrace the spirit of religion.

The act of being charitable.

The ability to be honest.

Being self-disciplined can be rewarding.

 7. What is the Secret to Becoming Courageous?

A willingness to take on difficult tasks in challenging circumstances. A person's courage can be measured by how they deal with fear in difficult or unpleasant situations. Under unfavorable circumstances, it is about facing agony and pain with bravery. In order for this habit to be successful, children must also be involved.

8. How does it Result in a Prosperous Society?

Growing physically and intellectually.

A society free of crime is possible.

Social development.

A boon for the nation.

Make the world a better place.

Eradicating social ills.

Essay on My Values

Students are often asked to write an essay on My Values in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on My Values

What are values.

Values are like invisible guides that help us make choices. Imagine them as a compass that points us to what feels right and good. They are the beliefs that we hold dear and they shape how we behave with others and how we treat ourselves.

My Important Values

Kindness is one of my top values. This means I try to be friendly and caring to everyone. Honesty is another; I believe in telling the truth. Lastly, respect is crucial to me. I aim to honor others’ feelings and views.

Values in Daily Life

Every day, my values guide me. When I share my toys, that’s kindness. If I make a mistake and tell the truth, that’s honesty. When I listen to my friends, even if we disagree, that’s showing respect. These values help me live happily with others.

Why Values Matter

Values are important because they help us live together peacefully. When we all use values like kindness, honesty, and respect, our school and home become better places. Values make us better friends, students, and family members. They are the heart of a happy life.

250 Words Essay on My Values

Values are like stars that guide us through life. They are the important beliefs that help us decide what is good and bad. They shape how we act with friends, in school, and with our family.

One of my main values is kindness. This means I try to be friendly and caring to everyone. If someone falls down, I will help them get up. Sharing my toys with others is also part of being kind. Kindness makes the world a happier place for everyone.

Being honest is another value I hold dear. This means I always tell the truth, even when it’s hard. If I break something, I admit it. Honesty builds trust, and when people trust you, they believe in you more.

Respect is treating others the way you want to be treated. I listen when others are speaking and do not interrupt. I also take care of things around me, like books and toys, because showing respect makes everyone feel valued.

I also believe in hard work. This means I try my best at school and when I help at home. Even when a task is difficult, I do not give up. Working hard teaches me that I can overcome challenges.

These values of kindness, honesty, respect, and hard work are like the roots of a tree. They keep me strong and steady. Living by these values makes me a better friend, student, and family member.

500 Words Essay on My Values

Introduction to my values.

Values are like a compass that guides us through life. They are the beliefs and ideas that are important to us and help us decide what is right and wrong. Just like a tree has roots that keep it steady, our values keep us grounded and help us grow in the right direction.

One of my most important values is honesty. It means telling the truth and being fair. When I am honest, my friends and family trust me, and it makes me feel good about myself. It is like a clear sky without clouds, where everyone can see everything clearly. Being honest can sometimes be hard, especially if I make a mistake, but admitting it and trying to fix it is the right thing to do.

Kindness is like a warm blanket on a cold day. It is about being friendly, generous, and considerate to others. When I am kind to people, it can make their day better and it makes me happy too. It doesn’t cost anything to smile or help someone, but it can mean a lot. Even animals and plants deserve kindness because they are part of our world.

Respect is treating others the way I want to be treated. It is like a game where everyone plays by the rules and has fun. I show respect by listening to others, being polite, and caring about their feelings. It doesn’t matter if someone is younger, older, or different from me; everyone deserves respect. When I respect others, they usually respect me back.

Responsibility

Being responsible is like being the captain of a ship. I am in charge of my actions and the choices I make. It means doing my homework, cleaning up my mess, and taking care of my things. When I am responsible, my parents and teachers trust me with more important tasks, and I feel proud of myself.

Perseverance

Perseverance is like a tiny seed that grows into a big tree, no matter how tough it gets. It means not giving up, even when things are hard. When I keep trying, I learn new things and get better at what I do. It’s okay to fail sometimes because that’s how I learn to succeed.

My values are the invisible threads that connect all my actions and thoughts. They may seem small, like the pieces of a puzzle, but when they come together, they create the big picture of who I am. Honesty, kindness, respect, responsibility, and perseverance are the values that light up my path. They help me make friends, do well in school, and be a good person. Just like a seed needs water and sunlight to grow, I need my values to become the best version of myself.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on My Village Church
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Essay on Moral Values 500+ Words

Moral values are the guiding principles that shape our character and influence the choices we make. In this essay, we will explore the importance of moral values in our lives and society, how they contribute to personal growth, and why they are essential for building a just and compassionate world.

Ethical Decision-Making

Moral values provide a moral compass, helping us distinguish right from wrong. They play a crucial role in ethical decision-making. Statistics show that individuals with strong moral values are more likely to make ethical choices in their personal and professional lives.

Personal Growth and Integrity

Moral values are the foundation of personal growth and integrity. They inspire us to be honest, truthful, and principled. Experts believe that a strong sense of integrity leads to a sense of self-respect and confidence.

Building Trust and Respect

Trust and respect are vital in any relationship, whether it’s with family, friends, or colleagues. Moral values such as honesty, loyalty, and empathy are the cornerstones of trust and respect. Studies show that individuals who practice these values have healthier and more fulfilling relationships.

Social Harmony and Compassion

Moral values foster social harmony and compassion. They teach us to be kind, considerate, and empathetic toward others. Experts emphasize the role of moral values in reducing conflict and promoting understanding among diverse communities.

Encouraging Good Citizenship

Good citizenship is about contributing positively to society. Moral values guide us to be responsible citizens who respect laws and regulations. Statistics reveal that individuals who uphold moral values are more likely to engage in community service and volunteer work.

Nurturing Empathy and Tolerance

In an increasingly diverse world, empathy and tolerance are essential. Moral values encourage us to understand and accept people from different backgrounds, beliefs, and cultures. Experts highlight the importance of empathy and tolerance in building inclusive and harmonious societies.

