How Public Schools Assault Parents Values

Is there anything wrong with lying, cheating, stealing, shop-lifting, taking drugs, premarital sex, insulting your parents, pornography, irresponsibility, or getting pregnant in junior high school? Not according to the values taught to children in many public schools today.

From the earliest times in America, teachers have believed that schools should teach moral values. What good is a child who knows when Columbus discovered America but can't tell right from wrong? The most popular reading instruction books in the nineteenth century were the "McGuffy Readers," which taught children to read through stories of increasing complexity.

Each story also taught children a moral lesson about values such as honesty, hard work, integrity, perseverance, compassion, obedience to parents, respect for others' rights, and indi-vidual responsibility. Up to the 1930s, most schools in America reinforced the Judeo-Christian values most parents taught their children at home.

Today, many school authorities seem to have contempt for religion and traditional moral values. They force children to endure years of "values clarification" classes, which teach children that all moral values are subjective and meaningless. Many teacher-facilitators, as some now prefer to call themselves, teach kids that whatever feels good at the moment or whatever the group considers acceptable is a "good" value.

Most parents, when asked in surveys, say they want schools to teach their children such traditional Western values as honesty, hard work, integrity, justice, self control, responsibility, respect for parents, and fidelity in marriage. Unfortunately, those values are not what most public schools teach.

Values-clarification programs often pretend to teach children real values to pacify parents, but textbooks used in values-clarification classes often censor or distort traditional family and religious values.

Dr. Paul Vitz did a study on these textbooks, funded by the National Institute of Education.Vitz discovered that traditional family and Judeo-Christian values had been eliminated from children's textbooks. He studied forty social studies textbooks used by first to fourth-grade public-school students and found no mention of the words "marriage," "wedding," "husband," or "wife." These textbooks commonly defined a "family" simply as a group of people.

Values clarification (sometimes now called "character education" or other names, depending on the public school)differs radically from traditional moral codes because it claims that children do not need established values to make moral choices. Values clarification teachers don't care which values children choose because in their view all values are subjective. The right value, they assert, depends on the situation and the individual -- a value is good if it "works" for a particular child at a particular time.

To many values clarification teacher-facilitators, cheating, lying, stealing, or having casual sex with other students are not bad acts in themselves. Such actions are just unfortunate choices that students make, depending on circumstances and personality traits, out of many alternative moral choices. Abiding by the Ten Commandments is merely one such option.

Values clarification classes deliberately teach children to be nonjudgmental about moral values. Values-clarification debates often turn into "bull" sessions where each student gives their opinion about a moral issue but conclusions are never reached. In these classes, the teacher-facilitator often acts like a talk-show host who gets the students to debate such topics as the merits or bad consequences of stealing, lying, pre-marital sex, or taking drugs.

In sex-education classes, sexual behavior is often described in purely mechanical terms and sexual choices are presented as morally neutral options or simply personal preferences each student has to decide for themselves. Similarly, in many drug-education programs the same non-judgemental attitude often prevails -- students are encouraged to talk about the good and bad consequences of taking drugs without reaching a clear moral conclusion.

Many public schools teach children that only self gratification and their feelings of the moment matter, that there are no moral absolutes. Admittedly, some parents are to blame for not teaching their children good ethical values, but values clarification programs are an assault on the time-tested values most parents teach their children.

Since ancient times, all societies have known that certain acts are inherently wrong and immoral. This knowledge became embedded in a cultural or religious moral code, which recognized that human beings must respect each other's person and property. Judaism and Christianity, for example, teach that lying, stealing, or murdering another human being is wrong, not only because they're prohibited by the Ten Commandments, but because they are inherently unjust to other human beings.

With rare exceptions, such as killing in self-defense, the morality of these basic values seldom depends on the situation or the individual. All of us are born with the same rights to life, liberty, and property. Respect for each other's rights and person simply reflects this fact of life.

Because values clarification programs teach children that all values are subjective, they destroy real values and corrupt children at the deepest level. If all values are subjective, there is no moral difference between mercy and murder, honesty and theft, sexual consent and rape, loyalty and treachery, or fidelity and adultery.

In a world where anything goes, children are turned into amoral creatures who will do anything to satisfy their momentary desires. Yet these are the insidious moral anti-values that many public schools now promote with values-clarification classes.

Joel Turtel is an education policy analyst, and author of "Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children."

Contact Information:
Website: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com,
Email: lbooksusa@aol.com,
Phone: 718-447-7348.

