Paying reparations to Black Americans has long been contentiously debated. This article addresses an unexamined pillar of this debate: the United States has a long-standing social norm that if an individual or community has suffered a harm, it is considered right for the federal government to provide some measure of what we term "reparatory…

Two influential tragic incidents in 2011 are discussed in connection with the cultivation of morality in Japan. One is the suicide of a junior high school student due to bullying in his school--a scandal which eventually led to the country's redefinition of the status of moral education in the school curriculum. The other is the huge earthquake…

At points of instability in a system--whether a school, community, or any other social system--there is the opportunity for breakdown or breakthrough. In that moment of opportunity arises the possibility for significant change through the emergence of new norms or standards of behavior that reflect the evolving values of the larger group. What…