taken from The Responsive Communitarian Platform
Unfortunately, millions of American families have weakened to the point where their capacity to provide moral education is gravely impaired. And the fact is that communities have only a limited say over what families do. At best, it will take years before a change in the moral climate restores parenting to its proper status and function for many Americans.
Thus, by default, schools now play a major role, for better or worse, in character formation and moral education. Personal and communal responsibility come together here, for education requires the commitment of all citizens, not merely those who have children in school.
We strongly urge that all educational institutions, from kindergartens to universities, recognize and take seriously the grave responsibility to provide moral education. Suggestions that schools participate actively in moral education are often opposed. The specter of religious indoctrination is quickly evoked, and the question is posed: "Whose morals are you going to teach?"
Our response is straightforward: we ought to teach those values Americans share, for example, that the dignity of all persons ought to be respected, that tolerance is a virtue and discrimination abhorrent, that peaceful resolution of conflicts is superior to violence, that generally truth-telling is morally superior to lying, that democratic government is morally superior to totalitarianism and authoritarianism, that one ought to give a day's work for a day's pay, that saving for one's own and one's country's future is better than squandering one's income and relying on others to attend to one's future needs.
The fear that our children will be "brainwashed" by a few educators is farfetched. On the contrary, to silence the schools in moral matters simply means that the youngsters are left exposed to all other voices and values but those of their educators. For, one way or another, moral education does take place in schools. The only question is whether schools and teachers will passively stand by, or take an active and responsible role. . . .
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4 comments:
It is not the role of the education system to be a moral instructor; rather, such a grave responsibility falls on the parents. Schools are for teaching, not indoctrination. We send our children there to learn the necessities of life: mathematics, language, history, society, writing, communication, etc. They are given the tools needed to succeed in this world.
By the time our children step foot into the education system, they should have already been taught morals and how to be good decent people. They should already know that it's not okay to lie, steal, or hurt others. Obedience and respect for authority needs to have been instilled into them by this time. All of this is the parents' responsibility, not the schools'. The education system merely provides our children the platform on which they can practice being good people.
Thus, I am diametrically opposed to bringing morality into the education system. Each family does indeed have its own moral perspectives, and it would be impossible to bring all these differing views into our schools. Let's leave morality out and instead focus on delivering a better education for our children.
I would love to agree with you but until families, churches, and communities take the responsibility, that is theirs, we must as a society instruct our children somehow. If you have any ideas on how to encourage people to take responsibility, which is perhaps the main point of communitarian efforts, or what else we could be doing to give moral instruction please post those ideas here.
I'm afraid you have no choice but to agree with me. Are the schools to blame for the lack of responsibility on the part of families, churches, and communities to teach our children morality? NO. Therefore, don't assume that responsibility on the education system. And if our families, churches, and communities cannot take responsibility for properly raising our children, where is society? Do not all these parts, families, churches, and communities, make up society? What is most disheartening here is the utter failures of churches. Are they not supposed to be the moral compasses of this world? Yet here we are discussing their pointless existence.
I do have a solution for this problem of there being little if any responsibility. It does however run counter to the principles of communitarianism; but in a way, it does not. Imagine for a second the perfect world, where there are no more wars, inequality, famines, poverty, disparities on all levels. Now imagine a world without religion. A world without any delusions of higher powers than ourselves. If you can imagine this world then you can be the first person to start taking responsibility. But until we forsake our ludicrous superstitions and unfounded beliefs, responsibility can never be claimed.
First not all our families, churches, and communities are failing, some are doing very well just not enough of them. They all can do better and none are pointless. Secondly many people are turn toward responsibility because they have turned toward a higher power, just look at the great work that AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) is doing. Lastly thank you for your thoughts, I hope you will comment on other posts.
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