Is this a dilemma for educators?

[Woodznutz]

This is where schools have gotten into a whole lot of trouble lately both of their own volition and by default: by taking over the role as parents and trying to be Moral Teachers.

Schools should absolutely enforce a code of conduct that includes basics like safety. Teachers in classrooms should encourage taking turns, using words not violence, etc--I would hope parents wouldn't have a problem with teachers establishing these basic social interactions. Beyond that it is not our job to teach morals.

The point is to alter the bad behavior of the kids. If not outright moral teaching the schools could teach kids how to avoid immoral behavior. It's the results that are important.

 

[Ralph Norton]

That's why they are illegal.

Immoral and illegal are not synonymous.

 

[surada]

If morals aren't taught by parents or church isn't it the duty of schools to step into the breach? There are morality lessons that schools can teach that parents and church wouldn't touch.

Civic responsibilities are morals (usually called 'mores').

Schools teach morals every day.

 

[Woodznutz]

Schools teach morals every day.

How would you judge their effectiveness in this regard?

 

[Woodznutz]

This is where schools have gotten into a whole lot of trouble lately both of their own volition and by default: by taking over the role as parents and trying to be Moral Teachers.

Schools should absolutely enforce a code of conduct that includes basics like safety. Teachers in classrooms should encourage taking turns, using words not violence, etc--I would hope parents wouldn't have a problem with teachers establishing these basic social interactions. Beyond that it is not our job to teach morals.

There's this.

"Polls indicate that about 70 percent of public school parents want schools to teach “strict standards of right and wrong,” and 85 percent want schools to teach values."

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[Slade3200]

Education doesn't make people smarter, but it makes them feel they are smarter. Other than civic responsibilities, morals should be taught by parents and/or religious instruction.

P.S. What morals would you teach in schools?

That’s quite the statement… how do you define “smart”?