OK. I think I have made clear my thoughts on morals as opposed to religion. But the second part of this is the idea of what the schools should be responsible for. Not only that, but what they are capable of. a-[e] covers this very nicely. Mango has also put his two cents in. I encourage to read their posts as well.

Several commenters on the last post put forth the idea that some children have no resource outside of the schools to teach them morals. This is true and it is tragic. But I am troubled by this notion that because you have a hard time at home, the schools are responsible to make up for all of those shortcomings. It would be nice, but the schools cannot give these kids what there are truly lacking, because the schools are incapable of love. I know… I’ve seen … situation where a teacher can make a huge impact a child. Unfortunately there is know way to create a formula for these kinds of things.

I have the opportunity to be in classrooms upon occasion. I am not a teacher. I am not there because of my kid. I am there to work on a computer or a printer or that kind of thing. The point is I end up being a kind of neutral observer. As I wait for a computer to reboot (or re-image for that matter,) I really don’t have anything better to do but to observe what is going on in the classroom around me. These are pretty normal classrooms, there are no dramatics here with guns or gangs. Nonetheless, I see often enough situations that make me wonder about the effectiveness of what we are teaching.

My observations have led to the conclusion that the schools in general are incapable of teaching morals or values or anything like that. There are two points to be made here. The schools are teaching too much as it is. Adding morals to the list is not going to help the situation. Secondly, after much reflection, I am not sure that morals can be taught.

Of course, you know I will elaborate.

I am not a secularist. I do not wish to spread my secular ideas to others. I do not agree with all secular ideas. There has been a liberal/secular movement in education for the last few decades. The schools teach all kinds of liberal/secular junk. Sex education is just the beginning. They teach kids about their emotions how to be empathetic. They teach kids about the environment. They teach all kinds of things. Yet, kids still graduate from high school and go on to be insensitive, to be polluters, to accidentally get pregnant.

The schools are trying to hard. We try teach algebra to everyone. If you are going to go to school, graduate and go out in to the world as a salesmen, a respectable career, you do not need algebra. Solid arithmetic is what you need. The ability to budget and the to write a check. Algebra? We need to simplify. Especially before high school. Let’s focus on three “R’s” as they say. Let’s focus on the basics. I know, that’s not fun. That’s not interesting. But, who said school should be fun? For all the effort they put into trying to make learning fun, my kid still finds school to be, well, boring. Let’s face it. School will never compete with video games.

I don’t know what anyone else thinks, but the way I say it the school has one basic responsibility: to give everyone a base set of knowledge before they go out into the world. The ability to read. The ability to express your thoughts in writing. The ability to perform arithmetic. A basic understanding of our history. A basic understanding of the literature that has come before. That’s all.

Many of you will disagree with me about this. That’s Ok. It doesn’t change anything. You still shouldn’t morals values in school, because you can’t teach morals. This is because lack of moral behavior does not usually come from a lack of understanding of what is right and what is wrong. It comes from a disregard of what is right and what is wrong.

You can tell some one, again and again and again that something is wrong. This will not prevent them from doing that. Trust me on this, there is a middle school kid living in my house. These kids that come from these tragic backgrounds will have no motivation to follow any moral instruction that is given to them. Hell, even kids from middle class homes will challenge moral instruction as the enter puberty and adolescence.

I maintain, as I said in my last post, that if the schools are going to get kids to behave morally, the need set standards and hold them to them. PB commented:

Although, I believe that setting expectations for students, and holding them to those expectations, will at the same time, teach “character.” I’m assuming, of course, the expectations you are referring to would be along the lines of: do your own work, respect the property of others, come prepared and on time, be respectful of teachers and administrators, etc. All of these expectations seem to be reflective of the underlying moral/ethical code of conduct that has been adopted by our society.

That is exactly what I mean. Unfortunately, at this time in history, the schools are unable to hold children accountable for much of anything. Ironically, it’s the parents who won’t stand for it.