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Teaching morals young
Teaching kids the right and wrongs in life goes beyond the classroom
by Tania Garcia on November 26
Teaching kids at a young age ethical choice making is more crucial than it may seem. In the “2012 Josephson Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth” around 57% of teens stated that successful people do what they have to do to win, even if it involves cheating. These alarming numbers showing a sort of normality on this view of morally grey choice making. Many believe that schools should stay “value-neutral”, allowing kids to go unchecked in an environment that is meant to nurture them. The fear of teaching kids more religious-based beliefs in this political climate is fair but isn’t the only form of building these young minds moral compass. As a previous student of the public school system, I think back on my peers and I that had busy parents and relied on their teachers and other peers to understand the weight of our decisions. Especially in a time were more than 50%* of American households have both parents employed, many parents may rely on after school programs and the school’s curriculum to be able to educate their children on a general idea of what to do when confronted with a moral dilemma. Morality and ethical choice making is a crucial point to allow us to navigate the world as decent human beings. The goal is to build an understanding of such at home but when put in an environment for more than 7+ hours it is up to the school to curate a better environment for us students to better understand social norms. The goal isn’t to create the “perfect” citizen, to make someone compliant or robot like, but to plant a seed of compassion in a student’s mind. 
Source: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm
by U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS on April 21, 2021
2012 Report card on the Ethics of American Youth
by Josephson Institute on 2012
Source: https://charactercounts.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ReportCard-2012-DataTables.pdf 
ENG 1101
