Following Indonesia’s 1998 reform, value education in the form of a specific subject is no longer applied. The results of the 2006 national discussion recommended new education programs loaded with values to be implemented in 2007-2008. These are in the form of two-dimensional Pancasila value, namely Citizenship and School Atmosphere Creation. In 2011-2015, concept of Character Education emerged with four approaches: PAKEM (Active, Creative, Effective, and Fun Learning); Extra-Curricular Activities; School Culture Development; and Community Participation. In 2016, Budi Pekerti (moral action) Education emerged with a more entrenched Character Education function at the national core. Subsequently, in 2017, it was emerged with Strengthening Character Education through extra-curricular, extra-curricular, school development, and school collaboration with the community. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the tradition of value education implementation in Indonesian primary schools from the starting point of the reform until now. This study used the historical method with a random sample of primary schools in each province (the field work). The results show that value education in Indonesian primary schools tend to use value transmission approaches through the methods of training, modeling, conditioning, and habituation, which foster moral behavior in the form of students’ discipline and adherence to rules and norms.