
DATE: Sunday, June 29, 1997                 TAG: 9706300202

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SERIES: TEACHING KIDS VALUES

        HONESTY

SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE AND LORRAINE EATON, STAFF WRITERS 

                                            LENGTH:  171 lines

SCHOOLS TRY ADDING VALUE TO EDUCATION

Honesty. Respect. Compassion. These are basic values - and they have become a formal part of regular classroom lessons in growing numbers of public schools in America, including many in South Hampton Roads.

In Suffolk, a 22-member committee has struggled for months trying to decide what values that district's character education program should include. Earlier this month, the panel suggested 20 traits to the School Board.

At Arrowhead Elementary School in Virginia Beach, music teacher Susan Hall has written songs that have caught on with students and staff. Each tune promotes a character trait the school is focusing on for the month.

And at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in Chesapeake, teachers have developed a program for students who are ``caught being good'' so that the young people appreciate the rewards of positive conduct, rather than just the punishments of bad behavior.

Why the focus on character? Because many say today's youths are out of control or morally running on empty - given changes in everything from the structure of families to social standards when it comes to issues such as divorce and teen-age pregnancy.

The push to teach values in school has attracted advocates across the spectrum.

Former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett, a Republican, and President Clinton, a Democrat, have managed to agree on something that is good for America's children. And it's coming to the school down the street.

The Norfolk and Portsmouth school districts began initiatives this year to teach values at all grade levels. Virginia Beach has formed a group to look into the issue, as has Suffolk. Last fall, Chesapeake participated in a nationwide program on character. And individual schools throughout the region have developed home-grown efforts to meet the needs they see in their communities.

Critics say there's no proof that teaching values improves character, especially if the world outside of the classroom moves to a different beat. Some raise concerns about whose values will be taught, and how.

The broadest common ground seems to be the belief that some character traits are indisputably valuable. Honesty and hard work, for instance, would be accepted in most cultures.

Indeed, many see the newest wave of character education - the formal name for teaching children values - as motivated by a need to restore order to society.

Problems arise, however, when applying the traits gets more specific.

Do tolerance and respect extend to all religions or alternative lifestyles, for instance. What about situational honesty? Are there times when it's better not to tell the truth?

``When you scratch the surface . . . they really are hot topics,'' said Michael Rebell, a New York attorney who specializes in education law and teaches at Yale Law School. ``You must be prepared to deal with the potentially explosive aspects of these hot topics.''

To teach character education successfully, most experts agree that the community must buy in at the early stages and participate in developing the program. That should help shape the program to the norms of the community.

Some point out that individual teachers and schools have long stressed basic values in some way.

For example: Dozens of the region's public schools for years have had codes of conduct; or ``word of the week'' activities in which teachers integrate lessons about a particular trait into regular instruction.

But most character-ed advocates say the point now is to go about the work more systematically, stressing ``universal'' values.

The nature of character-ed lessons themselves can vary significantly from school to school, and even from teacher to teacher. Local students say that they detect the teaching of values in many classes - during discussions of ``The Scarlet Letter,'' or Nazi Germany.

Even those who aren't ready for the classics or the darkest lessons of world history can see the benefits of being nice to one another.

``I think it's good because it keeps people in line,'' Matt Draeger said of the program at Arrowhead, where he just finished fifth grade.

So far, it appears that most local public schools have opted to play it safe by sticking with basic values that few would argue with - and by addressing them in a general way.

``As we have become more pluralized, the consensus (about what values are and whether they should be taught in schools) has dissipated,'' said William Elrod, president of Washington and Lee University, who has studied the history of character education in America. ``Now we are seeking a new consensus regarding what is or is not moral behavior.''

Since formal schooling began in America, teaching morals has been an issue. And since teaching morals has been an issue, politics have played a role.

Just ask Jennings L. Wagoner, a professor of education at the University of Virginia with a special interest in educational history. He can tell you about William Henry Ruffner, who became Virginia's first state superintendent of public instruction in 1870.

``He was very concerned that conservatives would not support public schools because they would feel public schools were too neutral . . . that they would not be strong enough in morality,'' Wagoner said.

The nation's first schools were founded, he said, with the three R's secondary to developing moral, Bible-adhering citizens.

``It's probably one of the longest-running themes in American educational history,'' Wagoner said. ``I think people of every generation are concerned with the morals and manners of the next generation.''

While there's support for values-based education, conservatives and liberals also object to teaching morals in the schools. From the right come concerns about schools stepping in where only family and church should tread. On the left, there is the question of who decides what is taught and concerns about crossing the line between secular and religious.

Ivor Pritchard, a senior research analyst with the U.S. Department of Education, has tracked moral and civic education movements across the country.

``In large part, I think you could say the politics of character education programs are the politics of American society.''

Some view the glass as half-empty, and some as half-full, he said.

``The half-full people believe there is enough that is important that pretty much all Americans hold in common that there is something to base a program on,'' he said. ``The half-empty people believe there are sufficient important differences with various groups within the United States that they would rather use some other way to cultivate the appropriate values in children.''

The content of the curriculum is at the heart of the debate.

Maurice R. Berube, Imminent Scholar of Educational Leadership and Counseling at Old Dominion University, suggested, for instance, that part of the moral development of young people is teaching them to take ``an activist stance.''

``There is moral development in the schools that's not conscious,'' he said. That effort, which he calls the ``hidden curriculum,'' is aimed at getting young people to conform. He sees value in teaching students to change society ``not to adjust to it.'' But, Berube said, ``That's a very hard sell.''

Jim Komarnicki, a professor of educational administration and curriculum development at Regent University who teaches a course on character education, sees its resurgence as a return to standards of what is acceptable behavior. Children learn traits in large part by seeing them modeled by their parents, teachers and others. He rejects the notion that teaching values is not a job for schools.

``There are about 17,000 hours between kindergarten and 12th grade that children spend in school,'' Komarnicki said. ``What is more important in their lives and the future of our society than being of good character?''

Within that, you must then hope that the importance of the issue will surmount partisanship and divisive ideology.

``You can take these two groups of people and push it to the extreme so that they say we can't trust the public schools to (teach) this,'' said Diane Ravitch, senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington. ``(But) whether people are conservative or liberal, there have to be fundamental agreements on what adults can teacher children about honesty and responsibility.

``That's a beginning.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

JIM WALKER

Margaret W. Gartman, right, mother of Elizabeth Woodard, is a member

of the Suffolk committee that is developing a list of character

traits for the school system to teach.

Graphic

Honesty n. Being truthful; a willingness to say openly what is

known to be true; being free from fraud and deception; fairness;

and straightforwardness of conduct.

Here's the rub

Is lying to protect someone's feelings OK? Is failing to tell

something the same thing as dishonesty? If telling the truth will