Resilience in Adversity

Moral values provide strength and resilience in times of adversity. They help us cope with challenges and maintain our moral compass even in difficult situations. Research shows that individuals with strong moral values are more likely to bounce back from setbacks.

Teaching Responsibility to Future Generations

Passing on moral values to future generations is a responsibility we carry. It ensures that the values we hold dear continue to shape the world positively. Experts stress the importance of moral education in schools and families to instill these values in young minds.

Addressing Ethical Dilemmas

Life often presents us with ethical dilemmas. Moral values offer guidance when we face difficult choices. They enable us to make decisions that align with our principles and beliefs. Experts emphasize the role of moral values in ethical problem-solving.

Conclusion of Essay on Moral Values

In conclusion, moral values are not just abstract concepts; they are the foundation of a virtuous and compassionate society. They guide our ethical decision-making, promote personal growth and integrity, and foster trust, respect, and social harmony. Moral values encourage good citizenship, empathy, and tolerance, and provide resilience in the face of adversity.

As a fifth-grader, you can start by practicing moral values in your daily life. Be honest, kind, and considerate to others. Respect differences and treat everyone with fairness and empathy. By embracing moral values, you are not only enriching your own life but also contributing to a more just and compassionate world. Remember, the power of moral values lies in their ability to inspire positive change in ourselves and in the world around us.

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Decision-Making

The benefits of a value-driven life, your values have implications for life choices, career decisions, and voting..

Updated March 30, 2024 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

• Those who discern their values experience less stress and better health, decision-making and problem-solving.
• Values typically stem from our family but evolve also with losses, tragedies, and lived experience.
• Understanding another generation's values can go a long way to better relationships.
• Most moments of contentment, success, and pride can be traced back to living one’s values.

“We all have core values whether we’re aware of them or not,” write Lisa Congdon and Andreea Niculescu in the booklet accompanying The Live Your Values Deck . “They’re the values that remain with us for most of our lives.”

Research tells us that when we live a life guided by an awareness of what matters most to us, the authors note, we exhibit lower stress , better attention to our health, decision-making , problem solving as well as enhanced persistence. 1 In my book Overcoming Passive Aggression , about hidden anger , better health, and happiness , my co-author and I advise: “Operate within your values, recognizing that no one makes you do or say anything. Your behavior is your choice.” 2

We may not think of this topic often, yet when celebrities fall from grace, people stun us with their actions, as well as in a year we exercise our right to vote, values get called into play.

Why Values Matter

One of the reasons people seek individual therapy or pastoral counseling is to discern a direction, make a decision, or weigh the benefits or risks of certain choices. For couples, especially those who come from two different family value systems, it can be especially hard.

Values represent beliefs, ethics , priorities, and worldviews. Like feelings, they merely exist and ought not to be overanalyzed except to yield better understanding. To use a nautical metaphor, values are the beacons sent from a lighthouse that show us the way. Principles, a close cousin of values, describe rules, standards, and certain truths. Both principles and values direct us and guide our actions. 3

Our values usually stem from the roots our families of origin provided. Parents typically hope that some, perhaps not all, of what they taught children sticks with them as a foundation for life by the time they launch into adulthood.

As we age, thinking through and understanding what we value helps us to outline priorities, triage problems, and reconcile our desires against needs, especially as we discern choices. Either a choice remains congruent with our deeply held beliefs or it’s in conflict and opposed.

How Our Values Are Shaped By Our Culture

Those who don’t put much stock in values might say there’s a benefit to being free, flexible in how one lives. It’s indeed a viable perspective, yet one that could create more chaos and confusion in times when you need to be stable and resolute.

Tom Brokaw dubbed many of our parents or grandparents "The Greatest Generation," shaped by the Great Depression and World War II. I believe I can directly trace my frugality and thrift to how I was raised; the same goes for work ethic, moderation, resilience , and respect for democracy and our country.

With the 1970s as my formative backdrop, the values of equality (as in civil and women’s rights movements), non- conformity , independence, creativity , and education framed who I became. In my last year with Barbies, I imagined being a reporter amid televised Senate Watergate hearings. No doubt that curiosity, as a value, spawned an interest in current events, politics , and my writing.

Appreciating People for Their Values

Children, teenagers , and young adults may be the first to complain about what parents use as guideposts. Common family values include honesty (the truth matters), family time (remember your roots and those who raised you), perseverance (quitting is easy but strength comes from figuring it out), and respect for one’s elders (empathy for what they went through raising you).

If we hear the phrases, “Oh, Mom” or “Oh, Dad,” there’s a collective understanding among parents. We’ve all felt that pushback, the verbal and non-verbal reprimand about who we are and what we’re about. While this is more developmentally accurate the younger you are due to differentiating oneself, it’s also reasonable that adult children appreciate parents and grandparents, for doing so shows the values of openness , inclusiveness, and respect.

During the pandemic, I adapted two of my own values card sorts for use with coaching and therapy. Clients used these to discern important values in their career , personal life, and relationships. Since cognitive-behavioral therapy often affords homework, a values sort helps those unsure of their next directions and decisions.

Young people often have a vague idea of their values because it takes life experience, years lived, and a well-differentiated self. Some values change, especially when priorities shift. Think wake-up calls, come-to-Jesus moments, health scares, or brushes with death. Loss can set you back a few pegs.

We often find that those with openness also value inclusivity, honesty, assertiveness , and self-expression; they also tend to be self-aware with good self-respect and respect for others. Genuine people may have strong values for collaboration , generosity , empathy, forgiveness , and humility.

While industry, career success, risk-taking , or creating a legacy are all valid values, when they are overstated by those with less openness, empathy, and collaboration, we may see concern; e.g., the person who values themselves too highly, and whose value system inflicts harm, whether intended or unintentional. This might not be the person we hang out with, hire, or for whom we cast our votes.

If you’re in counseling and believe that a values card sort would be helpful, ask your therapist if they would be open to trying this approach. Books abound on the topic as well, including Our Endangered Values by former President Jimmy Carter. 3

People who sit on the fence often seem paralyzed as they’re called upon to make choices. And when tides change and breezes become storms, as they surely will, those who have discerned their values to live their lives accordingly, generally fare better.