Article Copyrighted © 2005 by Joel Turtel
NOTE: You may post this Article on an Ezine, newsletter, or other website only if you include Joel Turtel's complete contact information, and set up a hyperlink to Joel Turtel's email address and website URL, http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com

New York Times
The Parenting Vote
New York Times, United States - Oct 10, 2008
By Lisa Belkin Ask people with children what most shapes their worldview, and being a parent would likely be high on the list. ...

The Grand Rapids Press - MLive.com
Conference, author offer parenting help
The Grand Rapids Press - MLive.com, MI - 6 hours ago
by Morgan Jarema | The Grand Rapids Press GRAND RAPIDS -- When parents tell her it's tough raising children in today's world, the Rev. ...

Toy Tips and Parenting Hints Magazine and Saige Nicole’s Baby Boutique
PRarticle.com (press release), Canada - 9 hours ago
Toy Tips and Parenting Hints magazine and SaigeNicoles.com baby boutique team up to introduce “I’ma Toy Tester� layette clothing just in time for the ...

Proud Parenting
DHS to drop ban on foster parenting by unwed couples
Arkansas News, AR - Oct 10, 2008
"Everyone we've talked to in the foster care system, whether it's the workers at DCFS (the Division of Children and Family Services), whether it's parents, ...
Family Council: DHS Policy Change Suspicious The Morning News
Arkansas to drop ban on foster parenting China Post
It's about the kids Arkansas Times
Arkansas Timesall 197 news articles

San Francisco Chronicle
Your parenting happy place
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA - Oct 9, 2008
When the bad times come, one thing I do to keep from getting out-of-control upset is remember one of my parenting happy places. I have maybe five or six of ...

Give mom some parenting books
BlueRidgeNow.com, NC - Oct 10, 2008
If you are friends with Mom and see Lindsay only in her company, we recommend you find some parenting books and give them to Mom as a Christmas gift, ...
Quentin must want to stop BlueRidgeNow.com
all 9 news articles

ABC News
New car technology to aid parenting skills
Great Dad, California - Oct 8, 2008
There’s also a low-fuel warning which kicks in at 75 miles to empty - in case your children ignore your wise parenting advice and spend more time reveling ...
Parenting and technology — is it protection or control? Minot Daily News
MyKey Turns Your Ford Focus into Your Mom PC World
Parents to control how fast children drive Telegraph.co.uk
TechRadar.com - New York Timesall 905 news articles

Parenting video series begins this Sunday
Charles City Press,  United States - Oct 10, 2008
A great parenting resource is being offered to interested families in Charles City. The first five segments of the video series, “Shepherding a Child’s ...

Calgary Herald
Parenting books you can't live without
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA - Oct 8, 2008
In my bedroom there is a bookshelf where I've kept parenting-related books I've collected over the years, and I realized recently it's time to get rid of ...
A kinder way to discipline kids Calgary Herald
all 4 news articles

Durham News
Mothers welcome group's expertise
Durham News, NC - 14 hours ago
A volunteer probably came to your room and handed you a packet explaining the group's many free resources: parenting classes, clothing, discounted car seats ...

STOP Parental Alienation Syndrome before It Gets a Chance to START

Parental Alienation Syndrome was probably first identified and codified by Dr. Richard Gardner in his... Read More

Parenting Secrets Revealed

So your little Susie wants to join a competitive gymnastic club? You conclude that this... Read More

Friendships - Helping Children Develop Friendship Skills

Reasearch into children's friendships shows that those children who are able to form friendships when... Read More

While You Have the Time, Take the Time

Here in Kansas, where we live, the leaves are turning beautiful shades and falling off... Read More

Promoting Your Childs Motor Development

Assuming there are no serious motor problems present, what can you, as an involved parent,... Read More

Diet Sodas And How They Can Affect Kids

Many of us have grown up drinking caffeinated diet sodas as an alternative to sugary... Read More

Can Mineral Deficiencies Lead to Behavioral Problems in Children?

A while ago I received this story from David in England, who wrote: I... Read More

Mom vs. Dad: Navigating Parenting Differences With All Good Intentions

Let's face it: raising children can be quite the adventure. Rewarding at one turn, challenging... Read More

Teaching Kids to Read

We are all so very happy to see that the First Lady has made reading... Read More

Creating Great Birthday Party Videos

My son recently had his third birthday party and it was mayhem. There were kids... Read More