Hello Everyone,
For February 10th, please read Dewey and these two additional articles attached (also sent through email).
Questions:
1. According to author Steve Johnson, research in self-esteem proved, "... that chronic criminal offenders tend to have high self-esteem, whereas many of the most altruistic and productive members of society show low self-esteem." PG2 Does this fact shock you? What can we as educators do to help build self-esteem for all students- even those who are very anti-social and have no great role models at home?
2. Over the past 40 years, character development in schools has almost disappeared. Dewey believed that schools have a moral responsibility to society. What can educators do to improve character education over a short time period?
3. Has Dewey's vision of school having the social responsibility of children's morals been realized?
4. Lets assume that everyone agrees that children must be taught proper moral behavior. Lets also assume that everyone agrees that good morals and values are formally taught to children, not learned instinctively or informally. If these assumptions are correct, why then has formal moral or character education been almost eliminated from the public schools and relegated solely to the home, church, and parochial schools?
5. In regards to our youth and their evidence of anti-social behavior, why do you think this is such a problem in today's society?
6. Do you believe that moral education is best left to the individual child's family and religious institution? Or is it something that needs to be addressed in the classroom?
7. What role do you believe the media plays in moral education or lack there of? Does this new "anti-social" behavior that many children are displaying today have a lot to do with the effects of the media on our children?
Thanks,
Meredith and Amy
9 comments:
I believe that the moral responsibility relies on our society. We want to blame the schools for morality, just like everything else. However, look at the change in our communities. Neighbors do not know each other. Children do not go outside and play by themselves. It takes a village, but no one in the village talks to each other. Moral responsibility begins with the parents/adults. Teachers can only do so much. Schools normally reflect society and our society who in trying to be politically correct, has tried not to place moral responsiblity on anyone, and therefore, no one has been teaching character, morality etc. Do you all remember the lady who lobbied to take prayer out of schools? What ever happened to her? Whether you believe in a certain god or do not believe at all, we can still have ethics. Check out "Ethics for the New Millenium" by the Dalai Lama. It is an extremely interesting look at ethics without religion. I am off my soap box.
I totally am with you Billie on the fact that moral responsibilities start at the home. I do think that teachers do spend a lot of time with students and teachers do hold responsibility for student's ethics to some degree. I think that teachers and schools should take on the responsibility as an opportunity. I think that what children learn at school should be able to be taken home. I realize that some parents are unreliable and hard to deal with, but, in every aspect, children are willing to learn if we are willing to teach them.
Basically I want to give an example of ethics in the school. At the school that I am working at we have what we call "Shark Teeth." Students can earn them at any point in time. They are given to them for making good decisions, being on good behavior, etc. This is motivating children to make good decisions by giving them incentives. Basically whichever class gets the most shark teeth at the end of the week, they are given an award. The award is up to the teacher. I love this idea, and so do the children. They want to help out and do anything they can to earn a "Shark Tooth" and in the mean time they are learning how to help each other out.
I think this shows children their own morals as well as teaches those children the ethics of the school. And usually those children take this aspects home with them.
Do you think the fact that neighbors do not talk to each other and communities are left less connected is due to technology? Televisions in every room in the house? Children stuck inside playing video games for hours on end?
Or does it have to do with crime rates and people being overly cautious?
Amy, I think ALL OF THE ABOVE has to deal with a lot of why children behave the way they do. I think parents are scared of their children going outside because they don't know what will happen, and then children end up staying inside all of the time and toys get old and parents get aggravated so they just put their child infront of the tv. This leads to WAY toooooo much stimulation like we talk about in our Monday class. I think they all add up, and there really isn't much we can do as teachers. Except make our own morals and have children learn by those.
You guys all have great points! And I definitely agree with Billie that moral responsibility should begin with parents, and if that is lacking you cannot lay all the blame on the schools. I feel like since so many kids do spend an abundant amount of time in front of their TVs as opposed to outside or with others that they are learning about making moral decisions from their TV. I don't watch much television, but I think it's safe to say that that is the wrong place to look for moral guidance! It's especially concerning if a child does not have a parent or caregiver to address ethics with them and relies on the media for this. It's also distressing because often unethical or criminal actions carried out on TV have little or no consequences as opposed to having great consequences to those committing like actions in real life. Making that distinction could be difficult for children, especially those very young.
An Education in Ethics discusses how educators introduced self-esteem building to help students learn to appreciate themselves and others better but in fact this did not work at all. I think part of the problem with this is that along with feeling good about themselves many of those students were also told over and over how they were unique and special. Which is true. However with everyone going around thinking about how special THEY were it made them focus primarily only on themselves. This makes it difficult to act altruistically towards others. This may also account for the rise in anti-social behavior. If you feel that others are not as important as you (or important at all) why spend time on them and their needs at all? Just a thought.
I agree with Billie as well. Moral responsiblity is not the responsiblity of the school but first of the parents and then the community. First, everyone doesn't have the same values and the school would impose values and morals that they thought were necessary. Second, what is being taught in school could possibly conflict culturally or socially with what is being taught at home.
Why would a school system what to be responsible for this? Teachers have enough responsibility already without having to deal with social responsibilty. The sole responsibility of the school is to academically educate children.
I agree that moral training should ideally happen at home, but what about all the children who aren’t getting it? The schools have a great opportunity to make a difference in the lives of “at risk” children whose parents aren’t modeling character. I agree with Dewey that schools need to prepare children with relevant moral training. Too often, schools’ attempts at character education are contrived and don’t resonate with the realities students face. This was certainly the case in my middle school, where homeroom was transformed into a formal course in character training. Each month, we studied a different moral trait (integrity, kindness, honesty, patriotism, etc.) and we received instruction from our homeroom teacher, Mrs. Smith, who was not the best model of kindness. She often made threats to students: “I’m going to hang you up by your ears,” or “I’m gonna send you back to the getting’ place with rejected written on your forehead.” I learned a great deal more about character from some of my other teachers, who modeled character with their lives, than I learned from Mrs. Smith’s lessons in character education. Children can tell what’s genuine, and teachers with genuine kindness and strength of character can make a real difference in children’s lives. We need strong leaders in our schools who model integrity and praise and encourage character in their students.
I completely agree with you, Julie. In my hometown of Aiken, they have a Character First Initiative through the city – it’s one of the mayor’s main platforms; it has now extended out into the local public schools, and I do believe it has made some positive impact in the larger community and school communities. However, it is often the middle school and high school students who see the initiative as contrived. I do agree it has to come from the home and larger social community, as Billie and others stated, but you’re right, so many do not have this. I think as educators we have to think back to those teachers who influenced us and our decisions to pursue a career in public service – it was the way in which he/she inspired, supported, encouraged students through his/her teaching and thoughtful approaches and disposition.
to comment on Amy's question I believe that all of those in your list have to do with why people are not as connected. I can honestly say that I know my neighbors but I do not really communicate with them other than a hello. I also think that neighbors just are not close because of trust. I know in my neighborhood most people think that it is crime free but you would be surprised. People are always told that "you dont know who to trust" and I think in a lot of situations that is true. I was watching Dr.Phil one day and they showed a website that you could go to to look up sex offenders in and around your address. (familywatchdog.us) I got on there only to see that there were at least 10 sex offenders within a 5 mile radius of my house.. that is crazy. I was raised to get to know someone before you make an opinion and websites like these, although helpful at times, may ruin that opinion. Parents especially are more cautious than ever. My question to you is why parents are so cautious now compared to before and by being so cautious, is it an ethical thing or just because?
Post a Comment