Why dont schools teach morals an ethics in elementary schools ?

Question

I know they teach them in some high schools, but i read in a book ''walden two'' utopia society book , that ppl finish learning morals an ethics after 7 years old , i think thats what i read

Answer 1

The pre-school that I was fortunate enough to have been a part of in Minneapolis, MN did.

The Lead Teacher and myself (Assistant Teacher), took the time to make sure our children practiced etiquette/ethics frequently. You would be surprised how impressionable and teachable children are on these two subjects at this age.

It worked excellent!!

Answer 2

First off you can NOT teach morality and ethics to an elementary student. Children do not pop out the womb ready to take on all of life's issues, which is why we protect them until at least age sixteen (in most states and countries). But don't kid yourself schools do enforce behavioral expectations on the young. Prior to the 1980's these behaviors were reported home to the parents as an added column on the report card. That practice was dropped when the religious right swept into politics in a big fashion. They had this great fear the Secular Humanist were going to corrupt America's youth with their values clarification programs. It became a church verses state issue.

What is interesting to note here is the toy and food industry noted the change and leaped right in with a cartoon characters who teach morality for five minutes and endorse product lines for another three. Ever heard of Ronald McDonald or Joe Camel? Joe was yanked because it was decided encouraging kids to smoke wasn't such a hot idea. And Ronald is currently attack by those now worried we are bringing up a generation of nutritionally deprived kids. Joe and Ronald I am sorry to report are only two of the many such cartoon characters currently indoctrinating our young. But that's okay, because CEO's are not secular humanists. Morals tend to get in the way of making money.

Answer 3

It is the resposibility of the parents to teach morals and ethics to their children. If the elementary schools should try this, it surely would open up more reason for some parents to sue the school system - regardless of the probable benefit.

Answer 4

It's up to the child's parents to teach morals and ethics. As a teacher, I'm tired of not only having to teach my subject, but also be a surrogate parent and teach someone else's children what should certainlly be taught at home. Parents need to take a much more active roll in their children's upbringing instead of leaving it to strangers, and if the child has problems later in life, blaming everyone but themselves for not helping the child.

Sorry about getting on my soapbox, but this is a pet peeve of mine. It's difficult enough to teach science to 40 6th graders in 45 minutes, when we have to do everyone else's jobs too!

Answer 5

You mean yours did not?

My grade school teachers certainly took the opportunity to teach little lessons in morality/ethics when it came up.

Children that young, and younger, mostly listen to their parents more than strangers. In fact, prior to grade school they probably listen to their parents more than their friends (shocking).

People's sense of ethics and morality generally develops into their teens, which is when their "super ego" - which is their feeling of responsibility for a group (e.g. their country, humanity, their criminal gang) usually develops.

At a younger age, a little child's sense of morality is more focussed on what he has to do that is right or wrong, and not to get "in trouble" himself. As they get older, they get more concerned with others than little children are. This is probably somewhat obvious. If our nations and countries and churches and companies were run by little eight year olds, think of what a world of trouble we would all be in!

It is not just intellectual capacity, knowledge, coordination, strength, size, skills, and personal contacts that a person gains after the age of seven years. Not by a long shot!

That is the reason that the right to marry, enlist in the military, drink alcohol, buy firearms, drive vehicles, run for office, sign their own contracts, and so forth.

The Wall Street Journal writes its articles at a 5th grade reading level, for instance. But you will not see many ten year olds sitting as the CEO of a corporation. Even if they had someone telling them the relevant business principles and managing the mechanics of the business, they stiill would not be a very trustworthy steward of a company at that point.

Ethics and morality are not fully developed at that age. If a person stops developing them that young for some reason, their ability to do lots of things is going to be pretty stunted.

Answer 6

The schools are tired of being overwelmed by kids that just aren't trained at home. The parents now have little control of their children because the government has made impossible to woop that a--. when necessary without going to jail. There is a difference between teaching your child moral and abusing them. some don't know when to stop.

Answer 7

Whose morals? Whose ethics?

Problem is, what you consider to be moral might be considered by me or someone else to be immoral. For example, some believe we should tolerate gays, and not doing so is immoral. Others believe the exact opposite. So whose version of morality should we teach?

And my district's elementary school (a public one) does teach "the six pillars of character", stuff like responsibility and respect, things most would agree on 99% of the time.

Answer 8

It used to be done. Then in the sixties many people turned away from long term and nearly universally accepted morals and ethics. They hated the thought that people would judge them for their lack of morals so they did everything they could to make people believe that the only immoral act was to judge another person as being immoral!

This line of thinking gradually pervaded our educational system.

Answer 9

Parents would sue the schools, and who would decide what ethics are to be taught.

Ethics isn't taught in American schools until the students are old enough to understand that what is being taught is just a set of opinions to be discussed and thought about.

Of course I'd like to see a simple set of manners taught in pre-school or elementary

Answer 10

Probably because any time a teacher wants to teach moral and ethics, someone cries "foul." Sadly, not everyone agrees on the same morals and ethics.

Math and English are supposed to be more objective, and therefore not objectionable.

Answer 11

SCHOOL, my foot, teaching morals and ethics should and MUST be taught in the home, that's a parents job, NO duty to teach their children morals and ethics