COMMENTS ON VALUES TOPIC 

All these comments came along with the answers on our questionnaire. Some of them are masterpieces so we decided to share them with You. Enjoy !

Congratulations on an interesting site. I especially liked the information on your country (and the eggs!) as my students are learning about your part of the world. You have certainly worked hard. Well done.
Sue

Nice WWW site. We in I*EARN are proud to be associated with such an important discussion topic as the role of values in our lives. Warm greetings to all of you!
Ed Gragert

Values are vitally important. In addition,we also need a fertileenvironment (what Germen clarifies with multiple meanings as eigenwelt,uberwelt, mitwelt, et al.). What good is it for a fish to be out of water? All the best for a peaceful and healthy world. Help our world live.
Jonathan Turbin

Zelo tezko sem se odlocila, katera vrednota mi najvec pomeni. Ce bi lahko, bi na prvo mesto poleg prijateljstva dala se zdravje in materialne dobrine (ce smo posteni:)), kajti brez denarja ni niti racunalnika...:-))
 Mojca

Feelings like love and understanding at least I see feelings as equally inportant as values
Björn Bergsson

Is there anything else more important for the quality of life then Values  Yes / No ?  No, all human life is based on certain values

Zelim vam uspesno delo. Z zanimanjem bom sledila rezultatom vasega projekta.

Zelo tezko se je odlociti samo za eno od nastetih vrednot. Anketo bi bilo zanimivo dati med dijake. Mogoce pa tudi spraviti v zivljenje kaksen projekt na to temo. V vsakdanjem norem tempu velikokrat pozabljamo na vrednote. Zal opazam, da je marsikdo sploh vec ne razmislja o vrednotah. Lep pozdrav iz Maribora,
Marlena

Dear Branko
It is great to hear from a fellow cyberfair member.  I would love to help you out.  Usually the net has the greatest people.  Sometimes you get a few duds.

Sounds like a great project! Best of luck in Cyberfair!
Jan Johnson

Religion, defined as personal faith and love as it impacts all of your other choices.
Marilyn Hagle

I teach in Canton, NY, USA - would you like each of my 50 students to respond to your questionnaire?? We also have a web project you might consider - here is the official description. Truly, it really entails just sending us a paragraph about a nearby landmark of yours and possibly a picture.
 Mickie Flores

Today is a good day to be alive,,,,,, it beats the alternative!
tbruton@pop.mindspring.com

We are also doing a survey for our cygber fair¸ project. We are looking for other kids and relatives that could help us find any relatives of people who migrated to Califonria during the gold rush period around l848.  Good Luck with your cyberfair project. I will look for you at the cyberfair.
mendenhall_c@ncsd.k12.ca.us

I think that the only thing that may help this world its that we stop thinkimg in ourself, and start to think what can we do for others. Help them. Do not do things that can hurt others. We are not alone in this world, its time to start acting like that. I´ll be very gratefull if you could send me more information about what are you doing in this project.
Israilevich

 Honesty and integrity,  not like Bill Clinton who epitomizes the worst values, actually no values.
jwkelley@earthlink.net

Best wishes on your project!  I'm in Texas and am a teacher of the gifted.
Sylvia Jordan

Family is follow by tolerance and health. Once you achieve that you can start to think in Peace to be able to enjoy freedom, true frienship, enviromental awareness, pleasure, exciement, religion, money and get again a little flavor of PEACE
chase@onenet.com.ar

Hello!Our names are Natasha and Ksenia (NK).We want to be your pen pals, thank you and have a nice day! Good lack for all the time!
"Common Mail Box (Jezkazgan)" <root@jezkaz.ricc.kz>

Uspesno delo vam zelim,
Sonja

You need basic food, clothing, shelter, opportunities for education to begin to have a quality of life.
amnesty-l@oil.ca

Hello to the students in Slovenia, Good luck with your Cyber Fair. I think it's great that you are helping people think not only about the technical aspects of technology but also about the possibilities for using technology as a tool to help communities make the world a better place.
Kristin

Hello friends from Secondary School Brezice,
Your project is interesting. It will provide students with useful discussions and the results will then be of interest again.  Some teachers at my school will present the project to their students to complete for you.
Bob Carter

 It's hard to choose from so many important values! Justice (because I believe it encompasses many of the other  values listed)
Andy Dunau

I believe all the other values will be present if we start with respect.  To learn to have it for yourself and to use it as the
basis for all relationships starts everyone with enough self esteem to accomplish his/her life without the need for taking from  or belittling anyone.  It will help preserve the human heart as well as the planet.
EvyS3@aol.com

I'm living in a country that lets us believe, think, and voice our opinions and believes.  As much as that is important
to me, to take away my family, would take away what I live for.  Values are what you would never give up.
Denise Evans

To the Secondary School Brezice, Slovenia:

Happiness is the realistic awareness that one's perceived needs are met to one's satisfaction (or beyond one's level of satisfaction.) It may also derive from the awareness that such needs are about to  be met to one's satisfaction (or to a level beyond that).  The better one's needs seem to be met, the happier one feels.  This also means respecting the rights of others to do the same.
No one singular value will serve to attain this.  The best solution is one that still leaves at least one more challenge.  If there are no more things to be done, or needed to be done, then there would literally be no more need for living. Of course, you must understand that there is a wide range of needs, and hence, values.  A very wide range.

