Will the Government Mandate Marriage so Childrens' Educational Outcomes are Enhanced?

For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage...

Does it Matter for the Children?

From the NY Times: Reviewing the academic literature, Susan L. Brown of Bowling Green State University recently found that children born to married couples, on average, “experience better education, social, cognitive and behavioral outcomes.” 

Can and/or should the government mandate that children born must be to married couples, then, for better educational outcomes? 

If there  are mandates on student personal behavior taught in school (healthy eating stressed and food controlled by adults, physical activity data tracked, sexual education introduced in kindergarten) then why not mandate parental behavior to help ensure a child's outcome in society?  Would it be labeled "Character Education for Adults"?  

Then again, that might involve a judgment in adult choices...but don't we make that judgment when smoking legislation is adopted for private businesses?  "No Smoking" is for the "good for society" and those affected by second hand smoke.  Aren't children educated for the "good for society" and affected by poor choices of their parents as well? 

The Danger of Teaching Character Education in Schools

A school district in Hawaii is implementing character training for three year old children to improve the quality of  education.  From Psych Central:

“Improved social and character skills leave more time for teachers to teach, and students to learn and be more motivated,” said Brian Flay, an OSU professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences. “What we’re finding now is that we can really address some of the concerns in our schools by focusing more on character in the classroom.


“These are not new concepts — they’re the kind of things that have always been discussed in families, church and social groups,” he continued. “A third-grade lesson, for instance, might be helping kids to understand how other people feel, to learn about empathy. That may seem simple, but in terms of educational performance, it’s important.”


Past policies to curtail substance abuse, violent behavior and other problems have shown only limited results, researchers said in the study, in part because they don’t address underlying issues such as a student’s sense of self and social attachment.
 
On its face it sounds fabulous.  Students who practice social skills fare better on testing and in life.  That's  common sense.  Parents, social groups and schools (noted above) are primarily responsible to instill social skills into their children, not the schools.  The rights and responsibilities of parents are to train their child in their values without interference from the state.

Let's look at character education training gone wild when those basic rights and responsibilities of parents are superseded by schools.  From Althouse:

The schoolgirls have "meltdowns" when mom packs the lunch in ziploc bags.

Because the girls "don't want to be shamed" at school.

Because enviromentalism is the religion taught in public schools, and it's the kind of religion done with shaming young people.

But also:

1. Some people wash and reuse ziploc bags. So don't presume you know that the ziploc-user is an enviro-sinner.

2. Kiddies, if you are old enough to understand environmentalism and to pressure your mother with it, you are old enough to pack your own lunch. And if you're so hot on being saintly, start helping your mother, not making her life any harder.  

I'm thinking Ann Althouse has more common sense than the character educators in these politically correct schools.

HEY!  TEACHERS!  LEAVE THESE KIDS ALONE!  It's the parent's job to impart character education.  You have a problem with the kid?  Start with the parent.  The best advice to schools (paraphrased from above) and its role in character education for students:

...if you're so hot on being saintly, start helping (the) mother, not making her life any harder.

 

Utopian Collectivism in St. Louis area schools. Find out if Your Human Capital is Learning to Minimize His/Her Individuality.

Do you remember a previous posting on this site about the Rockwood School District and other area districts in the St. Louis area teaching morals in the classroom? We were concerned about Dr. Marvin Berkowitz's being hired by several districts to teach lessons and theories in morality as these values have been traditionally reserved for parents and religious institutions to teach children.

A brief summary of Dr. Berkowitz's beliefs that are being implemented in public classrooms in the Midwest:

He described a “teaching tool” that would help children explore their feelings and solve problems. This “tool" involved the children sitting in a circle, rating themselves on how they are feeling, and then being asked to share, with the entire group, what their problems were. Their peers would then be called upon to help solve said problems.

American Thinker dissects this type of children centered problem solving dynamics and have named it for what it is: Utopian collectivism.

