When children read the biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, or when they study Martin Luther King, Jr. at school, their teachers should be talking about what made them great people. There also has to be an expectation in all classes that children can achieve, and that mediocre work will not be accepted. Children pick that up. Kids sense this insincerity. We currently have a real decline of moral literacy in children.
Kids don t know what courage means.
I recently read a powerful story in the American School Board Journal. After a series of murders in Baltimore, a school principal got on the PA system. He called on his students to examine their consciences and tell the police who they thought was responsible. In the adolescent community we find depression, suicide, and increased abortion, not because kids are bad, but because they re lacking guidance, friendship, direction, and I would add inspiration, from adults. Kids need to hear from adults that it s worthwhile to take certain principles seriously.