Therefore, what would one value the most?  The awareness of one's true needs, the means to meet those needs, and the opportunity to meet these needs as often an in whatever manner one sees fit. Implied in this explanation is the freedom to meet one's needs.  It  is all intertwined.  For a society of any dimension to coexist, it must also allow for the individuals, groups, or supergroups to meet their needs in a manner that will not abridge the needs of the least individual member of that society.  This ideal has one potential flaw.  For this to truly be, there must be sufficient resources for all to be able to meet their needs as they think they will need to.  There isn't.

Wars begin because something forces a person or group or nation to take what is not theirs in order to meet their needs.  These may be real needs that a sensible person would agree should be helped with, or these may be needs that are not immediate to survival but Might be (or at least they perceive that it might be).  Please note that human perceptions are not necessarily realistic nor accurate nor consistent, but they still serve in most cases.

 Notice that I have used the words "perceived" and "realistic." This is important.  In my definition of happiness in the first paragraph above I stated that happiness is derived from one's perception of how well one's needs are met.  I have also stated that human perception is not always reliable, correct, or accurate. Education, wisdom and experience are necessary to correctly interpret our perceptions so that the methods we adopt to neet our needs truly do so.  To omit the word "realistic" in the first paragraph would mean squandering more resources than needed.  [I use the term "resource" as any thing or any person that can meet a need or be used to obtain it.]  If there are no longer enough resources to  meet one's needs, then conflicts and wars will eventually result. This can be forestalled by cooperation among those with their own needs.  When that is no longer possible, force is all that separates life from extinction.  Religions, friendships, groups,  nations--all help in the mutual cooperation, and if necessary, in the application of force.  (Therefore, the group association is also a resource.)        Why?
To live another generation.  An extinct species is forever lost. Homo Sapiens, too.  An extinct bloodline is forever lost.
What, therefore, is the greatest happiness?
For the younger citizens of the world, it is as I have stated above in the first paragraph.

For the more mature members of the world, it is the knowledge which aproaches certainty that one's bloodline and/or group and/or species and/or environmental system and/or planet will continue to exist and thrive in the generation(s) to come.  For some people, this will only be in terms of their bloodline, others will also include their group or whatever support society they use to survive. It is all interwined, however.  Would you bequeath your descendants a barren valley dead of all life but their own?  No.  Their doom would follow anyway unless they could move to another area.  But then you would likely conflict with someone else's needs.  By the same logic at the other extreme, one would not bequeath one's descendants a barren planet devoid of all life but their own.  Their doom is then equally certain.

 Many still think in terms of the first definition because they are lucky if they can do just that much.  Even in the most
devoped countries there is still competition.

Can all this be true?   Almost.  I left something out.  Well, many things.

The first two definitions co-exist in almost all persons. It is just that when one is older the main needs are obviously met so those needs grow less important over time.  What does not diminish is the need mentioned in the second definition.  As when a leaf in the fall would change from green to red or orange, the leaf does not change color because it adds new ones.  All the colors were already there.  It is just that as a leaf dies, some colors fade faster than the others, so what one sees are the layers of colors dying away, until the leaf dries out and falls to the ground.  So, too, with humans, I think.

How would I now define happiness?

Happiness is the realistic awareness that one's perceived needs are successfully met to one's satisfaction (or beyond one's level of satisfaction) without abridging other needs.  [It may also derive from the awareness that such needs are about to be met to one's satisfaction (or to a level beyond that).]  The better one's needs seem to be met, the happier one feels.  This also means respecting the rights of others to do the same.  It is also the knowledge which aproaches certainty that one's bloodline and group and species and environmental system and planet will continue to exist and thrive with and during new challenges in the generation(s) yet to come; seldom bored and with enough for all in need.

Any values which will support this ideal are good ones.  Those listed above in your questionnaire cover the basic needs.  It takes more than one value, however.  It takes many.  It takes more than one person.  It takes many.  It would be a mistake to strive to have every single need met.  There must still be a reason to live. One must still have a reason to dream.