In fact, identify times when you were happy, feeling content, successful, proud of your life and accomplishments, and stood up for or supported something of meaning. Very often you will find that core values got you to that place.

Copyright © 2024 by Loriann Oberlin, MS

1. Congdon, L. and Niculescu, A. The Live Your Values Deck (New York: Chronicle Books, 2021).

2. Murphy, T. and Oberlin, L.H. Overcoming Passive Aggression: How to Stop Hidden Anger from Spoiling Your Relationships, Career and Happiness (New York: Hachette/DaCapo Press, 2016).

3. Carter, J. Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005).

Loriann Oberlin, MS, LCPC, is a clinical counselor and co-author of books including Overcoming Passive-Aggression.

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Needs, Values, Truth: Essays in the Philosophy of Value 3rd Edition

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• Publication date August 27, 1998
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Clarendon Press; 3rd edition (August 27, 1998)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
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Writing an Essay on Values: Guidelines, Tips, Ideas

Before you start working on your essay on values, you will need to understand the etymology of the word “value.” A value is a stable, long-lasting belief that is very important for an individual. Values are very powerful since they define the individual’s behaviors, attitudes, perceptions, motifs, and needs. Values are the basis of human personality as they are a powerful force affecting human behavior.

An essay on values can explore various issues related to values. To write such a paper well and get a good grade for it, you will need to pick up a subject that would be neither too broad nor too narrow. An essay on values provides the writer with the space for discussion because each person has different values affecting his or her behavior. You should understand that not all people hold the same ideas as you do. Thus, when writing your essay, you will need to think about the values and beliefs of your target audience to be able to write an essay that would meet their expectations. 

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If you are lacking interesting ideas for writing a value essay, you may have a look at some samples available on the web. Though you are not allowed to submit such essays as your creative work, you may use them to get inspired and learn more about the appropriate structure, content, and mechanics of your paper. By polishing your writing skills through writing your essays on values, you will be able to turn into a successful student. In our guide, we are going to provide you with some interesting ideas that will help you figure out what subject you want to discuss in your essay. So, do not hesitate to have a look at our efficient tips and you will learn how to create a worthy paper.

To put it simply, an essay on values is a type of persuasive rhetorical essay that aims to argue, analyze, or justify someone’s values supporting the arguments with solid evidence. When writing such an essay, the student should follow the latest standards and conventions existing in academic writing.

Guide on How to Write a Worthy Paper

Choosing a topic.

To choose an appropriate topic for your essay on values, you will need to search for relevant and up-to-date events related to human values. This way, you will be able to pick up an issue that will be interesting for your intended audience. In addition, you may visit websites such as ProCon.org where you will find many thought-provoking ideas that can be discussed in your essay. You will be able to make your paper interesting and engaging for your reader if you manage to find an idea causing serious controversy. By picking up an issue bothering your community, you will be able to not only create a good-looking paper but also enjoy the writing process.

Come Up with a Good Thesis Statement

In its essence, a thesis statement is a central idea of your essay that will clearly state your position regarding the topic. As well as in any other academic paper, your thesis statement should be clear, arguable, and reasonable. Do not be afraid to take a stand and support it within your essay.

Carry Out In-Depth Research

Once you are done with choosing a topic for your paper, you will need to carry out a thorough investigation of your topic working with recent and credible academic sources. Although it is acceptable to express your personal opinion on the topic, you will need to support your claims with solid evidence. When researching your topic, you will need to use up-to-date articles, websites, books, or speeches pertaining to your topic. Keep in mind that whenever you use some idea from the outside source, you will need to cite it carefully following the formatting style requested by your tutor.

Create an Outline

To organize your thoughts and ideas in a logical order, you will need to write an outline. A successful outline will include a thesis statement, as well as the main arguments and evidence that will be included in your paper. Having a good plan, you will be able to make your essay organized and clear. 

Write an Essay

As soon as you are done with all the preparation stages, you will need to work on your essay on values following the traditional structure. This means that you will need to write a good introductory paragraph in which you will familiarize your reader with the topic. Then, you will need to write the main body part dividing it into a couple of paragraphs following the points discussed. Finally, you will need to summarize your essay in a good conclusion. 

Proofread Your Paper

Before you submit your paper, you will need to proofread it very carefully making sure it is free from any mistakes. When reviewing your paper, you will need to pay attention to the accuracy of your ideas, as well as grammar and punctuation.

Now, when you know the main stages of the writing process, let us provide you with some impeccable ideas that may be developed in your essay.

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Brilliant Ideas for Writing an Essay on Values

• Should abortion be legal?
• Should doctor-assisted suicide be allowed?
• What are my values?
• Should people follow the values imposed by celebrities?
• Is human life the highest value?
• Are atheists less moral than Christians?
• Animal testing: is it a real problem?
• Should traditions comply with human values?
• Is testing employees for drugs ethical?
• Should advertisers be guided by moral laws?
• Should parents be allowed to spank their children?
• Is the human body a value? Why taking care of the body is ethical?
• How can we help vulnerable people?
• What are the main values in counseling?

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We do hope that you will be able to turn some of these ideas into good-looking essays. However, if you are lacking time, motivation, or skills to write your essay on values, you should get in touch with our professional writing team and we will provide you with an impressive paper that will fully comply with your instructions.

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Essay on Moral Values in 100, 150, 200, 300, 350, & 400 Words

Table of Contents

Essay on Moral Values in 100 Words

Moral values serve as guiding principles that shape our behavior, decisions, and interactions with others. They provide a moral compass and help individuals lead a meaningful and ethical life. In this essay, we will explore the significance and relevance of moral values in our society.

Moral values promote empathy, honesty, respect, and fairness, fostering a harmonious coexistence among individuals. They enhance our character, shaping us into responsible and compassionate human beings. Emphasizing moral values cultivates a sense of integrity and accountability, ensuring that our actions align with our beliefs. Moreover, they provide a foundation for building strong relationships and fostering mutual trust.

