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Specific Moral Issues in Education for Consideration

• Violence and Disrespect for Personal Properties.

School violence such as those that happened at Columbine High School in Colorado became the wake-up call for the American people in terms of recognizing that American teens are in trouble. While the factors that contributed to school violence is a complex one, in addition to a better system in weapon control, most experts are in agreement that American teens are in trouble because the American family is in trouble. There has been gross neglect by parents for their children as family lives become busier and busier. The bottom line seems to be that parents are not getting along with each other and that teen violence is just the reflection of conflicts between parents that teens have witnessed and identified with. Teens who suffer serious emotional, sexual and physical abuses, will psychologically project these pains on others. No matter how much moral education a school will teach to the students, as long as their parents are still fighting and divorcing, school violence will not go away. Many experts claimed that they have already predicted these violence trends years ago as they warned America of the result of family dissolutions. This issue will continue to be a nagging problem for American schools. Already, schools are becoming the least safe public areas in America, where police and security personnel are placed in-house and metal detectors are common sights as one enters a school.

Vandalism of public property is common in the inner cities of America. Graffiti on private or public property is also common in most communities. Littering, profanities, irresponsible driving, parking and spitting are common scenes now in most urban cities where they were rare in the seventies.

• Abuse and Misuse of the Computer.

The computer age has given everyone a lot of modern day high-tech conveniences. Students can use the web to research school projects and stay connected with friends and families all over the world.

Without adequate parental love and supervision, students crave emotional and social connection, not only do they become socially dependent and thus socially conforming, there is a need to stay connected socially even at home. The computer chat-rooms provide a place where teens can get their social needs met. In these conversation stations of instant messaging and email, pedophiles hook many teens and these needy adolescents eventually become victims to their own vulnerabilities. Many parents do not know how deeply their teens have gotten into these relationships until a strange man shows up at their door or when their teen was lured to see a stranger at an airport.

Pornography is another area where teenage boys get hooked early on while searching the web for something "exciting." Referral of different sites from their friends by way of email is also very prevalent. This leads eventually to the further degradation of women as well as the perpetuation of sex crimes when a psychologically disturbed teenager grows up under the daily influence of these web sites.

• Religious Liberties.

While outside religious organizations are not allowed on school grounds, teacher-student led groups can meet in schools. Most conservative education leaders seem to agree that Christian religion has been singled out with unequal treatment. For example, the Ten Commandments from the Bible were not allowed to be displayed on school grounds, while items of other religions do not get similar treatment. While pictures, creeds and statues of other religions, such as the Dalai Lama, Gandhi and Buddha are in vogue in schools now. There is a double standard in the enforcement for religious freedom. During graduation, student-led prayer is not allow nor the use of the word "God" in the speeches of student representatives. Students, who hand-in papers about their Christian religious tradition or research are harassed, censored and downgraded. There are currently lawsuits filed on behalf of these students on the ground of religious discrimination.

• Sexuality.

As part of the curriculum on diversity and sex education, youths as young as fourteen to fifteen year-old are taught specific sex education; they are taught how to have sex and how to have homosexual sex. Specific homosexual sexual techniques are taught in the guise of "safe-sex" education together with condom demonstration and various forms of contraception. In New York one summer several years ago, it was told that a high school administrator handed out free condoms and asked the students to "have a good summer!" This administrator was later fired from the job. A former U.S. surgeon general was recommending youths be taught how to masturbate, she was also fired from her job after that.

Abortion is accepted as the norm for teenage pregnancies and there is no informed consent given to the student. Parental permission is not required for a child to obtain contraception from school clinics or to obtain an abortion. These are under the "privacy" protection of the child. On the other hand, when a student needs medication during class, parental consent is required. Even for ear piercing in a shopping mall in America, parental consent is required. There is an implicit message given to the students, that is, as long as it has to do with sexuality, you are free to do what you want and your feelings define what you want and who you are.

Homosexuality is another moral issue that public schools take a liberal stand on. Many believe the schools promote homosexuality instead of just teaching it as a variant form of sexuality. Most teachers encourage the identity of homosexuality because it is considered an "enlightened" position. There are clubs promoting homosexuality and to help students "come out" to declare and accept publicly that they are homosexuals. Most experts in the field, in the area of Gender Identity Disorder believe it is too early for a teen to decide if they are homosexual or not.

Feminism was implicitly or explicitly taught for many decades in the school system. The version of feminism taught is generally considered a "radical" or "militant" version of feminism, where it is beyond equality between the sexes. The idea of feminism is an important and valid one since men and women are of equal worth under the Constitutions, which was based on the Christian doctrine that a just God created humankind with equal respect for each other. Radical feminism uses a competitive attitude where men should be subservient to women because they have historically oppressed women. They believe that men are not as worthy as women and they should be ignored. The advancement of this militant version of feminism requires women get into the professions that are traditionally masculine, such as fire-fighting, the military, construction and law-enforcement in order to feel "fair." Thus falling into the fallacy of making women into men in order to achieve equality. Traditional marriage and mother role is frowned upon as the oppressive ways of how women are controlled. Cohabitation and casual sexual relationships are becoming more and more the norms with teens. Network television programs on alternate family life-styles further reinforce this giving the students an erroneous impression of equality and blur the gender boundary lines resulting in gender-confused girls in schools.

Teenagers, resulting from the lack of education on the complexities of relationships and social life have become more and more confused with their emotions. Many have been overwhelmed by their hurts and pains resulting from relationship breakups that should have happened when they are much older. This will continue to become the American plague that infects students in the United States for the near future if nothing is done to address this.

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A Future View of Moral Education in the United States

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Introduction &
The Early American Settlers

Early American Leaders and the Resources of Moral Values

American Educational System Now and Then

Moral Education in the Public Schools in the United States

Failure of Moral Education in the Public Schools in the Post-Modern Era

Specific Moral Issues in Education for Consideration

A Future View of Moral Education in the United States

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