ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 7, 1996 TAG: 9607080075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
FROM PRESIDENT CLINTON to local school board meetings, people are talking about the need to put more emphasis on teaching core values in schools.
On some days, Debbie McClure takes time out from reading, writing and arithmetic lessons to teach her pupils about telling the truth and not taking something that belongs to others.
On other days, she has to teach boys in her elementary class not to touch girls inappropriately.
"We have some children who don't know right from wrong," McClure said. "As a teacher, you have to deal with it almost on a daily basis."
When something is stolen from a child in her class at Back Creek Elementary in Roanoke County, she has the pupils discuss the incident. She teaches that stealing is wrong.
McClure tries to instruct her pupils about honesty, responsibility, respect, fairness and compassion along with academic subjects.
Gary Stultz, a teacher at Fallon Park Elementary in Roanoke, said he, too, teaches his pupils about responsibility, tolerance, doing their best and taking pride in their work.
"We don't have a formal or written policy on character education and values, but there are some things you just naturally teach," he said. "Something will come up in class, and we'll discuss it."
Educators have been reluctant about teaching moral principles since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1960s that faculty-led prayers and religious teachings were unconstitutional in public schools.
Some schools have been reluctant to teach ethical values for fear they would get into political and legal trouble despite polls showing that a majority of parents want schools to provide instruction about moral behavior.THIS REPEATS:
Donna Dean is a Roanoke County mother who says schools shy away from character education because they're afraid of confrontation and controversy over the subject.
"Schools back down because they don't want to offend anyone. They need to stand up and do a better job of teaching children right from wrong," said Donna Dean, a mother who has children in elementary, middle and high school in the Glenvar community.
Dean said her family is Christian and attends church regularly, but she doesn't expect public schools to teach religion or proselytize.
"I realize they can't provide religious instruction or try to indoctrinate children," but schools should teach moral values that are common to all religions, she said. Teachers should be permitted to post copies of the Ten Commandments in their classrooms and teach them, she said. And she likes to see coaches pray with their teams.
"I don't think our founding fathers ever intended for the separation of church and state to be taken as far as it has been," Dean said.
Other parents don't think it is the schools' responsibility to teach moral precepts to students.
"The problem is that the family structure is crumbling. I feel the schools are secondary," said Mary Nasca, mother of a daughter at Cave Spring Junior High and another who graduated from Cave Spring High last year.
"I think these things are best taught in the way that teachers treat children," Nasca said. "The teachers who have had the biggest impact on my children's lives have been those who have shown them respect."
Douglas Fowler, assistant principal at Glen Cove Elementary, said some teachers are hesitant to teach values because of the potential political and legal minefields.
Schools are so concerned about which morals to teach that almost none are taught, he said.
`Core' values
"Many parents think teachers don't want to teach values, but they do," said Douglas Fowler, assistant principal at Glen Cove Elementary. "There is just so much debate about what can be taught that teachers feel hamstrung."
Public schools in the Roanoke Valley teach "core" or universal values such as honesty, respect, justice, fairness and compassion, according to the superintendents for the school divisions.
Core values are defined as the principles that form the foundation of a democratic society and make it possible for people to live together in harmony.
But the valley's public schools do not have formal character education programs, and no time is reserved for the teaching of values. Instead, such instruction is integrated into the regular curriculum at appropriate places, superintendents said.
"I don't like to use the term 'moral education,' but we teach our children about good citizenship, honesty, integrity, tolerance and being productive adults," Roanoke Superintendent Wayne Harris said.
"It's embedded in what we do every day," Harris said. "It's reflected in our standards of conduct and expectations for students and the examples set by our teachers."
Salem Superintendent Wayne Tripp said the schools' main mission is teaching academic subjects - not ethical values or how to behave. That is the primary responsibility of parents and churches because public schools can't be the arbiters of right and wrong, he said.
"But, of course, we do teach values - mainly by example - about sharing, respect, responsibility and things such as that," Tripp said.