Essay on Moral Values in 150 Words

Moral values play a significant role in shaping our lives and society. They serve as guides to help us distinguish between right and wrong, shaping our behavior and decision-making processes. These values act as a compass that directs us towards uprightness, justice, empathy, and respect.

Moral values encompass several aspects, such as honesty, integrity, compassion, and fairness. Honesty cultivates trust and credibility, forming the foundation of healthy relationships. Integrity encourages us to act in accordance with our ethical principles, even when no one is watching. Compassion moves us to understand and help others, promoting harmony and unity. Fairness demands equal treatment and consideration for all, ensuring justice prevails.

By adhering to moral values, we create a society that thrives on righteousness and respect. Our actions become reflections of our character, contributing to a positive and ethical world.

Essay on Moral Values in 200 Words

Moral values play a crucial role in shaping the fabric of society. They are the principles that guide individuals in making ethical decisions and treating others with respect and compassion. In a world filled with diversity and differing belief systems, moral values act as the universal language that transcends cultural boundaries.

At their core, moral values encompass honesty, integrity, empathy, fairness, and kindness. These values serve as the building blocks of strong relationships, fostering trust and understanding among individuals. By adhering to moral values, one can lead a life that is not only morally upright but also contributes positively to the greater good.

Moreover, moral values provide individuals with a sense of direction and purpose. They act as a moral compass, guiding our actions and decisions. In times of confusion and moral dilemmas, these values serve as a reference point to help us differentiate right from wrong.

Moral values are also essential for personal growth and development. They shape our character and define who we are as individuals. Living by these values helps cultivate virtues such as patience, forgiveness, and perseverance, leading to personal fulfillment and happiness.

In conclusion, moral values form the foundation of a just and harmonious society. They foster a sense of unity and shared responsibility among individuals. As we navigate through life, it is crucial to uphold and promote moral values, ensuring a world where compassion, fairness, and integrity prevail.

Essay on Moral Values in 300 Words

Moral values are the foundation of a just and harmonious society. They guide our thoughts, actions, and decisions, shaping our character and defining who we are as individuals. In a world that can often feel chaotic and confusing, developing and upholding strong moral values is crucial for maintaining peace and stability.

At their core, moral values encompass principles such as honesty, integrity, compassion, and respect for others. They teach us to differentiate between right and wrong and to make choices that align with our inner sense of rightness. Moral values provide us with a moral compass, allowing us to navigate through life’s challenges and dilemmas.

One of the key aspects of moral values is the importance placed on empathy and kindness. These values encourage us to understand and share the feelings of others, fostering a sense of unity and compassion among individuals. They remind us to treat others with dignity and respect, regardless of their backgrounds or beliefs.

Another fundamental aspect of moral values is the significance of honesty and integrity. These values promote sincerity, transparency, and accountability in our words and actions. They require us to be truthful and trustworthy, even in the face of adversity or temptation.

Moral values play a vital role in our personal and professional lives. They guide our behavior in relationships, be it with family, friends, colleagues, or strangers. They shape our decision-making process, helping us to make ethical choices that consider the well-being of others.

In conclusion, moral values form the bedrock of a well-functioning society. They provide us with a compass to navigate the complexities of life and guide us toward making ethical choices. By upholding these values, we contribute to the creation of a more equitable, empathetic, and harmonious world. It is essential that we cultivate and foster these values in ourselves and in future generations, ensuring their continued importance in an ever-changing world.

Essay on Moral Values in 350 Words

Moral values: a guiding light in life.

Moral values serve as the compass that guides individuals through their journey in life. These principles act as a moral code that shapes one’s character, behavior, and interactions with others. In today’s fast-paced and interconnected world, the significance of moral values cannot be undermined.

Firstly, moral values play a crucial role in shaping one’s personal character. These values instill qualities such as honesty, integrity, compassion, and empathy. They teach individuals to distinguish between right and wrong and encourage them to make ethical choices. When individuals incorporate moral values into their character, they become more dependable, trustworthy, and responsible.

Secondly, moral values enhance interpersonal relationships. Respect, trust, and kindness towards others are fundamental moral values that foster harmonious connections. When individuals exhibit these values, they create an environment of understanding, love, and acceptance. This promotes healthy communication, cooperation, and collaboration, which in turn leads to better relationships in both the personal and professional spheres.

Moreover, moral values guide individuals in difficult situations and dilemmas. When faced with choices that can impact their integrity or dignity, moral values serve as a beacon of guidance. These values help individuals make decisions that align with their conscience and core beliefs, even if it means facing hardships or sacrifices.

Furthermore, moral values contribute to the betterment of society as a whole. When individuals uphold values such as justice, equality, and tolerance, they contribute to creating a just and inclusive society. These values enable individuals to recognize the importance of social responsibility and motivate them to work towards the welfare of others. A society built on strong moral values is likely to be more peaceful, humane, and progressive.

In conclusion, moral values are the foundation upon which individuals build their character, relationships, and society. They provide a sense of direction and purpose, helping individuals navigate the complexities of life. Embracing moral values not only enriches one’s own life but also establishes a strong ethical framework for the betterment of society as a whole. It is necessary for individuals to reflect upon and strive to incorporate moral values in their daily lives, for they truly serve as a guiding light in the modern world.

Essay on Moral Values in 400 Words

Moral values are guiding principles that dictate the behavior and actions of individuals, communities, and societies as a whole. They serve as a moral compass, helping us distinguish right from wrong and guiding us in making ethically responsible decisions. These values are deeply rooted in our beliefs, upbringing, and cultural traditions, shaping our character and defining who we are as human beings.

One of the most important moral values is honesty. Honesty is the foundation of trust and integrity. Being honest means being truthful, sincere, and genuine in our words and actions. It is about having the courage to always tell the truth, even when it may be difficult or unfavorable. Honesty builds strong relationships and promotes a sense of trust between individuals, which is vital for a harmonious society.

Another key moral value is kindness. Kindness involves showing compassion, empathy, and consideration towards others. It is about being supportive, understanding, and respectful. Kindness can be expressed through small acts of kindness, such as helping someone in need or offering a listening ear to a friend. It promotes a sense of community and fosters a culture of compassion and caring.

