Character Education

There has been a lot of talk lately about the importance of teaching values in the classroom. Values are characteristics such as honesty, kindness, hard work, and integrity. The classroom should not be responsible to make sure these ideas are taught. Schools should support these values, but they should not be held responsible to teach them. It is up to the parents to decide what values should be taught. This is the parent’s job and right.

One reason is that the schools do not have time to teach all of the necessary values. Teachers barely have enough time to teach the subjects and topics they are already responsible for teaching. How would the schools decide which values to teach? There would be teachers who disagree with parents on what to teach.

Another reason is that there isn’t enough money to take on this job. School budgets are already stretched too thin. Schools do not have the resources to teach values adequately. Students need consistent modeling and instruction on these life skills. Let the schools support these values but focus on the curriculum.