Roanoke County Superintendent Deanna Gordon said she has reminded her staff that there's nothing illegal about teaching universal precepts such as hard work, cooperation and fairness.
"We can't indoctrinate students, but, by and large, there is nothing for teachers to be afraid of if they're dealing with values that are shared by the community," Gordon said.
Character education was once a major part of the school curriculum. Colonial schools taught children to read mainly so they could use the Bible and better learn religious principles and values. The tradition of moral education continued during the 19th century when the McGuffey Readers became the most widely used school book in the United States. They contained Bible stories and moral lessons.
American philosopher, poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson focused on the moral issue in education when he wrote 150 years ago: "Character is higher than intellect."
'Schools backed off'
But some parents began to complain in the 1960s about the teaching in public schools of religion and values that differed from their own beliefs. It was during the time when there was a strong anti-Vietnam War, anti-government mood in the country.
The U.S. Supreme Court began to uphold the complaints on the basis the First Amendment requires separation of church and state. The court ruled in 1962 that faculty-led school prayer is unconstitutional.
It became controversial to teach what was "right" and "wrong" in increasingly multicultural classrooms. There were debates on what values to teach - and whether schools ought to teach them at all.
Educators began to shy away from moral education to avoid controversy and lawsuits.
Some schools turned to what became known as "values clarification." Instead of advocating specific virtues, teachers tried to help students clarify their own beliefs without passing judgment. They sought to teach students to think about values without telling them what to think. The teaching of moral principles became almost taboo in public classrooms.
In his book, "Values Matter Most," Ben Wattenburg writes that it has become almost impossible to teach values in schools during recent decades because of the courts and the political climate.
As education became more politicized, more class time was devoted to environmentalism, feminism, racism and other such topics, but schools virtually stopped teaching moral precepts, Wattenburg said.
By the late 1980s, some educators had become concerned about a perceived deterioration in the moral climate in the country, particularly among young people. Drug abuse, teen-age pregnancy, violence and discipline problem became major issues in schools.
A national survey found that one-third of high school students admitted they had stolen something from a store and 61 percent had cheated on an exam.
Call for old days
A number of educators have become convinced that the hands-off policy on values might have been a factor in the decline in moral values.
"Because of the concern about the separation of church and state, schools backed off altogether, but there seems to be a feeling among some people that this was a mistake," said Nelson Harris, the former Roanoke School Board chairman who took a seat on City Council on July1. "Our society has not gotten better, but has gone backward."
At school board conventions and other educational conferences, Harris said, educators are talking about the need to put more emphasis on teaching core values in schools.
In recent years, schools in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri and several other states have instituted formal character education programs that focus on personal, social and civic values. Most schools have stayed out of religion, but some conservative political groups are pushing for the restoration of prayer in school.
Critics fear that such efforts are a smoke screen for those with hidden political or religious agendas who want to foist their views on others. Only parents and religious leaders should impart values, they argue.
Yet advocates for character education - who span nearly all segments of the political and religious spectrum from William Bennett, secretary of education under former President Reagan, to the Rev. Jesse Jackson - argue there are core values that people of all races and faiths agree upon.
It is not just conservatives and the Christian Coalition who want values taught in public schools.
President Clinton has urged schools to do more to teach ethical values to children. While people may disagree on many aspects of politics and religion, they ought to be able to agree that schools should teach fairness, honesty, responsibility, tolerance and trustworthiness, Clinton said.
"These things should be taught in our schools, and we shouldn't gag our teachers when they try to do it," the president said at the signing of the Improving America's Schools Act last year.
Clinton said he looked forward to the day when character education is a "regular part of the curriculum in every school" in the country.
The American Civil Liberties Union says schools have the right to teach core values such as honesty, justice and respect as long as they are not taught in a religious context.
"While there is always some danger of these [character education programs] slipping into religious dogma, there's nothing wrong with them in principle," said Kent Willis, executive director of the ACLU in Virginia.