You may probably have wanted a singular selection.  I will give it.For if one cannot or does not have Happiness, then the next best thing is what I shall mention next:

        Freedom.

The freedom to meet one's needs in whatever means one desires to whatever degree one desires (and if necessary, abridging one's own needs in the process).  To think, to do--whether alone or in concert with others.  With this, one can maintain, re-derive or re-obtain the rest of the values.  Or preserve them.  This must therefore mean vigilance against anything that would imperil that freedom.  It also means having the education and wisdom to best make use of the freedom.  Those who have walked this earth still have something of value to tell us--their experiences.  Most of all, it means respecting the rights of others who are also trying to meet their needs.  Conflict, by its very nature, also acts to create more needs than one began with.  It must remain the last resort.

Are these not good dreams?
JAIME CASTILLO

Hi!  I would love to help you with CyberFair'98.  My fourth graders and I are also entered.  We are studying about and writing web pages about "local specialties" on our little island of Georgetown, Maine, USA! I wasn't sure if you wanted ME to answer the questions or each of my students.  If you would like each of my students to respond, please e-mail us and we will do that for you!
Good luck and have fun!  It was GREAT hearing from you!
Beth Saufler          

Love to hear from you.
Riana

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are values that require tolerance and understanding and a willingness to promote these ideals universally!
Andy Dunau

Freedom makes the others possible. If I am free I am able to act to accomplish the others.
Linda Polin

Comment Without health it is hard to appreciate other things. I would have liked to choose 2 or 3 things and see how they all ranked (just a comment)
Kathy Hayden

People who really LIVE by good values and really love, teach and nurture their children so they can learn to LIVE by good values too. If parents teach and model good values, more people will grow up to do good in our world and we will be spared the horrible headlines we often see of people hurting others in our world.
FooteRm25@aol.com

Dear Branko, I am glad to participate in your survey. The staff and stucents in my school are enjoying Cyber Fair too. Eugene Costa  

Many of htese values are great and can make our lives much more enjoyable, but only one thing will bring true contentment - a personal relationship with the Creator of the Universe. God Bless!!
Brian Finger

WE ARE ALSO PARTICIPATING IN THE CYBER FAIR PROJECT AND THANK YOU FOR YOURCONTRIBUTION. WE HAVE FIVE PEOPLE IN OUR TEAM, FOUR GUYS AND ONE GIRL.
Cheers from us and good luck on your project.
"St Dominic's College"

Good luck on your project.

Stephanie Goudzwaard
Woofaug@aol.com
Teresa Wilkins  
Polona Gucek
Kelly Daugherty

  "... wisest is she who knows she does not know ..."
 Lisa K. Beebe

Yesterday is past.  Tomorrow is a mystery.  Today is a gift.  That's why it  is called the present. ___Live One Day At A Time.
Vera Saville

I feel my faith in God can help me develop or have any of the others on the list.
BREDENMT@mail.milwaukee.k12.wi.us

All the other values come to use easier when we have the freedom to act and think as we choose yet within the laws governing
the country. With freedom comes growth and change for the betterment of all.Nothing is that easy but we are able to work toward accomplishing the other values when we are free.                                                                                               George Anger 

Health, as in able to think and care for myself. Please forward this questionnaire to your friends, if possible !
Paula_M._Baca@ccmail.odedodea.edu 

 Keep in touch with us.  I am a teacher, the Computer Lab teacher for our elementary school of children ages 5 - 13.  I teach all of the children here how to use the computer. What do you do?
Janet Geary  

If we have peace, all the other qualities will follow.
Marge Arnold  

 Hope this helps......I'm an adult 6th grade science teacher in a small Indiana communiti.
"Sheila Greemore"  

 In terms of Values, if you do not have a "relationship" with the Lord...more than just going to church...you will not obtain any of the other values to a level where you feel life is at peace!!
Stacey Campo  

Without freedom nothing else is possible.
Helen Johnson  

If we all had true concern for others, we would eliminate hunger, poverty, poor healthcare, lack of housing and we would have peace with each other and with our planet.
Jane Moore  

I am a computer teacher in at Alvarado Elementary School in San Francisco, California. Thank you for the inquiry.
Robert Cheeseman  

The freedom to worship, and the importance of a relationship with the creator is the greatest resource a person will ever realize.
Please forward this questionnaire to your friends, if possible ! Soon You'll be able to see the results of our research at:
Russ Southerland 

Religion and family life are very important but they depend upon freedom.
Kate Mikula 

I chose true friendship, because that has been a very important part of my life.  I am fortunate to be born in a country where freedom to think and act (within the law) is guaranteed by law of the land.
Carol Ogg  

I think friendship makes a persons life happier
Russ Stamp 

When your relationship with your family is in sync, all the other values are supported.
Donna K. Olovson 

