11-15-2005, 09:14 PM
Hi,
Secular schools should indeed teach no more than "subjects such as math, grammar, and history". Moral values should come from the family, from the community, if applicable from the church. And social skills should be developed by social interactions, both with the child's peers and with adults, so that equality and respect are both fostered.
And that other set of skills, so necessary for a working republic, should be learned from the playing fields. Fair play, sportsmanship, respect for effort, for teammates and for opponents learned by practice. However, this venue has been clogged, almost destroyed, by those to whom competition means hatred, striving to win justifies any form of cheating, the rules are to be exploited, bent, broken. Indeed, if Socrates was justified in drinking the cup of hemlock for leading the youth of Athens astray, then there is not enough hemlock in the world for the all professional athletes who have done much worse.
But, back to your point of teaching morality in school. Even if we, as a society, decided to attempt to do so, it would involve starting school much sooner. Apparently, we absorb morality as we absorb language, at a young age, and to a large extent, our fundamental moral structure is very much in place by age seven or so. If the parents have failed, working as they were with a malleable medium, can we reasonably expect the schools to repair the damage once it has calcified?
--Pete
MEAT,Nov 13 2005, 08:24 PM Wrote:On the test, the question of teaching our children religion in schools appeared. I strongly feel that teaching religion in school is not okay, however I'm torn in my answer because I also strongly think our society (the worlds) needs to teach MORALITY to our children in school! Why is it our systems are made to educate the pre-college children on subjects such as math, grammar, and history but leaves out important social and moral teachings such as interpersonal communication and meditation (self-evaluation)?[right][snapback]94713[/snapback][/right]I think you are falling into the modern trap of thinking that all we learn, we learn in school. This raises an impossible expectation of the school system, especially in that there are so many conflicting points in moral codes.
Secular schools should indeed teach no more than "subjects such as math, grammar, and history". Moral values should come from the family, from the community, if applicable from the church. And social skills should be developed by social interactions, both with the child's peers and with adults, so that equality and respect are both fostered.
And that other set of skills, so necessary for a working republic, should be learned from the playing fields. Fair play, sportsmanship, respect for effort, for teammates and for opponents learned by practice. However, this venue has been clogged, almost destroyed, by those to whom competition means hatred, striving to win justifies any form of cheating, the rules are to be exploited, bent, broken. Indeed, if Socrates was justified in drinking the cup of hemlock for leading the youth of Athens astray, then there is not enough hemlock in the world for the all professional athletes who have done much worse.
But, back to your point of teaching morality in school. Even if we, as a society, decided to attempt to do so, it would involve starting school much sooner. Apparently, we absorb morality as we absorb language, at a young age, and to a large extent, our fundamental moral structure is very much in place by age seven or so. If the parents have failed, working as they were with a malleable medium, can we reasonably expect the schools to repair the damage once it has calcified?
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?