He who has a “why” to live can bear with almost any “how.”

--Frederich Nietzsche

Why should I change just because they think I should?

                                                                        --Cara, 10^th grade  

Values represent a vital and underrated client factor in working with school problems. The term “values” is used here to refer to what is most important to a person – the highly individualized meaning, purpose, and vision of a person’s life. The importance of values and direction in people’s lives has been emphasized by various renowned theorists and therapists in psychology including Frankl (1959), Rogers (1951), May (1983), and Yalom (1980). More recently, the systematic incorporation of values in the change process has been seen in contemporary forms of behavior therapy (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999; Jacobsen & Christensen, 1996).

Despite the emphasis on values in various therapeutic approaches, their role in school-based intervention has been largely untapped. Failure to include values in the intervention process jeopardizes the relevance of school-based interventions for students. Many adults assume that students should naturally want to perform well in school. This assumption may not be applicable to many students who are referred for services. For some students, successful school performance is of little intrinsic value or interest. Lacking a personally relevant reason for performing well in school, students understandably adopt a “Why should I?” or “What’s the use?” position.

     People of all ages generally are not accustomed to discussing their most cherished visions for themselves and their lives. We can help students acknowledge their values and behave accordingly. In this sense, the practitioner does not give students something they do not already have or try to convert them to the practitioner’s or other people’s opinion about what is best for them. Since students may not automatically connect school-related issues and goals to larger visions and values in their lives, we can invite them to consider such connections.

The following questions encourage students to consider their most cherished visions related to who they want to be and the type of life they want to lead: 

• Let’s forget about school for a few minutes here. If you could be exactly the kind of person you most want to be, what kind of person is that?
• What do you want your life to stand for?

• Pretend that you are 50 years old and that you have lived every part of your life exactly the way you wanted to, and that you have been just the kind of person you wanted to be. Now imagine that you are reading a story about yourself and your life at age 50. What are the most important parts of that story?

Once a person’s key values are identified, practitioners can ask questions that explore links between big values and specific school-related goals and behavior. The questions below invite students (1) to consider existing and future actions that either help or hinder their movement toward important values and goals in their lives, and (2) to make behavioral commitments and changes in accordance with their stated values. As indicated by italics in the following examples, it is important to use the student’s actual words whenever possible in exploring the relationship between their school performance and stated values: 

• What are you already doing at school to help yourself become the loving and caring person you most want to be? What will it take to do more of that?

·    If you were doing just what you needed to do in school to become a more loving and caring person, what would you be doing? 

• What are you doing or not doing at school that is blocking you from moving closer to your goal of becoming a decent husband and father when you get older?

• If it were possible for you to have a better life, would you be willing to take action in order to make that happen?

• If I told you about something you could do at school that might help you become a more helpful and loving person, would you be willing to do it?

  The explicit discussion of values promotes a powerful motivational context for school-based intervention. Given that most students are referred for counseling by a teacher or parent, it is understandable that they may initially be less than eager to change solely because someone else thinks they should. Some students may not understand why they were referred for intervention or counseling in the first place, while others may feel coerced into participating. Successful outcomes are seriously compromised if these issues are ignored or unresolved. It is no mystery why interventions fail with students who do not perceive the relevance of such interventions in their lives. Attempts to verbally convince or otherwise coerce students to invest in the intervention process, such as telling them “it’s for your own good,” can undermine the change process because these comments are usually viewed by students as superficial and disrespectful.

The ultimate aim of questions and conversations that explore students’ values and visions is to promote interventions that encourage students to act in accordance with their deepest beliefs, convictions, and hopes. These conversations invite students to articulate what is important to them, to examine their actions in light of this, and to participate in developing interventions that move them toward living out their values.

Hayes et al. (1999) recommend therapeutic conversations that deal with values-driven actions and behavior. Questions such as, “What are you already doing at school that is moving your life in an important direction?” and “What is blocking you from living out your values at school?” help students focus on specific goals and actions that support their values. These questions invite students to perceive important connections between their global long-term values and the short-term goals and actions required to pursue these values. For example, a middle school student who wants to have a loving marriage and successful career can be encouraged to increase school behaviors that support these values (e.g., studying, paying attention) and reduce actions that work against them (e.g., teasing, skipping class). Likewise, a fourth-grade student who wants to be a kind person can be encouraged to define and increase “kind behaviors” at school (e.g., allowing other students to be first in line or volunteering to help a student with math). In order to be useful in improving school performance, the student’s values must be translated into specific school-related goals and actions.