Childhood and Instilling Values: Deconstructing an Agricultural Metaphor A Critical Study of Theories of Value Socialization

Abstract

One of the metaphors for socialization of values common to specialists and non - specialists alike is the metaphore of «instilling values». This study seeks to deconstruct the idea that the process of developing children's values is intentional, fluid, and harmonious, and undertaken by benevolent actors (or «good farmers») with shared noble intentions, when in reality the process is complex and manifold. The metaphor is also misleading and produces a series of delusions that require deconstruction: the delusion of a harmonious society, the delusion of a harmonious social institution, the delusion of harmonious values, and the delusion of the child as tabula rasa.