Superb idea, I am the computer instructor for Warner Unified School District in Warner Springs, Ca our web page is:http://www.smartkards.com/warner  please visit it and sign our Guest Book!
Ken Turner 

As long as I had true friendship I think I could tolerate anything, well nearly anything.
Cheryl Oakes 

Religion and family are basically a tie. Please forward this questionnaire to your friends, if possible !
Annette Scribner 

If we have peace in the world then all of the other values seem to follow and also become realities.
Dee Stevensen 

If the family is sound and intact, many of the other values will be possible: but without a strong family system, society, as
we know it, is in deep trouble.
L. Thornton 

Many of these values need to be taken into account as a group.  One by itself is not acceptable.  It does, however,
 allow for a very simple and convenient survey!
Brian M. Dawson 

I think w/o freedom none of the other values can be achieved.
Danny 

 When reality and dream coincide,anything and everything should be expected!
Adam Mendez 

I get very upset when I see our planet being destroyed!
Tylor Boggs 

Getting some e-mail from Slovenia is the farthest away yet for us!  Look below (scroll down) for answers to your survey.  Thanks again and have a nice day
James Crittenden

If we follow our religion correctly, the rest of these values will fall into place.
Mrs. Sarah Farmay

Having FREEDOM to act and think as I please does not imply that it has to revolutionary actions or revolutionary thought. Being deprived of this FREEDOM is tantamount to being subjected to oppressive regimes reminiscent of WW2. I would hate that!
Alan Andrews 

Thank you so much for writing.  How many students are you working with and what are their ages?  We would love to know more about you and your school. Best Wishes,
Mrs. Carson 

When your relationship with your family is in sync, all the other values are supported.
Donna K. Olovson 

This is fine idea for a project.  Can my students e-mail with questions of their own?  Your English is good.  Konnen Sie auch Deutsch verstehen?  Chris Burrell 

As a Christian I interpret peace in a spiritual way. As a Northern Ireland person I interpret it as freedom from strife, fear and terrorism.
Maurice McNicholl  

Freedom to think and act underlies all of the other values.
 Randy Durrum

 Thank you for the opportunity to participate in your survey. I would be happy to answer any additional questions you may have.  Please forward this questionnaire to your friends, if possible !
Susan van Deurs

I always pray for my health and for peace as well.
Tim Haag

My grandfather and mother migrated from Sloveniain the early 1900.  Their son 88 is still alive and lives in Oregon nearmy family.  I would like to begin some dialogue with you or someone in Slovenia if possible.  I can get some geographical location in Slovenia that my dad remembers if this continues.  Our family name is Mohar.  Hope to hear from you again.
Jerry Mohar

That value section was hard to answer.  I figured if I had peace in my life, I must have the following.
 Buesseler, Carla

Since most religions also safeguard freedom it is my next choice Please forward this questionnaire to your friends, if possible ! J.HARRIS

I wish that people were given more time for themselves instead of having to bear such stress and pressure.
Ken K 

In my experience here in the USA the spiritual side of life is currently sadly neglected. People drift along without a moral compass, bombard the young people with negativity, and then wonder why our children are eating us.
William Voorhees 

I believe it is so easy to get busy with your job and everything else and forget your family somethimes. Your family should be the foundation of your life with each person being a support mechanism for the others.
Paul Boyle 

We don´t value money,it is not important.We are Penita Pilve and Jaana Mikkola from Lahderanta school in Espoo.
Taina Sauren  

If everyone was unselfish, he/she would be fair and honest in everything they did.  Greed leads to war, health and money problems, and prevents tolerance of others and distroys the environment.
Susan Odom 

 Beacause, Freedom is the most important thing in our world. Without freedom any man can't develope in the way they
want.
Grodno school 30

Peace in the world, peace around me, peace inside me (in my heart, inmy soul) ...

Tesko je odluciti se za jedan broj, mnogo stvari uticu na kvalitet zivota i delovanja.

Difficult to choose when I think that the values in some cases depend on each other but I think the foundament must be peace otherwise is hard to reach the other goals.
Eva Spetz 

Because the friendship is more important than the other values. For example if you don't have money you can have a friend you only need LOVE.
Andrea, Mexico
I think all are important but I think freedom is first because without it I can not be with my friends and family and say what I think if somebody doesn't let me express myself.
Angel , Mexico

Hi from Inter-American Academy, Ecuador. I hope more people colaborate with you! Good Luck!
Renata Domingues

Self satisfaction that I'm living according to the rules of 'wrong and right' that I was raised with, and that I pass that on without hypocrasy to my children and students.
Liz Honore - New Delhi, India

  SPARKS