Another reason kids cheat, lie, and steal in American schools is because they are becoming increasingly aware that they are being cheated, lied to, and robbed. That sounds harsh and melodramatic, so let me explain myself.

Here in the States, educators are trained to tell kids how wonderful they are and to build their students' self-esteem through flattery. Kids are no dumber today than I was. When my teachers laid it on thick, I knew they were lying. It just increased my anxiety when I was little, then my cynicism when I was older.

The anxiety level is much worse now. (I graduated high school in 81 and am now an educator). Kids are driven to prepare for standardized tests like the SAT and ACT. The President has told us that is what we are teaching them for. They are driven batty over getting into college. They do their homework to get a grade - disregarding and/or never made aware of any higher purpose.

Education promises too much and delivers too little to the student. The main effect of teaching here is to communicate angst - systemically and personally. So the students are becoming sycophants and cynics. "If I do everything the way the system expects it done, I'll move up the system. Then I'll get a high level job in the next system."

We forgot some time ago that we are teaching human beings. Or else we forgot what a human being is.

Thanks for an excellent article Sharon.

"One recent attempt to address the dearth has been developed by a group of academics and educators in Brisbane (including the author), who are working on a program to design and implement an interactive multimedia online ethics program for use by students across a range of grades in both primary and high school."

I'm very interested in having a look at the program, but the link in your article doesn't seem to work. Could you please post the complete URL?

Cheers, Jane

There is some interesting consistency in the responses here, but I am not at all sure the answer lies in education. If the consensus is that the problem exists in the examples the kids see all round them, provided "..by our leaders in government, business, academia, media etc", then that's where any solution lies.

Exposing the kids to a form of "ethics" training within the education system cannot possibly solve this, and might in fact make the problem worse. If there is a massive discrepancy between what they are taught in school and what they see every evening on the news, the teaching will look a touch hypocritical.

The answer of course is in getting adults to behave, starting with that mythical creature, the honest politician, followed by honest businessmen and a responsible media industry.

Since the likelihood of this is zero, all we can look forward to are creative approaches to damage limitation. Not a particularly attractive prospect.

Akern - "They do their homework to get a grade - disregarding and/or never made aware of any higher purpose." - you're absolutely right, and it starts early. I was relief teaching in a Prep class just yesterday - had been asked by their teacher to do some work with them on addition. When I asked the question "Why is it important that we know how to add?" the resounding response was "So we can learn the right answers".

Sorry this is probably a bit off the topic and seemingly quite trivial, but I think it is one small example of where education has gone fundamentally astray. The myopic bureaucrats who dictate educational policy are obsessed with assessing and measuring everything against pre-determined outcomes. Teachers who want to do more, who want to instil things like critical thinking in their students, face an uphill struggle. Is it any wonder that our kids are getting all the wrong messages?

Pericles I agree with you in part about politicians, businesspeople ( not just men)and the media needing to set a better example but it first has to come with parents.

If parents instill ethics and sense of right and wrong early, the kids will be more likely to question people in positions of power like the pollies.

It also helps them at school which in turn helps teachers and education in general.

Parents need to be the biggest influence on kids lives and if children have good role models in their parent(s) than they will be better off in the long run and may not feel the need to cheat.

t.u.s

tus, very well put.