Why isn't morality taught in schools?

Question

Many adults today say "Children today have no morals."

The things our children learn are a direct result of what we teach them. If we want them to have morals, maybe we should teach them in school. Surely it would be a better use of time than teaching them to finger paint, play kickball, and sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" in harmony.

Atheists will acknowledge that morality has nothing to do with religion, so the "seperation of church and state" should not be used as an excuse for keeping such a class out of public schools.

On the other hand, Christians and other theists seem resistant to discussing morality without the involvement of relgion. Is their reluctance to admit that morality can exist outside of religion the true reason morality is not taught in schools?

If Christians want to live in a society with both morality and "the seperation of church and state," then shouldn't they be willing to consider that fact that morality can be based on more than just faith?

Answer 1

I agree with you 100% ! Also would like for schools to teach basic life skills. Cost of living, high school grad. income compared to some collage incomes. Also the cost of raising a family. Just the real deal on life not a fluffy you all will be OK, as long as you do your homework attitude. I would love for schools to teach ALL religions so my children can make there own decision. I would support them what ever they chose or did not chose.

Answer 2

I took a morality class last year, my junior year of high school. By then, however, the kids already have their own morals instilled. Those who smoked and drank tried to justify their actions as being morally correct.
In a sense, teachers do try by teaching health class, but those don't go over too well, either. My first health class was in 8th grade, when kids usually start heading down whichever path interests them. My last health class ended just a few days ago, a semester-long class, taken only by juniors and seniors. And that solidified the "good" morals with those who held them and the people with "bad" morals just ignored the information.
But if parents don't know what they're kids are into, if they can't see, or choose to ignore, the signs, how is that a teacher's fault?
Morals have nothing to do with faith, both religious and non-religious, and I'm a theist. But teachers do not clothe, feed, and put parents' children to bed. So teachers should not be held responsible for being "unable" to teach morality.

Answer 3

taking faith completely out of it, teaching morals in school is still a bad idea. think of all the problems that it could raise.

first:whos morals will be taught? who gets to decide what morals are the ones that every child should learn.

each person has a different idea of what right and wrong are, and they also have differing opinions on moral issues.

some people think that drugs are ok/some dont, some people think that sex befor marriage is ok/some dont, some people think that a relationship with someone of the same sex is ok/some don't, do you see how many problems teaching morals in schools will cause.

there will never be a happy middle ground on this. and morals should be taught by each childs parent-this way no one can be offended that their child is taught something that they do not agree with. if a child is taught nothing by their parents then the parent has no one to blame but themselves, and society can look to the parent as to whom should answer for the childs short comings.

Answer 4

Yes , I agree Morality is based on more than Faith.
I've met dogs with more "morality" than some people I know.
Truth is,Morality is already "taught in the classroom" and Children are learning it everyday. So pick your teachers and the school environment wisely.
Parents are the ones who need to be involved in the teaching of morality at home and everyday life. Leaving the responsibility and /or education in general to the classroom teacher is wimping out.
I think perhaps we need to reexamine what is being "taught' without a formal lesson to children.
Children absorb every exchange they witness, they don't just learn as I said, in the classroom.

Children learn "morals" everyday if it's observing their parents handle a dispute at the grocery store , on the road driving habits or how issues are presented in the TV programming they sit opened mouthed and watch for endless hours.

Church, State or Atheist neighbor "guy" children don't draw the lines - THEY WATCH them being crossed!...and "learn" the moral to our stories.

Answer 5

No, I won't agree that morality has nothing to do with religion. There is no absolute morality. My moral code has nothing to do with religion, but many other people's moral codes are based on religion.

School is not the place to be teaching morals. It also shouldn't have to teach kids to stay away from strangers, not post personal information online, not to pet strange dogs, and about sex. However, we DO have to teach these things because parents often don't. The parents should teach these things. And I really don't want a school teaching my child morality.

Answer 6

I am a teacher. Ironically, thanks to Bush's No Child Left Behind, I don't really have time to teach morals other than enforcing certain standards of behavior and modelling those standards for my students. But then, that's really how morality has always been taught.

Art, physical education, and music are required parts of my state's curriculum, designed under the NCLB laws. "Morals" are not.

It is the job of the PARENT, and not the teacher, to explicitly teach morals to the child.

In any case it is NOT true that children today don't have morals. They just have different ones. In some cases this is bad (desensitization to violence, acceptance of bad language, etc.) In other ways it is good; there is a greater acceptance of diverse lifestyles/cultures/religions, for instance. My grandparents called black people "colored." My students don't even notice skin color differences. Who has the "better" morals?

For the record, I am a Wiccan.

Answer 7

I think you're probably right that the discomfort Christians feel about the existence of morality without religion is one of the main reasons it is not taught in schools. And then there is the problem that Christians don't always agree on what is moral and what is not. But unfortunately, children only listen to what they hear in school to a limited extent. I certainly don't think it would hurt to teach morality in the schools, but if they don't see it at home, it won't make much of an impression.

Answer 8

Ok you take 35-50 kids in 45 minutes and YOU teach them reading, writing, arithmatic AND morals --oh and God FORBID if a teacher teaches something a particular parent does NOT believe in....... teachers have ENOUGH to do and PARENTS just keep trying to pass off the responsibilities of BEING a parent on ANYONE ELSE........ So many people today WITH CHILDREN are so "BUSY" with work, garden club, bowling, card night, whatever that they spend a lot of quality time passing their kids around and not even getting to KNOW them let alone TEACH them anything.......A good parent knows what his or her child is up to, who is friends are AND tries to instill morals AND manners into their OWN children...spend some time with your CHILDREN.... they don't stay children for long, the more time you spend WITH them, the better behaved the child will be and the more stable an ADULT it will become....Let the teachers in our schools stick to SCHOOL subjects, it's bad enough now that they have to teach SEX education because parents are too damn LAZY to take the time with their OWN KIDS.... hope you feel mighty guilty now, because if you don't, you will when your kids are in their 30's and could care less about YOU!!!!

Answer 9

I believe that everyone has different morals. That what one person sees as being extremely important for their child to learn won't be the same for the next person. "Kids have no morals these days"...Everything that a child does is a reflection on the parent.When a child shows no signs of morals it is most likely that the parent doesn't either.From a very young age,even before school, a child looks to their parents to see how to act. So if any action needs to be taken(And I believe that it should) I believe that parents need to be more involved with their children and more consious of the message they are sending thier children in everything that they do.We are thier role models and no matter what you tell them they are going to grow up and do what they have seen. The responsibility of the school system is to educate our children in reading, writting, arithmatic, and so fourth. It is not their responsibility to teach them what is morally acceptable in our comunities.

Answer 10

I totally agree that morality should be taught- however like GOD it has been taken out of the school agenda- however really God cannot be taken out , because He is the only One that will last forever. HALLELUJAH- but for the answer to this question- how many parents are teaching their kids right from wrong today? We cannot expect a teacher to raise our children. There are absolute truths in the world, and that needs to start at home