This study investigated children's reasoning about the teaching of moral, moralcharacter.
character. religious. patriotic. and political values. One-hundred and sixty
participants in four age groups (8-. 1 O-. 13-years-olds. and adults) judged (okay / not
okay) the teaching of values and laws (good law 1 bad law) intended to promote socially
shared values and prohibit negative values. Both the social acceptance of values (socially
shared versus unshared values) and the context (school. family) within which they were
taught were systematically varied. Results showed that children consider a variety of
factors in evaluating the teaching of values. including, context. social acceptance of the
value. and the specific values themselves. These distinctions appear to be related to
children's social and moral reasoning, and how developing conceptions of context and
morality interact with development. The findings are discussed in relation to theoretical
debates between cognitive developmental and character education approac hes to values
education.