Play the "game." Stay "in step with the group." Mind "the leash." In one illustration of how these collectivist metaphors are set into action, a Tools of the Mind counting exercise requires children to take turns regulating and inhibiting each other's behavior. In TOTM's "mature, dramatic play," teachers "help children plan, and stay true to their plans in a way that emphasizes inhibitory control..." The Vygotskyian method exploits little minds and turns play into a job performed to communal specifications. Children comply. Acclimation to the centrally planned society begins at three years old.

and


In kindergarten and preschool classrooms all over America, tiny young humans are being taught to regiment each other's behavior. Obedient little collectivists are learning to submit to group wishes in order to be judged "correct" -- politically correct.

Instead of focusing on pizza sales, wrapping paper drives, swimming pool initiatives, and selling bedding plants, perhaps the Parent Organizations should be asking the important questions of their schools:

• Did this school sponsor training from Dr. Marvin Berkowitz?
• Does this school sponsor character education?
• If this school does sponsor character education, please explain in detail what type of character education is taught to children.
• Does this school/district employ constructivism as a learning theory?

If you don't think this type of theory is being pushed in your school, you might be surprised. I understand many teachers in the St. Louis area (especially the younger ones) are excited and thrilled about this "collective" method of teaching:

The room buzzes with little voices. Little children engage in "mature, dramatic play." An adult helps the children "regulate" and "monitor each other's compliance" with "rules and assigned roles." Each child knows his or her place. Each child does the group's bidding, nothing else.

Orwell's 1984? No, a scene played out in thousands of classrooms across America. The drumbeat of collectivism begins in preschool. And a long-dead Soviet psychologist helped define that drumbeat.

It's no wonder there is a huge push for universal preschool. You know, it may "all be for the kids" after all. It's just not exactly what you might have in mind for your human capital. Call your district today.

What is Character Education?

First a little background. The word for character comes from the Greek word charakter which literally means “to engrave.” Moral (from the Latin root moralis) character is the engraving of the code or customs of a people which is the social glue that allows them to live together. The family is the first wave of character development or engraving of virtuous principles onto the child. Society is expected to support this process by modeling behavior of good character. The schools also influence character by reinforcing high moral standards and redirecting behavior that deviates from those standards and strains social cohesion.

Character education seems like a relatively modern catch phrase, but it has a long history. If you want to know more about its history in America, a good place to start is the StateUniversity.com website. Highlights from this article are this:

• character education has always been a part of our public schools;



• early schools used the Bible as the primary tool for teaching character, but other moral texts were also used;



• the religious diversification of society, as waves of immigrants populated the country, sensitized the public to the use of specific religious texts for teaching character, so a more secularized approach was developed;



• this secularization of character education led to moral relativism and “value-free” teaching and the almost complete breakdown of character by the 1960’s;



• by the 1980’s a lack of discipline and academic achievement in public schools was believed to be the motivation for parents who loudly petitioned the government to recommit to character education in the public schools for their children’s sake.

Today after more than a dozen years of Presidential emphasis, from Clinton to Obama, character education is once again firmly ensconced in our schools.

To the extent that such education achieves the goals of maintaining discipline and providing children with the moral code of conduct necessary for living in society, most people support character education in public school. Moral virtues, such as honesty, responsibility, and respect for others, are shared values that would meet little resistance by parents if taught or upheld by the school. One need only turn to the Boy Scouts for a realistic list of character traits to be promoted in schools: [from the boy Scout Law] “A Boy Scout is; trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.”

There was, however, a derailing of the definition of morality that took place in the twentieth century. German intellectuals and writers like Karl Marx and Frederick Nietzsche, Austrian Sigmund Freud and English scientist Charles Darwin introduced concepts like humanism and moral relativism and were instrumental in the founding of the Progressive Movement. Their influence was felt in the education reform movement as well. As a result, among parents today, there is less confidence about which morals would be taught, and an overriding skepticism about public school character education.