Respect is also an essential moral value. Respect involves treating others with dignity, honor, and fairness. It is about valuing the opinions, beliefs, and rights of others, regardless of our differences. Respect allows for open and constructive dialogue, leading to better understanding and cooperation among individuals and communities.

Integrity is another moral value that is crucial for personal and societal growth. Integrity involves having strong moral principles and consistently adhering to them, even when faced with challenging situations. It requires individuals to be honest, trustworthy, and accountable for their actions. Integrity is the backbone of a just and ethical society, promoting fairness, responsibility, and accountability.

Finally, a moral value that cannot be overlooked is empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It involves putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes and showing compassion and understanding towards their experiences and struggles. Empathy encourages a sense of connection and unity among individuals, fostering a more inclusive and supportive society.

In conclusion, moral values play a crucial role in shaping our character, guiding our behavior, and creating a harmonious society. Honesty, kindness, respect, integrity, and empathy are just a few examples of important moral values that should be cultivated and practiced by individuals. By embracing and promoting these values, we can contribute to a more just, compassionate, and ethical world.

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The Nobel Prize-Winning Professor Who Liked to Collaborate With His Adversaries

By Cass R. Sunstein

Mr. Sunstein is a law professor at Harvard and an author of “Noise,” with Daniel Kahneman and Olivier Sibony.

Our all-American belief that money really does buy happiness is roughly correct for about 85 percent of us. We know this thanks to the latest and perhaps final work of Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize winner who insisted on the value of working with those with whom we disagree.

Professor Kahneman, who died last week at the age of 90, is best known for his pathbreaking explorations of human judgment and decision making and of how people deviate from perfect rationality. He should also be remembered for a living and working philosophy that has never been more relevant: his enthusiasm for collaborating with his intellectual adversaries. This enthusiasm was deeply personal. He experienced real joy working with others to discover the truth, even if he learned that he was wrong (something that often delighted him).

Back to that finding, published last year , that for a strong majority of us, more is better when it comes to money. In 2010, Professor Kahneman and the Princeton economist Angus Deaton (also a Nobel Prize winner) published a highly influential essay that found that, on average, higher-income groups show higher levels of happiness — but only to a point. Beyond a threshold at or below $90,000, Professor Kahneman and Professor Deaton found, there is no further progress in average happiness as income increases.

Eleven years later, Matthew Killingsworth, a senior fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, found exactly the opposite : People with higher income reported higher levels of average happiness. Period. The more money people have, the happier they are likely to be.

What gives? You could imagine some furious exchange in which Professor Kahneman and Professor Deaton made sharp objections to Dr. Killingsworth’s paper, to which Dr. Killingsworth answered equally sharply, leaving readers confused and exhausted.

Professor Kahneman saw such a dynamic as “angry science,” which he described as a “nasty world of critiques, replies and rejoinders” and “as a contest, where the aim is to embarrass.” As Professor Kahneman put it, those who live in that nasty world offer “a summary caricature of the target position, refute the weakest argument in that caricature and declare the total destruction of the adversary’s position.” In his account, angry science is “a demeaning experience.” That dynamic might sound familiar, particularly in our politics.

Instead, Professor Kahneman favored an alternative that he termed “adversarial collaboration.” When people who disagree work together to test a hypothesis, they are involved in a common endeavor. They are trying not to win but to figure out what’s true. They might even become friends.

In that spirit, Professor Kahneman, well into his 80s, asked Dr. Killingsworth to collaborate, with the help of a friendly arbiter, Professor Barbara Mellers, an influential and widely admired psychologist. Their task was to look closely at Dr. Killingsworth’s data to see whether he had analyzed it properly and to understand what, if anything, had been missed by Professor Kahneman and Professor Deaton.

Their central conclusion was simple. Dr. Killingsworth missed a threshold effect in his data that affected only one group: the least happy 15 percent. For these largely unhappy people, average happiness does grow with rising income, up to a level of around $100,000, but it stops growing after that. For a majority of us, by contrast, average happiness keeps growing with increases in income.

Both sides were partly right and partly wrong. Their adversarial collaboration showed that the real story is more interesting and more complicated than anyone saw individually.

Professor Kahneman engaged in a number of adversarial collaborations, with varying degrees of success. His first (and funniest) try was with his wife, the distinguished psychologist Anne Treisman. Their disagreement never did get resolved. (Dr. Treisman died in 2018.) Both of them were able to explain away the results of their experiments — a tribute to what he called “the stubborn persistence of challenged beliefs.” Still, adversarial collaborations sometimes produce both agreement and truth, and he said that “a common feature of all my experiences has been that the adversaries ended up on friendlier terms than they started.”

Professor Kahneman meant both to encourage better science and to strengthen the better angels of our nature. In academic life, adversarial collaborations hold great value . We could easily imagine a situation in which adversaries routinely collaborated to see if they could resolve disputes about the health effects of air pollutants, the consequences of increases in the minimum wage, the harms of climate change or the deterrent effects of the death penalty.

And the idea can be understood more broadly. In fact, the U.S. Constitution should be seen as an effort to create the conditions for adversarial collaboration. Before the founding, it was often thought that republics could work only if people were relatively homogeneous — if they were broadly in agreement with one another. Objecting to the proposed Constitution, the pseudonymous antifederalist Brutus emphasized this point: “In a republic, the manners, sentiments and interests of the people should be similar. If this be not the case, there will be a constant clashing of opinions, and the representatives of one part will be continually striving against those of the other.”

Those who favored the Constitution thought that Brutus had it exactly backward. In their view, the constant clashing of opinions was something not to fear but to welcome, at least if people collaborate — if they act as if they are engaged in a common endeavor. Sounding a lot like Professor Kahneman, Alexander Hamilton put it this way : “The differences of opinion, and the jarrings of parties” in the legislative department of the government “often promote deliberation and circumspection and serve to check excesses in the majority.”

