Values/Character Education: Tradition or Liberational

1. Values/Character Education: Tradition or Liberational By: Kelly McCaffrey Amanda Moseley Maura Costello

2. Values • Is it the job of the schools and teacher to provide today's children with morals and values in society? • Are traditional values the way to go or should children think for themselves about what is right or wrong?

3. Quotes • “studies suggest that teaching is inherently a moral endeavor” • Thoughts……. • Aristotle “emphasized that it takes education and practice to become virtuous” • Agree/Disagree

4. What happened to American Morality • Family values have declined. • High divorce rates • High rate of abuse of spouse and children • Lack of ethics in business and government • Drug and alcohol addiction • Increased teenage pregnancy • Increased violence in schools

5. Why….? • Arguments: “a feminist bias in schools” • Example…. • Traditional families are few and far between • Because it is no longer the “norm”, traditional families are not always depicted in the books the students read. • But does that send the wrong message to children or is it positive because it relates to the children’s lives.

6. New ideas • Will a reform for more religion and patriotism in schools improve our current issues? • Literature classes should teach US and foreign literature portraying rewards behavior and negative consequences of immorality. • Other changes in curriculum can impact values.

7. Teaching in public schools • What should be the requirement for moral standards of those who teach children. • What type of morality questions would you ask in an interview? • Or do the values of the teachers not matter as long as they meet the certification requirements.

8. Think about it…. Is this true? • “ Some children refuse to recite the pledge of allegiance or to sing the star spangled banner. Graffiti covers much of our national monuments and our statues of heroes. Children no longer honor their parents or respect their elders.”

9. Or… • Do the students being taught using traditional values learn conformity to authority? • Do traditional values deny independent thinking? • Does teaching children to be free thinkers create people that don’t have respect… or are the two not connected. • Or should we concentrate on specific values to teach the students.

10. How do we fix the lack of values in Education?