In addition, there are many teachers who feel very uncomfortable with the tools they are required to use or the message they are required to teach in their school’s character education program. When voiced, their concerns have been routinely belittled or rebuffed. One teacher even confided to us that she is now embarrassed to tell anyone she is a teacher because of what she is required to do in the classroom. Many are afraid to speak up because they fear losing their job as a result.

For administrators, who are pressing for character education, to be disrespectful or patronizing of the educated professionals in their employ who wish to question a rationale or offer an alternative, is reason enough for everyone else to question their credentialed ability to teach character or values to others. Children learn best by example and this certainly does not seem like an example of good character.

For Missouri teachers who share this sense of disenfranchisement from the process of teaching, we recommend you submit your experiences with local school administrations or school boards who rebuffed your complaints about character education to the 24th State Blog at pm@24thstate.com (you may request anonymity in your e-mail).

Public Schools Are To Teach....Morals? Whose Morals?

At a recent Professional Development Day in a suburban St. Louis school district, a PhD in Life-Span Developmental Psychology told his captive audience of educators that “it's our responsibility to teach morals to the students.” He described a “teaching tool” that would help children explore their feelings and solve problems. This “tool“ involved the children sitting in a circle, rating themselves on how they are feeling, and then being asked to share, with the entire group, what their problems were. Their peers would then be called upon to help solve said problems. This equates to group psychotherapy. Normally psychotherapy is done by people who have trained for several years in psychotherapy and is conducted under the strict doctor/patient confidentiality code. The speaker at this Professional Development Seminar believes it can be done by anyone trained in a simple short course. He also believes that “children make better decisions than adults“ and thus are fully equipped to help their peers solve problems.

This same speaker may soon be invited to another St. Louis suburban school district so more teachers can learn how to turn authority over to their students! District counselors, curriculum heads, and administrators from this district raved to their teachers about how wonderful he was after hearing him at a recent University of Missouri St. Louis Workshop. Administrators were so thrilled about his presentation they couldn’t wait to begin implementing “class meetings” where students will relay their feelings, not only to their peers, but also other school staff like custodians and cafeteria workers who may attend his one day seminar.

The speaker’s contention that children have the physical and emotional wherewithal to solve their own or others’ problems flies in the face of work by Dr. Jay Giedd Chief Of Brain Imagery In Child Psychology at the National Institute of Mental Health. His brain imaging of 1,800 children, beginning at age two, showed that remodeling of the brain continues into the third decade of life, with the prefrontal cortex being the last to fully develop. The PFC is responsible for the executive functions of the brain: judging, reasoning, decision making, self evaluation, planning, suppression of impulses and weighing consequences of one’s decisions. Yet this PhD maintains that children as young as elementary school are perfectly capable of managing these functions, even while under the pressure of intense scrutiny by their peers.

The presenter also encouraged staff to turn their students into public relations agents. If they are counseled correctly, students can be used to accomplish goals, such as passing a bond issue, by presenting bureaucratic wishes as their own to their parents. So your taxpayer dollars would be used to train your children to manipulate you into agreeing to what the administration wants.

Who is this speaker, you may ask? His name is Dr. Marvin Berkowitz. He has a degree in psychology from Wayne State University. Most recently he is at the University of Missouri St. Louis where he is the Sanford N. McDonnell Professor of Character Education. UMSL has spear headed the development of character education programs that many have seen implemented in local school districts.

In Rockwood, for example, character assignments were sent home from the elementary school that left many parents scratching their heads as to why they were being asked to do these remedial character exercises with their children. In some instances, they promoted values that many families did not ascribe to, e.g. “Talk with your family about ways that all of you can stop hurting the planet.” “Try shutting off the television at dinner just one night this week and write about what your family talks about.” (What if we don’t habitually watch tv at dinner? What business is it of anyone else’s what our family talks about?) While these assignments were optional and not graded, if a character curriculum were instituted in common core standards, the answers required for a good grade might be in opposition to the values taught at home causing an ethical dilemma, or at least confusion, for the student.

