Psst.
See that kid in the desk next to you?
There’s a good chance he might be cheating on that big algebra test. Come to think of it, you might be too.
At least, that’s what the Josephson Institute of Ethics says.
Every two years, the institute does a random survey of 8,600 high school students and asks them 57 questions, including ones about lying, cheating and violence. The group says parents and schools need to get their act together because today’s teens have “shocking levels of moral illiteracy.” But other experts and kids say the survey isn’t looking at the whole picture.
Here’s what the study said kids said they have done in the previous:
– 71 percent have cheated on a test.
– 92 percent have lied to their parents.
– 35 percent have stolen something from a store.
One of the institute’s goals is to encourage schools to teach character education as well as traditional subjects and, in fact, at least two states are using Josephson’s “Character Counts” model to train teachers. Michael Josephson, a former law professor who’s the president of the organization, says he knows kids aren’t all bad.
“We’re not trying to bash kids or paint these kids as if they were some sort of moral mutants,” he insists. “But realistically, these kids are going to be the nuclear inspectors and paramedics of tomorrow.”
Larry Nucci, an education and psychology professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and director of the Office for Studies in Moral Development and Character Formation, thinks the study is overdoing it.
“We’ve known this for 70 years,” he says, alluding to landmark studies done during the 1930s that first showed most people’s ethical makeup wasn’t perfect. “You can set up situations to get virtually everyone to admit they’ve cheated at one time. . You have to find out what the context was.”
Nucci also is bugged by the fact that the study, called the “Preliminary Results of the 2000 Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth,” emphasizes the negative.”Suppose you ask kids questions like: How many of you have ever found a wallet and returned it? How many of you have been given the wrong change and let the cashier know? How many gave to charity? How many have helped your parents or neighbors with something?” Nucci says.
Josephson says they did ask teens about positive qualities.
“We did ask them if they volunteered and how many times they didn’t cheat,” he says. But, he adds, a few positive qualities don’t cancel out the widespread problem of cheating.
“If a Mafia man gives money to a church, that’s great, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s a hit man,” Josephson says. “We’re not saying kids have no redeeeming characteristics — quite the contrary. We just wish parents, teachers and coaches would do a better job of teaching right from wrong.”
Scoop Trooper Chevy I., 14, says he thinks some teens cheat because they’re stressed out in today’s society.
“We are driven by achievements, and the pressure put on kids to excel is often excessive and leads to cheating,” he says.
And don’t forget all the times kids don’t cheat, he says:
“Be careful not to ignore the tremendous restraint and character kids show in the face of temptations.”
Jacques Benninga says kids are in better shape than they have been in a long time. Benninga, a professor at California State University–and director of the Bonner Center for Character Education and Citizenship, thinks the study needs to be put in perspective.
“In the last 8 or 9 years, the statistics on youth disorders are as good as they’ve ever been,” he says. “Crime, teenage pregnancy, drug usage and suicide are dramatically down, approaching the lowest levels since those data have been kept.”
But, he says, he agrees with Josephson that kids need to be taught more about ethics.
” We teach math and reading to give kids productive skills for good citizenship in our society. We need to teach character education for the same reason.”
Yet Rebecca O., 15, says she’s not sure character education is the answer either, because she’s not convinced the teachers are any more ethical than the kids.
“How can they teach things that they aren’t necessarily practicing themselves?”
