Is society greedy and violent because we don't have lessons in schools to teach otherwise?

Question

Children spend the main chunk of their lives in school, our society just becomes more and more money driven (at the expense of the minority) and violent, especially amongst the young people.

I think it would be a really good idea to teach children in school ethics, morals, good over evil, and the personal rewards you receive from kindness and helping others.

If these sort of moral teachings began to be given as much focus as for example, maths and english, perhaps we would be on our way to buiding a more peaceful, happier society. What do you think of this idea?

Answer 1

you can go through 10-15 years of schooling and never get a single lesson on responsibility.

10-15 YEARS!!!

and not one single hour on responsibility.

No wonder we have the social problems and the inability to accept responsibility.

People fall in the street, its the streets fault, lets make a claim.

A burglar will rob your house, but it wasnt his fault, he needed the money, it was his upbringing, he had a hard childhood, drugs made him do it.

A person gets a job, within weeks they learn how to scive off.  Their company is taking the mick out of them,  lets make a claim against the company for stress.

A person has a bump in his car, it wasnt thier fault, it was the other person.  Its ALWAYS the other person.

Nobody takes responsibility for anything.

I would love to hear any of the people in the examples above say;

I DID THAT.  NOBODY MADE ME DO IT.  I DID IT MYSELF.

if people took reponsibility society would gain big time.

The first step is to admit fully your part, e.g.

1.  I burgled your house, i am responsible.  I have seen the impact on your family, and will get help never to do this again.

2.  I hit your car, I was moving to fast or got too close or didnt see you.  I will contact my insurance and explain.

3.  I am struggling with this job, I over-estimated my abilities,  I will take extra training.

4. I fell in the street, I wasnt looking and taking proper care.  It was not the streets fault or the council, it was mine.  The surface was uneven and I did not take proper care.

NOBODY EVER DOES THAT, If they did, society would look out more for each other.  

(and financial compensation should become against the law,  if your genuinely hurt, then you could be compensated in other ways, not financial, lets take that incentive to claim away)

For example, you hurt your foot because of a defective shoe, have physiotherapy vouchers, no money, if it means your off work, tough, thems the breaks.  Be more careful next time.  There's far bigger problems in the world.

Responsibility should be taught at every stage of school life, like maths and english.

Answer 2

In the past, the church and religion were associated with upholding and teaching morality and ethics. In today's secular society, they are held up for ridicule and attacked for attempting to speak out. As a result, whatever the church and religion stood for have slowly, but surely, gone the same way, including morals. At home, many children observe that their parents do not respect authority and the moral law. Our leaders commit adultery and fleece themselves with alacrity and declare war on nations that turned out to have done us very little wrong in a fit of geo-poltical rage. Whatever you teach them in the classroom will fall on deaf ears until we show them a better example.

Answer 3

Don't greed and violence begin at home?

Answer 4

I don't think lessons in school or their absence it is to blame. In some places lessons are there, and have been for some time. However, society's greed is still evident. I believe moral lessons start at home. If there is no grooming on moral sciences at home, even if the ethics are taught at school they will be effective.

The greed and impatience we see in society is due to the pressure of children to achieve the failed aspirations of their parents. Our parents did it to us, and we are doing it to our children. Pressurising children to go beyond isn't evil in its self, we just need to instill in them the value of winning, but NOT at any cost.

Answer 5

You must not be a teacher, perhaps a parent who doesn't spend that much time with their children???  Teachers spend all of their time with children to teach them not only curriculum that is mandated, but also character education.  I cannot tell you how easy it is to tell which students have parents that are involved involved - the 1st week of school!!! Parenets that complain are the  ones that expect their child's teacher to raise them!  Some parents need to take more action and spend more time with their kids.  I am a teacher and I am tired of looking for ways to get parents involved with their child's learning. By the way, values start in the home, not in school.  By the time your child gets to school a basis has already been established.

Answer 6

parents and the school.  I don't mean to sound old im only 30 but there is not respect these days ! god i sound like my Dad !!!! ahhhhh but its true

Answer 7

watch more barney

Answer 8

Yes.  What happened to religious education???

Answer 9

Bad idea. Parents should teach morals.

Schools should really just concentrate on good education.

Teachers should concentrate on good teaching not becoming parents to their pupils.

Answer 10

But lots of the children who are part of gangs and such drop out of school at a very early age

Answer 11

WHOA, you are going to get a lot of riff from the teachers here!!

They ALL say it's the parents responsibility for this, and it is TRUE.

BUT, it is the SCHOOLS responsibility for this when the children are in their care.

Because of the NCLB law, gone are the days of schools discliplining the kids because if they did, they would not get money from NCLB.

I read about SO MANY teachers on here and other sites on the internet that are desperately asking for help because they CAN"T dislcipline the kids, becuase the ADMINISTRATORS won't back them up and make the kids behave.

The Administrators know about the NCLB law, but most teachers don't. ANd they can't understand why they don't back them up.

Another reason is that schools are afraid of parents suing them if they disclipline their child. This is crazy for parents to be this way.

Oh yea, the NCLB law mandates what schools teach, and as long as character, morals, etc is not what they mandate, it will NEVER HAPPEN.

It is both the parents AND the schools fault.

Why do you think there is so much bullying, fighting and KILLING going on in schools?

What kid WOULDN"T  be bad in school when they know they will NOT get in trouble for it! They KNOW that the school is not going to disclipline them.

Just like teachers wanting the parents to 'back them up' and be involved in their education, parents expect the same of the teachers, to 'back them up' with the disclipline part.

(the GOOD parents, that is)

And this DOES NOT HAPPEN!!!

When the bible and God was taken out of school, it all went downhill from there. NO ONE can deny that.

Answer 12

Well, schools used to teach that...and then it was declared "unconstitutional" to teach anything that vaguely "smacked" of religion, so the school system went so far in the opposite direction that all morals went out the window as well.  

I think that schools should teach ethics, and that morals should be exemplified, but honestly, how would this be done?  This would first require that every single teacher be an ethical, moral person.  This isn't going to happen.  I appreciate teachers, I support teachers, and I'm a teacher's kid - but I grew up around the system and I know as well as anyone that there are teachers who shouldn't be teaching and teachers whose sense of morals and ethics vary greatly from mine.

Next, we have to agree on which set of morals and ethics should be taught.  There are teachers out there who teach that a child shouldn't give one hint of their religious beliefs in their behavior for fear of "offending" someone else.  There are teachers who teach children that what their parents teach them (about politics, about homosexuality, abortion, or any other controversial subject) isn't true because it doesn't fit the bill of "tolerance".  There are teachers who accept their students' immoral actions as normal, simply because of their students' age.  I'm not saying that all teachers do this, by any means, but how are we supposed to teach morals and ethics when there is very little agreement even among teachers?

I think that it goes way beyond the schools - I think that it requires a societal shift.  I do think that it would be a good idea, I just wonder how it would be accomplished.  We've gone so far from teaching these things over the past 40 years or so that now we have two full generations of people who would firmly hold the view that it's not the school's job or right to do so.  Our society has embraced a view that morals and ethics are not absolute in any way, shape, or form, and that "what's right for me may not be right for you".  If there was a way to overcome this, I'd be all for teaching these things in school.

Until then, I as a parent will take the responsibility to teach them to my child and to work with him in every day life, teaching him to apply and live what he learns.

JMHO...