Contact: Maridith Geuder
Current events and sensational headlines to the contrary, time-honored values haven't gone the way of the Studebaker, according to a Mississippi State classics professor.
Robert E. Wolverton Sr., a teacher in the university's Freshman Year Experience Program, said a recent informal survey of the 23-person class showed that top-ranked values tended to strike some traditional chords.
Students were asked to rank 25 values presented by the editors of their textbook. Among the choices were "being financially and materially successful," "competing and winning," "having a good time and being with others," "enjoying leisure time," and "being approved of and liked by others."
Not surprisingly, perhaps, "financial success" was in the top five. But the top four values in a class that included 16 women and seven men were "a relationship with God," "family life," "loving and being loved," and "self-respect and pride."
Offered as part of the counselor education curriculum, the fall semester-only class introduces entering freshmen to a range of campus resources. Wolverton's class is team-taught with library associate professor June D. Cressanthis.
As part of their class requirements, students also are asked to write weekly journals, explore terms from J.D. Hirsch's "Cultural Literacy" and actively discuss such issues as diversity and time management.
"We try to open the campus to students, as well as open the world at large," Wolverton said.
Wolverton, who first taught a similar course at MSU 10 years ago, said that, despite dramatic societal changes over a decade, he's encouraged to see that students still place a high premium on personal values.
"These students represent a variety of backgrounds and cultures," he observed. "Despite their differences, families obviously are a big force, as evidenced by how high family values rank."
Wolverton, who holds degrees from the universities of Michigan and North Carolina, noted that the older generation of every era has condemned the younger generation "since the time of Socrates in ancient Greece."
With that in mind, he added: "I take it as a sign of hope that many students today arrive on our campus with a strong sense of values."