What Did The Children Learn

     I sat in my classroom yesterday morning. Wisconsin’s recall election, which was the previous day, was very much on my mind. Earlier in the morning, before leaving for work, I wrote the article for yesterday’s blog about it. During my drive to work, I thought about. And here I sat, preparing to teach my students the final lesson of the school, while thinking about it.

     Normally, I devote the lessons in the last days of school to class discussions about lessons learned in the classrooms, on the athletic fields, in the band rooms, and after- school activities, like 4-H, boy scouts, girl scouts, etc. My objective is to get the students to understand that honesty, respect, fairness, trustworthiness, caring, responsibility, and citizenship are the pillars of good character: They are the character traits that make us excellent role models, exceptional citizens, first-rate employers, and tremendous employees. Those of us who also learn empathy, kindness, tolerance, conscience, and courage take the development of our character traits a step further; we become morally intelligent.

     Today, however, I faced a dilemma: What did Wisconsin’s recall election taught the children about honesty, respect, fairness, trustworthiness, caring, responsibility, citizenship, empathy, kindness, tolerance, conscience, and courage? Did it reinforce the religion taught by their parents and their churches? Did it reinforce these pillars of excellent character that we’re teaching in schools? Did the election encourage or discourage bullying? In short, what were the lessons our children learned that will help them to be excellent citizens in the future?

     I did not discuss these topics with my students because I know the answer, which is frightening, disturbing, sad – and immoral!

     God help us!

By

James A. Porter