Angry science is paralleled by angry democracy, a “nasty world of critiques, replies and rejoinders,” whose “aim is to embarrass,” Professor Kahneman said. That’s especially true, of course, in the midst of political campaigns, when the whole point is to win.

Still, the idea of adversarial collaboration has never been more important. Within organizations of all kinds — including corporations, nonprofits, think tanks and government agencies — sustained efforts should be made to lower the volume by isolating the points of disagreement and specifying tests to establish what’s right. Asking how a disagreement might actually be resolved tends to turn enemies, focused on winning and losing, into teammates, focused on truth.

As usual, Professor Kahneman was right. We could use a lot more of that.

Cass R. Sunstein is a law professor at Harvard and an author of “Noise,” with Daniel Kahneman and Olivier Sibony.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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That Viral Essay Wasn’t About Age Gaps. It Was About Marrying Rich.

But both tactics are flawed if you want to have any hope of becoming yourself..

Women are wisest, a viral essay in New York magazine’s the Cut argues , to maximize their most valuable cultural assets— youth and beauty—and marry older men when they’re still very young. Doing so, 27-year-old writer Grazie Sophia Christie writes, opens up a life of ease, and gets women off of a male-defined timeline that has our professional and reproductive lives crashing irreconcilably into each other. Sure, she says, there are concessions, like one’s freedom and entire independent identity. But those are small gives in comparison to a life in which a person has no adult responsibilities, including the responsibility to become oneself.

This is all framed as rational, perhaps even feminist advice, a way for women to quit playing by men’s rules and to reject exploitative capitalist demands—a choice the writer argues is the most obviously intelligent one. That other Harvard undergraduates did not busy themselves trying to attract wealthy or soon-to-be-wealthy men seems to flummox her (taking her “high breasts, most of my eggs, plausible deniability when it came to purity, a flush ponytail, a pep in my step that had yet to run out” to the Harvard Business School library, “I could not understand why my female classmates did not join me, given their intelligence”). But it’s nothing more than a recycling of some of the oldest advice around: For women to mold themselves around more-powerful men, to never grow into independent adults, and to find happiness in a state of perpetual pre-adolescence, submission, and dependence. These are odd choices for an aspiring writer (one wonders what, exactly, a girl who never wants to grow up and has no idea who she is beyond what a man has made her into could possibly have to write about). And it’s bad advice for most human beings, at least if what most human beings seek are meaningful and happy lives.

But this is not an essay about the benefits of younger women marrying older men. It is an essay about the benefits of younger women marrying rich men. Most of the purported upsides—a paid-for apartment, paid-for vacations, lives split between Miami and London—are less about her husband’s age than his wealth. Every 20-year-old in the country could decide to marry a thirtysomething and she wouldn’t suddenly be gifted an eternal vacation.

Which is part of what makes the framing of this as an age-gap essay both strange and revealing. The benefits the writer derives from her relationship come from her partner’s money. But the things she gives up are the result of both their profound financial inequality and her relative youth. Compared to her and her peers, she writes, her husband “struck me instead as so finished, formed.” By contrast, “At 20, I had felt daunted by the project of becoming my ideal self.” The idea of having to take responsibility for her own life was profoundly unappealing, as “adulthood seemed a series of exhausting obligations.” Tying herself to an older man gave her an out, a way to skip the work of becoming an adult by allowing a father-husband to mold her to his desires. “My husband isn’t my partner,” she writes. “He’s my mentor, my lover, and, only in certain contexts, my friend. I’ll never forget it, how he showed me around our first place like he was introducing me to myself: This is the wine you’ll drink, where you’ll keep your clothes, we vacation here, this is the other language we’ll speak, you’ll learn it, and I did.”

These, by the way, are the things she says are benefits of marrying older.

The downsides are many, including a basic inability to express a full range of human emotion (“I live in an apartment whose rent he pays and that constrains the freedom with which I can ever be angry with him”) and an understanding that she owes back, in some other form, what he materially provides (the most revealing line in the essay may be when she claims that “when someone says they feel unappreciated, what they really mean is you’re in debt to them”). It is clear that part of what she has paid in exchange for a paid-for life is a total lack of any sense of self, and a tacit agreement not to pursue one. “If he ever betrayed me and I had to move on, I would survive,” she writes, “but would find in my humor, preferences, the way I make coffee or the bed nothing that he did not teach, change, mold, recompose, stamp with his initials.”

Reading Christie’s essay, I thought of another one: Joan Didion’s on self-respect , in which Didion argues that “character—the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life—is the source from which self-respect springs.” If we lack self-respect, “we are peculiarly in thrall to everyone we see, curiously determined to live out—since our self-image is untenable—their false notions of us.” Self-respect may not make life effortless and easy. But it means that whenever “we eventually lie down alone in that notoriously un- comfortable bed, the one we make ourselves,” at least we can fall asleep.

It can feel catty to publicly criticize another woman’s romantic choices, and doing so inevitably opens one up to accusations of jealousy or pettiness. But the stories we tell about marriage, love, partnership, and gender matter, especially when they’re told in major culture-shaping magazines. And it’s equally as condescending to say that women’s choices are off-limits for critique, especially when those choices are shared as universal advice, and especially when they neatly dovetail with resurgent conservative efforts to make women’s lives smaller and less independent. “Marry rich” is, as labor economist Kathryn Anne Edwards put it in Bloomberg, essentially the Republican plan for mothers. The model of marriage as a hierarchy with a breadwinning man on top and a younger, dependent, submissive woman meeting his needs and those of their children is not exactly a fresh or groundbreaking ideal. It’s a model that kept women trapped and miserable for centuries.

It’s also one that profoundly stunted women’s intellectual and personal growth. In her essay for the Cut, Christie seems to believe that a life of ease will abet a life freed up for creative endeavors, and happiness. But there’s little evidence that having material abundance and little adversity actually makes people happy, let alone more creatively generativ e . Having one’s basic material needs met does seem to be a prerequisite for happiness. But a meaningful life requires some sense of self, an ability to look outward rather than inward, and the intellectual and experiential layers that come with facing hardship and surmounting it.

