The American educational system must emphasize values education and the role of the teacher in instilling proper values. Within the context of this paper, values are the intrinsic regard people have for other people, ideas, attitudes, or modes of behavior. Values rest on a philosophical base and require the intellectual choice of the beholder. Education must promote three values: authenticity, literacy, and self-accountability. Authenticity requires a person to be valid to himself and self-actualizing. To achieve this, teaching must be people-oriented and should accentuate individual strengths. Literacy, which is synonymous with learning and cultivation, involves education in the mother tongue, social studies, mathematics, science, and a foreign language. Self-accountability requires a person to be responsible for his own deeds. In general, society's values are perverted because they place esteem on celebrities and political puppets, not on artists, philosophers, researchers, and minority members who contribute to society's well-being. In order to prevent students from following society's misplaced values, teachers must emphasize authenticity in preparing new teachers for their roles. Courses in the foundations and philosophy of education should concentrate on these problems. (Author/AV)