The ACLU has received complaints from some parents that teachers "sometimes cross the line" and teach values as religious dogma, but most deal with single episodes, Willis said.
Some people blame the ACLU because some schools don't teach civic values, but the ACLU doesn't object to such instruction if it steers clear of religion, he said.
"The best way to do it might be through [formal character education] programs because in them you can teach teachers how to do it and avoid getting into religion," Willis said.
People for the American Way, a Washington-based nonpartisan constitutional liberties organization, has not taken a position on the character education issue.
"But we view the movement as a positive effort by schools to teach civic values" without violating the separation of church and state, said Deanna Duby, director of education policy for the organization.
"It seems to be a good middle-ground response by schools that have come under attack for being totally without morals and values," she said. The key is to make sure that it doesn't become entangled in religion, she said.
Character building
The Supreme Court has not decided any cases dealing expressly with character education programs in schools. But it has upheld public school teaching of core ethical values that are essential to citizenship in democratic society.
The court has said that "local school boards must be permitted to establish and apply their curriculum in such a way to transmit community values."
It has ruled that "there is a legitimate and substantial community interest in promoting respect for authority and traditional values, be they social, moral or political."
For years, schools have taught values through athletics: teamwork, sportsmanship, respect and responsibility.
Good coaches teach students that winning in sports is important, but they also teach that "winning in life is more important," said Bob Patterson, principal of William Byrd High School.
When the Roanoke County School Board recently recognized Byrd's baseball and soccer teams for being state finalists, Patterson said the values learned in sports have helped prepare the students for life.
Some schools are teaching manners and courtesy to children in addition to ethical values. Breckinridge Elementary School in Botetourt County recently held a manners and dress-up day when all children wore their best clothes and concentrated on courtesy and proper manners.
The Rev. William Lee, a former teacher and president of the William Fleming High PTA, said he has no problem with what the schools are doing in the teaching of values and the way it is handled.
"I don't know that the schools can do any better than they are. That is not the school's main responsibility," Lee said. "School systems are being called on to do things they were never intended to do."
Private schools
Private schools don't have to worry about legal restrictions on the teaching of values. At Roanoke Catholic and Roanoke Valley Christian schools, ethical and religious instruction are an integral part of the curriculum - and that is the reason many parents send their children to the schools.
Roanoke Catholic children have daily religion classes, and teachers incorporate moral issues into academic classes at appropriate places, said Karen Mabry, principal of the upper school.
"In science or government class, for instance, a teacher can bring up moral issues and the obligations of being a Christian," she said. "Teachers can pull in those things in lessons."
Mabry believes public schools are hampered in the teaching of values because of the constitutional restrictions.
"Public schools are legalized into neutrality," said Mabry, a former public school teacher. "Kids get no message because teachers can't speak out."
At Roanoke Valley Christian, all students have Bible classes, and the teaching of values is "totally integrated" into the curriculum, Principal Rick Brown said. As a private school, Roanoke Valley Christian can go beyond the teaching of universal values and consider issues from a biblical perspective, Brown said.
Religion is not part of the curriculum at North Cross, another private school in the valley. Like many public schools, North Cross has no formal character education program, but the school does have an honor code that is the foundation for its teaching of values.
"Through the honor code, you teach students not to lie, cheat, steal and there are other values that arise from it," said Patrick France, director of North Cross' upper school. "We work closely with families and we rely on them for teaching values to their children."
A national survey by Public Agenda last year showed that the public believes private schools do a better job of teaching values than public schools. Nearly 55 percent of Americans who were surveyed said private schools are better at providing an environment that promotes values such as honesty and responsibility. Only 17 percent said public schools do better in this area.
LENGTH: Long : 270 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. 1. Donna Dean with her daughterby CNBKara, 8, in their Salem home. Dean says schools shy away from
character education because they're afraid of confrontation and
controversy. (headshots) 2. Fowler. 3. Gordon. color.
JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER