Our whole school rearranges our daily schedule several times a year to teach character education lessons. Today I led a lesson in "Respect." In the middle of talking about how words are powerful and you may not see wounds on the outside, but unkind words can hurt you on the inside, I was stopped in my tracks.
Here I was speaking with my students about the importance of treating each other civilly, with kindness, understanding, and respect, even when we may not agree with each other, and it suddenly seemed so futile.
My students are living in a country where lack of civility and even fomenting violence towards those you disagree with is common place. Politicians running for office in this election cycle are making disrespect, rudeness, and even violent overtures towards those they disagree with common place and apparently acceptable.
How successful can I be teaching character education to pre-teen students, when all around them are adult models of bad behavior?
Teachers face so many challenges in the classroom. We're familiar with the long list. But this it too much.
Adults vying for the top office in the land are modeling the worst of human behavior as acceptable, even laudable.
How hard is it for kids to think it's now okay for them to act disrespectfully, even violently towards one another? It seems the worse you treat others, the more votes you get. Or at the very least, the more air time on television you get.
Who can overcome the powerful allure of that?
And can we be successful countering the dangerous narrative that hateful speech is okay as long as people applaud you for it?
I of course will keep trying.
But I'm less confident who will win this struggle to be decent, moral, ethical, and kind.
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