Haven Bradford Gow

Haven Bradford Gow is a former law clerk for two Chicago law firms, a T.V. and radio commentator, and writer, who teaches religion to children at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Greenville, Mississippi.

A news report in the March 31, 2007, News-Star, Monroe, Louisiana, pointed out that:

A teacher who spoke out about the conditions at a Union Parish (LA) high school where fifth-grade students were reportedly having sex in a classroom earlier this week was suspended indefinitely with pay. . . . The suspension comes one day after (teacher Michael) Walker spoke out about conditions at the school, saying the students controlled the school and were hardly ever disciplined . . . four fifth graders admitted to having sex in a classroom during an assembly at the school.

According to a joint study by the U.S. Dept. of Justice and U.S. Dept. of Education, school crime, violence, and disorder have adversely affected the ability of teachers to teach and of students to learn. The study declared:

Preliminary data on fatal victimizations show youth ages 5-19 were victims of 22 school-associated deaths from July 1, 2001, through June 30, 2002 (17 homicides and 5 suicides). In 2003, students ages 12-18 were victims of about 1.9 million non-fatal crimes at school, including about 1.2 million thefts and 740,000 violent crimes (simple assault and serious violent crime) -- 150,000 of which were serious violent crimes (rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault). These figures represent victimization rates of 45 thefts and 28 violent crimes, including 6 serious violent cr per 1,000 students at school in 2003.

According to educator SiriNam Khalsa, character education has proven to be an effective way to curb school crime, violence, and disorder. In his book Teaching Discipline and Self-Respect (Corwin Press), he observes that:

. . . a student's belief system and self-esteem play a large part in this process (of addressing school crime, violence, and disorder). Character building addresses the cause of many of the problems inherent in (anti-social and criminal) behavior. We recognize that all children need a set of core beliefs that will guide their behavior in school and in the community.

Government and education officials in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas have been pushing education reforms as a way to improve test scores and the ability of students to read, write, and do math. However, well-intentioned though they may be, reforms cannot succeed unless we first restore in our schools a climate of order, decency, civility, and morality.

Leland, Mississippi, Police Chief Eddie Johnson insists that the absence of God and prayer in the schools has contributed to the breakdown of decency, civility, and morality in the schools; the absence of God and prayer has created a moral and spiritual vacuum, and the doors of our schools have been left wide open for crime, violence, disorder, drugs, and immoral sexual activity to enter.

Certainly a nexus exists between the lack of character education and the crime, violence, and disorder. Consequently, if our schools are to make true progress -- that is, moral and spiritual as well as intellectual progress -- our families, churches, schools, social organizations, and business community must re-emphasize the teaching, learning, and practice of moral values -- like courtesy and kindness, honesty and decency, moral courage, justice, self-respect, respect for others, good sportsmanship, and the Golden Rule of treating others the way we want to be treated; these values are universally esteemed and essential to the survival of any civilized society.

In her book Creating Emotionally Safe Schools (Health Communications), former teacher Dr. Jane Bluestein observes:

Throughout our history, school shootings and other forms of extreme violence simply have not been a part of our cultural reality. . . . Overnight, it seems, the rules have changed and the stakes became dangerously high.

As Columbia University educator Dr. Nel Noddings points out in Educating Moral People (Teachers College Press, Columbia University), "Many people today are deeply concerned about the apparent decline in moral standards among young people." Educators and parents sense that something important is missing in public school education today, that is, a moral and spiritual dimension.

Dale Feicke, a social critic in Mendenhall, Mississippi, points out the immoral and anti-social pressures on young people today:

If you can't understand why kids are shooting kids . . . you need to open those eyes. Turn on the radio; get and listen to some of your kids' CDs; go to a video arcade or on the computer and see the nature of some of the video games the kids play.

To help young people develop noble and strong characters and morals so they can deal with immoral peer and societal pressures, the Mississippi Economic Council (Box 23276, Jackson, MS) has proposed that character education become a normal, everyday aspect of public school education. The council urges that these moral values permeate the entire school curriculum and all school activities and programs: Honesty; courage; friendship; loyalty; compassion; respect; responsibility; self-discipline; perseverance; and work.

In their work Implementing Character Education (Educational Assessment Publishing, 3033 Fifth Ave., #200, San Diego, CA), educators Dr. B. David Brooks and Patricia Freedman make these spiritually discerning and wise observations:

All teachers working with students are character educators. . . . Good teachers have always included character education as part of the life of the school or classroom. The purpose of formal education is to teach students academic subjects and, equally important, to teach them to be good people.

They add:

Character education is primarily the responsibility of the home. Nevertheless, the school has the responsibility and the opportunity to support the efforts in the home and/or introduce the habits of good character in cases where the home has failed to do so.

Certainly we must teach young persons to be good human beings, and not just good students. By so doing, we can help create a moral and educational climate conducive to teaching and learning such basics as reading, writing, history and arithmetic. *

"Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country." --Noah Webster