A good and happy life is not a life in which all is easy. A good and happy life (and here I am borrowing from centuries of philosophers and scholars) is one characterized by the pursuit of meaning and knowledge, by deep connections with and service to other people (and not just to your husband and children), and by the kind of rich self-knowledge and satisfaction that comes from owning one’s choices, taking responsibility for one’s life, and doing the difficult and endless work of growing into a fully-formed person—and then evolving again. Handing everything about one’s life over to an authority figure, from the big decisions to the minute details, may seem like a path to ease for those who cannot stomach the obligations and opportunities of their own freedom. It’s really an intellectual and emotional dead end.

And what kind of man seeks out a marriage like this, in which his only job is to provide, but very much is owed? What kind of man desires, as the writer cast herself, a raw lump of clay to be molded to simply fill in whatever cracks in his life needed filling? And if the transaction is money and guidance in exchange for youth, beauty, and pliability, what happens when the young, beautiful, and pliable party inevitably ages and perhaps feels her backbone begin to harden? What happens if she has children?

The thing about using youth and beauty as a currency is that those assets depreciate pretty rapidly. There is a nearly endless supply of young and beautiful women, with more added each year. There are smaller numbers of wealthy older men, and the pool winnows down even further if one presumes, as Christie does, that many of these men want to date and marry compliant twentysomethings. If youth and beauty are what you’re exchanging for a man’s resources, you’d better make sure there’s something else there—like the basic ability to provide for yourself, or at the very least a sense of self—to back that exchange up.

It is hard to be an adult woman; it’s hard to be an adult, period. And many women in our era of unfinished feminism no doubt find plenty to envy about a life in which they don’t have to work tirelessly to barely make ends meet, don’t have to manage the needs of both children and man-children, could simply be taken care of for once. This may also explain some of the social media fascination with Trad Wives and stay-at-home girlfriends (some of that fascination is also, I suspect, simply a sexual submission fetish , but that’s another column). Fantasies of leisure reflect a real need for it, and American women would be far better off—happier, freer—if time and resources were not so often so constrained, and doled out so inequitably.

But the way out is not actually found in submission, and certainly not in electing to be carried by a man who could choose to drop you at any time. That’s not a life of ease. It’s a life of perpetual insecurity, knowing your spouse believes your value is decreasing by the day while his—an actual dollar figure—rises. A life in which one simply allows another adult to do all the deciding for them is a stunted life, one of profound smallness—even if the vacations are nice.

Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Family Relationships — My Family And Core Values

My Family and Core Values

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The importance of family, my family's core values, how my family's core values have shaped my identity.

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For the sake of all of us, Sonia Sotomayor needs to retire from the US supreme court

She’s been described as the ‘conscience of the supreme court’. That’s why it pains me to write this

F orget Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It is Sonia Sotomayor who is the greatest liberal to sit on the supreme court in my adult lifetime. The first Latina to hold the position of justice, she has blazed a relentlessly progressive trail on the highest bench in the land.

Whether it was her lone dissent in a North Carolina voting rights case in 2016 (“the court’s conclusion … is a fiction”); her ingenious referencing of Ta-Nehisi Coates, James Baldwin and WEB DuBois in another 2016 dissent over unreasonable searches and seizures; or her withering observation at the Dobbs oral argument in 2021 (“Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the constitution and its reading are just political acts?”), Sotomayor has stood head and shoulders above both her liberal and conservative colleagues on the bench for the past 15 years.

And so it is with good reason that she has been called the “conscience of the supreme court” ( the Nation ), “the truth teller of the supreme court” ( New York Times ) and “the real liberal queen of the court” ( Above the Law ).

I happen to agree 100% with all of those descriptions. But – and it pains me to write these words – I also believe it is time for Sotomayor to retire.

Okay, now it is time to remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg. To recall how RBG, who had survived two bouts of cancer, refused to quit the court despite calls to do so from leading liberals during Barack Obama’s second term office. To hark back to her insistence, in multiple interviews, that it was “ misguided ” to insist she retire and that she would only stand down “ when it’s time ”. To recollect how, on her deathbed in 2020, she told her granddaughter that her “most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed” – and how it made no difference whatsoever! Donald Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett as RBG’s replacement just eight days after her death, and Senate Republicans confirmed Barrett to RBG’s vacant seat just eight days before election day.

With Joe Biden trailing Trump in several swing states and Democrats also in danger of losing their razor-thin majority in the Senate, are we really prepared for history to repeat itself? Sotomayor will turn 70 in June. Of course, only Sotomayor knows the full status of her health, still it is public knowledge that she has had type 1 diabetes since she was seven ; had paramedics called to her home ; and is the only sitting justice to have, reportedly , traveled with a medic. To be clear: she could easily – and God willing – survive a potential Trump second term and still be dishing out dissents from the bench come 2029.

But why take that risk? Why not retire now? Why not quit the bench at the same age that justices in Belgium, Australia and Japan are forced to do so?

Let’s deal with the three most obvious objections.

First, wouldn’t a replacement for Sotomayor that Senator Joe Manchin has to approve be less progressive, and more centrist, than our sole Latina, super-progressive justice? Perhaps. But, again, consider the alternative. Would we rather Biden replace Sotomayor with a centrist in 2024 … or Trump replace her with a far-right Federalist Society goon in 2025? Or, what if Trump doesn’t win but the Republican party takes control of the Senate and blocks a second-term Biden from replacing her between 2025 and 2028?

Second, is there really any difference between a 6-3 conservative majority on the court and a 7-2 majority? Isn’t all lost already? Not quite. The damage to our democracy from a 7-2 hard-right court would be on a whole other and existential level. Yes, 6-3 has been a disaster for our progressive priorities ( Dobbs! Bruen! Kennedy! ) but there have also been a handful of key 5-4 victories ( Redistricting ! Razor wire at the border ! Ghost guns !) in cases where Roberts plus one other conservative have come over from the dark side. None of that happens in a 7-2 court. The hard-right conservatives win not just most of the time but every single time.

