Morality: Can Our Schools Afford to do without it - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Through the phrase “separation of church and state” occurs nowhere in the U.S. Constitution, activist groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State have used campaigns of fear, intimidation, and misinformation with the threat of lawsuits to keep school districts from allowing any form of religion on their campuses. However, First- and Fourteenth- Amendment rights clearly allow all citizens, including students, the free exercise of their religion. However, the point to be made is not that schools should be teaching religion; it is that schools should not actively work to eradicate all aspects of religion from our public schools, including morality. Since public schools have done away Judeo-Christian morality, a dangerous climb in immorality and unaccountability rates has swept our nation. To curb this socially destructive tide, superintendants and principals need to reintroduce the teaching of moral absolutes to our schools in place of the politically correct doctrine of “tolerance” – a constantly evolving principle that says, “anything goes,” “if it feels good, do it,” and “there is no right and wrong.”
Eliminating morality from our public schools is a disservice to youth and the nation as a whole, as the secular teaching of so-called “tolerance” does little to protect students and lead them toward responsible and upright behavior. After biblical morality was shunned through the Supreme Court decision nearly five decades ago, a surge of violence began sweeping across the nation, as the adolescent arrest rate increased by 50 percent and adolescent weapons violations rose 108 percent from 1963 to 1993 (United States Census Bureau, Federal Bureau of Investigation). During this same period, the violent crime rate for the general public skyrocketed 363 percent (Ibid). When Judeo-Christian ethics were no longer welcomed in public schools, this ushered in a torrent of immoral behavior, as many students ceased to be instructed that they were accountable for their own actions and that the concepts of right and wrong were only subjective constructs that individuals made up in their own minds. Therefore, students have been given no basis for appropriate moral standards within the schools and, as a result, have looked toward the popular culture ? seen through Hollywood and the media ? to form their value systems. The mission of public schools is to not only to prepare students academically to be productive contributors to the economy; it is to build upright citizens that will edify society. This can only be done when superintendants realize that their faculty and staff must demonstrate and teach high moral standards to the student body. A sharp rise in irresponsible, reckless, and immoral sexual behavior also began after 1963. Sex only within the institution of marriage was quickly replaced with “free love” and situational ethics, where moral standards no longer applied to everyone, but were conveniently customized to accommodate individuals’ unbridled sexual appetites. As a result, unmarried birth rates escalated by 181 percent from 1963 to 2001 (United States Census Bureau, National Center for Health Statistics), as more and more children were being raised without a father, greatly increasing their likelihood of engaging in socially deviant behavior. And with the loosening morals, marriage was no longer a prerequisite for many couples to ...Download file to see next pagesRead More