The research described in this paper is from the fifth year of a 6-year longitudinal study investigating psychosocial and demographic factors associated with a wide range of behaviors among adolescents. The present analyses investigate the relationship between students' participation in extracurricular activities (athletic teams, musical groups,…

This essay presents components of the debate between liberals and communitarians, discusses how this debate centers around policies affecting market economies and the role of government, and points out implications for school reform. The chief criticism communitarians aim at liberalism is that it promotes obsessive individualism, and in this…

A major controversy arose in 1987 in a midwestern school district, after a middle school teacher assigned the novel "Go Ask Alice" to her seventh-grade class. This book describes the district's attempt to answer two basic questions: What should students read? and Who should decide what students read? The book controversy is first…

Increasingly, schools are faced with the necessity of finding ways to shoulder a greater share of the burden of producing respectful, responsible citizens. Along with traditional academic subjects, schools must teach acceptable standards of conduct and the attitudes and attributes that foster them. This book provides ways to help teachers instill…

This study investigated gender, developmental, and cross-cultural differences in the moral reasoning of 97 middle- and upper-middle class fourth and sixth graders in Mexico and the United States. A seven-item questionnaire from the Comprehension Subsections of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Revised and III) dealing with moral…

These hearings transcripts present testimony regarding parents' and schools' roles in teaching values to school age children, the federal funds involved in values education, and the remedies available to parents who may object to or be offended by some of the topics taught and the vehicles used to teach these topics. Witnesses included: (1)…

This paper describes the moral role of the education profession, discusses the virtuous educator, and examines H. Sockett's concept of "in loco parentis" for the educator and implicitly the education profession. Sockett holds that teachers must work as ambassadors for public education in promoting the school's mission and concern for…

The understandings of and interest in the environment of children in an inner-city black community were studied. To investigate their environmental moral reasoning, children's evaluations and supporting justifications were assessed regarding a hypothetical scenario that involved polluting a local waterway. Seventy-two children, 12 males and 12…

This Boys' Town guide for parents focuses on proactive aggression, how to recognize it, and how to deal with it. The guide differentiates proactive and reactive aggression, describes potential causes, and presents suggestions for eliminating inappropriate behavior. One parent-child scenario is described in which unwitting parents with the best of…

Available empirical evidence indicates that the deterioration of stable marriages and families has been a principal generator of moral decline. Children learn moral values mainly within their families, and mainly by relying on their parents as role models. Family conditions for modeling values, together with recent family trends that have impacted…

This digest addresses the importance to professional practice of ethics and shared values, focusing on the fields of health, physical education, recreation, and dance (HPRD). Practitioners in these fields routinely deal with situations that call upon moral reasoning and the articulation of values such as instruction about personal health, sexual…

A study examined the perceptions and practices of 160 work program coordinators in Georgia (44% of the sample) regarding the teaching of work ethics. A literature review had shown that a consistent view of potential employers was that graduates of vocational education programs should be well grounded in the concept of work ethics. The main purpose…

This document proposes a case study approach to U.S. history instruction. The method which the document suggests arises from an actual class discussion of the My Lai massacre that occurred during the Vietnam War. A sample class discussion concerns the setting of standards to guide national and international affairs and the particular standards…

Moral education is becoming one of the most important topics in school systems today. Schools are fast learning that they must do something to try to teach students good values and even more to teach students how to reason about values. Research studies suggest that athletes are less morally reasoned and less sportsmanlike than their peer groups;…

Intended as a companion to "Our Code of Ethics at Work" (Anne Stonehouse), this booklet has been written as a resource for people conducting workshops or training sessions in early childhood education. The suggestions provided will assist in making the Australian Early Childhood Association Code of Ethics more concrete and help early…