Adapted from an MA thesis submitted to the University of Wyoming (1966).

Censorship of books and learning materials is a growing trend nationwide, according to responses from a 1980 survey of 1,891 public elementary and secondary school administrators and library personnel from across the country and of state administrators overseeing evaluation and adoption of textbooks in 21 states. This summary and interpretation of…

Recent research demonstrates that one in five school districts is under pressure to purge objectionable books from its libraries and classrooms. This paper briefly summarizes literature and court decisions dealing with censorship in the schools and describes a study of censorship in Illinois schools. In the study, a 68-item questionnaire asked 200…

Recent approaches to research on moral development have considered the preeminence of situational factors in moral development and moral behavior. An open systems approach emphasizes the interactive effects of person and situation variables on moral decision-making. The interactive effects of three sets of variables on moral decision-making were…

This issue features three articles which represent social and ethical concerns effecting all world citizens. The first article explores various aspects of world problems that exemplify a recurrent pattern in disputes surrounding the introduction of technological innovations and developments in Western society. The second article focuses on a…

A historical overview of the teaching of moral conduct in schools forms the first part of this paper. The authors cite several precedents for education focused on producing high moral conduct and describe the recent slackening of concern for moral education in our public schools. In the second part of the paper, the authors discuss the steps taken…

The scripts of four programs of National Public Radio's Options in Education series are presented. The first program has sequences involving the use of high technology in childbirth. Interviews with doctors and expectant mothers explore the use and availability of electronic monitoring equipment in prenatal care. In the second program, the high…

Supporters of sex education curriculum see it as a way of keeping in step with the times and of coping with the undesirable side effects of the new morality. Opponents argue that such classes infringe both the right of individual privacy, and the American tradition of dealing with sex in religious and family settings. The implementation of sex…

In a recent study of ethnic and non-ethnic adolescents and pre-adolescents and their families, particular observation was made of perceptions of values by children and their parents in favorite television series viewed over a period of six weeks. While values were seen as a potential discriminator between ethnic and non-ethnic people, other data…

The context of Hohlberg-prompted interest in moral development stage models is described. Some of Piaget's scattered comments about the use of stage models in studying and understanding moral development are presented and their implications exposed. While admitting the necessity and utility of such heuristic models, Piaget frequently urges caution…

Two approaches to communication research, diffusion theory (individual-level analysis) and empathy approach (action implications through society) raise ethical concerns. The popularity of the approaches is related to power: those, such as government agencies, who provide funding often reflect self-interest in project selection. Some ethical…

When Democratic Senator William Proxmire attacked the Bicentennial Youth Debates, jointly sponsored by the Speech Communication Association (SCA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), for fiscal wastefulness, SCA president Lloyd Bitzer offered a public rebuttal to the charge. The three major standards of ethicality and…

With fragmentation the dominant trend in academic settings around the world, the larger wholes of profession, enterprise, and system are less held together by integrative ideology. Strong ideological bonding is characteristic of the parts, primarily the disciplines. The larger aggregations are made whole mainly by formal superstructure, many…