Facts, Not Morals

Issue statement: “The proper role of education is to teach facts, not morals.”

Certainly, teachers have a long list of responsibilities every day. The most important one of course is enriching the minds of our children. A large amount of their time is spent with teachers throughout the week and they become one of children’s biggest influences. Sure, their major responsibility is to teach them reading, writing and arithmetic, they also have an obligation to encourage the right morals as well.
In many cases teachers become one of the biggest influences in children’s lives. There are many people, including famous ones who will say that one of their teachers was their influence to thrive and succeed in life. Understandably, teachers are working hard to maintain the educational goals necessary to have the children succeed in life as far as academics is concerned. However, just as important is a child’s moral compass. Some may argue that it’s the parent’s responsibility to teach them morals at home, but it’s just as important that the teacher reinforce and instill new morals in the classroom. The most important factor that teachers and parents must consider is that children will one day become adults and having a great set of morals will greatly impact society.
This idea is not novel; institutions of higher learning have these principals in place for their students for quite some time Most colleges and universities have codes of conduct that students must adhere to, in order to maintain student status there. Also, doctors take the Hippocratic oath, to ensure there are ethics that must be maintained in order to be a doctor.