What is Dr. Berkowitz's motivation in wanting children to learn values and morals in school? He seems to hold the belief that the family is not teaching morals, or at least the right morals, and that is why the school must pick up the banner and lead the charge. This seems part of a growing trend toward schools circumventing parental authority in the name of producing uniformly educated citizens. While it is desirable for children to learn values and ethics, such values must come from the community, not one man’s or even one committee’s perspective.

Tomorrow, we'll explore how character education began and its purpose in public schools.

Thanksgiving and the Education of the Heart

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was wondering how to tie education and Thanksgiving into a post and this story keeps wanting to be written. It doesn't have to do with educational mandates or testing. Rather, it is a story about the education of the heart.

My dear grandfather was in a nursing home on Thanksgiving 2008. He was 101 years old, and while his mind was in amazingly good shape for a person that age, his body was wearing out. He was frail and needed help. Even with his suffering, he was as gracious and positive as he had always been. If I had to describe my grandfather, I would describe him as the ultimate gentleman who looked for the best in a person and minimized the faults. I am truly blessed to have had such a wonderful man as my grandfather, and my children were indeed lucky to have experienced the love of a caring great-grandfather.

We lived about seven hours away and didn't get to see him as much as we wanted. We decided we would visit him for Thanksgiving in the nursing home, so we packed up the family and the dog, and off we went.

The dining room looked very festive, and even with my younger son's apprehension about a Thanksgiving meal in a nursing home, the food was quite good. The tables were decked with tablecloths and candles, and it was a nice touch for a holiday meal. They were reserved with the residents' names, and we were shown to our table by a member of the staff.

On each table was a piece of construction paper folded in half. On the front of each piece was a picture of a turkey made from a traced hand of a child. Opening it up, there was a lined piece of paper on which children practice handwriting. The message was from a second grader from St. Theresa's elementary school which is just around the corner from the Presbyterian nursing home. As I found out later, the second graders were responsible for making cards for the residents during the year's holidays.

My grandpa's note was from Kaleb, and it indicated he would be praying for the person who received his note and wished the reader a "Happy Thanksgiving". My grandfather was quite touched with the message and the card, and we took it back to his room after dinner. We propped it up on a table where he could see it and be reminded of prayers lifted up for him...by a stranger.

I wrote the school when we returned home to thank the second graders for remembering my grandfather and the other residents. I told them how much it touched my grandfather and for the first time, I witnessed the power of prayer. This power is intense, even if it is directed your way by people you don't know. My grandfather was overwhelmed by Kaleb's prayer, and I wanted the students to know how much this act of love and kindness impacted another person. I thanked the teacher for the activity and told the students they were indeed lucky to have such a wonderful adult in their lives to teach them this very important lesson...to pray and remember those who are hurting, either physically and/or mentally.

My grandfather died the following April, and I met the teacher at the wake. She noticed the obituary in the paper and shared it with the students. They were quite upset to learn of my grandfather's death and wanted to share their condolences. She said my letter was the first one the school had received since she had been doing this activity in 15 years. They were delighted to know how much their cards meant to the strangers for whom prayers were offered. In fact, Kaleb was able to visit my grandfather in March, just a month prior to his death, when the teacher delivered the St. Patrick's Day cards!

At the wake she gave me a collage of prayers for our extended family listed on construction paper flowers pasted on posterboard. This is one of my most treasured possessions.

Thanksgiving 2008 is my most memorable Thanksgiving...I don't remember the menus from many of my holiday dinners, but I will always remember the love in this particular Thanksgiving. I appreciate the teacher's and school's service to the spirit of strangers. This was a visible way for children to show the thankfulness they have for others and the understanding of the importance of each individual. That's the education of the heart. There is no mandate, testing assessment, or money needed to teach children what's most important in being a successful student or person. The government can't demand it. The student has to will it, nurture it, and become it under the guidance of adults who want to help shape the character of that student.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.