Third, how can anyone on the left dare ask the first, and only, Latina justice to quit the supreme court?

It’s simple. Women in general, and Latinas especially, will suffer most from a 7-2 supreme court. It is because I am so worried about the future of minority rights in this country that I – reluctantly – want Sotomayor to step aside.

This has nothing to do with her race or her gender. Forget RBG (again). Consider Stephen Breyer. You remember Breyer, right? The bookish and bespectacled liberal justice who quit the supreme court in 2022, at the age of 83, in part because of an intense pressure campaign from the left.

The fact that he was a white man didn’t shield him from criticism – or from calls for him to stand down. In 2021, the progressive group Demand Justice sent a billboard truck to circle the supreme court building with the message: “ Breyer, retire .” I joined in, too. “Retire, retire, retire,” I said in a monologue for my Peacock show in 2021. “Or history may end up judging you, Justice Breyer.”

So why is it okay to pressure Breyer to retire but not Sotomayor? This time round, Demand Justice isn’t taking a position on whether an older liberal justice should quit while a Democratic president and Senate can still replace them and, as HuffPost reports, “on the left, there is little open debate about whether she should retire.”

Democrats, it seems, still don’t seem keen on wielding power or influence over the highest court in the nation. In 2013, Barack Obama met with RBG for lunch and tried to nudge her into retiring, but as the New York Times later reported, Obama “did not directly bring up the subject of retirement to Justice Ginsburg”.

Compare and contrast with Donald Trump. The finance journalist David Enrich, in his book Dark Towers, reveals how the Trump family carried out a “ coordinated White House charm offensive ” to persuade Justice Anthony Kennedy to retire in 2018. Trump himself, according to Vanity Fair , “worked for months to assure Kennedy his legacy would be in good hands”.

The offensive was a success. Out went self-styled moderate Kennedy, in came the hard-right political operative Brett Kavanaugh.

If there is to be a change to the supreme court in 2024, Biden and the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, have only a few months left to make it happen. And yet they don’t seem too bothered about Sotomayor’s age or health. Last week, the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, called it “a personal decision for her to make”.

A personal decision? The prospect of a 7-2 conservative supreme court, with a far-right Federalist Soceity apparatchik having taken “liberal queen” Sotomayor’s seat on the bench, should fill us all with dread.

Biden, elected Democrats , and liberals and progressives across the board should be both publicly and privately encouraging Sotomayor to consider what she wants her legacy to be, to remember what happened with RBG, and to not take any kind of gamble with the future of our democracy.

If insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results, then I’m sorry but a liberal supreme court justice about to enter her 70s and refusing to retire on a Democratic president and Democratic Senate’s watch is nothing short of insane.

Mehdi Hasan is the CEO and editor-in-chief of Zeteo

• Sonia Sotomayor
• US politics
• US supreme court

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Des Moines Public Schools board approves reduced tax rate as property values increase

Des Moines Public Schools' taxpayers will see their tax rate drop during the 2024-25 school year.

The Des Moines School Board approved a proposed tax rate of $14.70 per $1,000 of valuation on a $100,000 home during a special board meeting Tuesday. The rate is down from the previous year's tax rate of $15.15 per $1,000 of valuation on a home.

School district taxes will drop from $828 to $682 on a $100,000 home, in large part because of increasing property values, said Shashank Aurora, the district's chief financial officer, in an interview.

The rate could change before the budget is finalized if a 2.5% increase in school state aid, known as SSA, is signed off of by Gov. Kim Reynolds. The House and Senate have both approve a 2.5% SSA increase .

If that holds, the board will likely approve a tax rate closer to $14.67 per $1,000 when the budget is approved next month, Aurora said.

Des Moines Public School officials have not released the total overall budget for the 2024-25 school year.

Related: Iowans are getting new property tax explainers in the mail. Here's how to decipher them:

How much does DMPS need to cut from its budget?

Des Moines schools' staff originally calculated the proposed 2024-25 budget using a 2% SSA increase and were planning to make $14 million in cuts ahead of the upcoming school year.

Those cuts included 10 full-time equivalent positions from district high schools and 4% of full-time positions from across the district totaling about $3 million.

If Reynolds does sign off on the 2.5% increase, officials will only need to cut $9.75 million after the staffing reductions, Aurora said in an interview.

Previously, officials cut $12.2 million ahead of the 2023-24 school year and $9.9 million going into the 2022-23 school year.

Related: Des Moines Public Schools says it must slash $14 million from coming budget. What gets cut?

Will DMPS close buildings to save money?

BBS Architects is currently conducting a facility condition assessment. The report is expected to be released in May, according to board documents .

The facility study is not expected to impact the budget until the 2025-26 school year .

Will the district receive any additional state funds?

The district is expected to receive $1.6 million from the state for the 1,381 students whose parents chose for them to attend private school using the  education savings accounts  program.

The funds are meant to help school districts make up for state aid they will lose if a child attends a private school.

Related: How Iowa lawmakers' funding delay has hurt school districts' budget planning, union talks

When will DMPS adopt a budget and how can I learn more?

The board is scheduled to adopt the final budget at its April 16 meeting.

Coming public budget presentations:

• April 1, 6-7:30 p.m. North High School, 501 Holcomb Ave., library.
• April 3, 7:15–9 a.m., East High School, 815 E. 13th St., library.
• April 4, 6–7:30 p.m. Hoover High School, 4800 NW Aurora Ave., library presented in Swahili.
• April 5, 7:15–9 a.m. Lincoln High School, 2600 SW Ninth St., counseling/conference center.
• April 8, 6–7:30 p.m. Hoover High School, 4800 NW Aurora Ave., library.
• April 9, 6– 7:30 pm Roosevelt High School, 4419 Center St., small gymnasium.
• April 10, virtual presentation recorded.
• April 11, 6–7:30 p.m., Central Campus,1800 Grand Ave., board room, presented in Spanish.

Samantha Hernandez covers education for the Register. Reach her at (515) 851-0982 or  [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter at  @svhernandez  or Facebook at  facebook.com/svhernandezreporter .