Consequences of ignoring Ethics basics in Education

     Consequences of ignoring Ethics basics in Education

  Please note that when ethics is being referred to, it isn't just any arbitrary set of principles which anyone can set up, call just, and then teach. When ethics is referred to, it is to the universally recognized principles of right and wrong  based on our common human condition which is composed of  mortality or the ability to die,  human ability to suffer,  human need for social cooperation and respect for human reasoning abilities. You know, the ones mentioned by the United Nations Bill of Human Rights. 

    This common human condition imposes moral obligation on us such as  honesty, avoiding  the infliction of unnecessary pain and offering to alleviate it when possible, and respect freedom of thought and expressions ad for human life. If we examine the criminal mind we will immediately notice that this sense of moral obligation is missing, a moral obligation that should have been taught during basic education at school  but irresponsibly wasn't. 

     But why would basic education ignore ethics as a compulsory requirement for preparing future citizens to be law abiding? This is a question that should never need  to be asked. Why? Because the importance of ethics should be so obvious that the social situation where it is totally ignored in basic education should never exist. After all, if we don't allow citizens to drive cars without gaining some basic skills because they might kill themselves or others, why should we allow citizens to become adults who harm themselves and others because they don't know how to think properly.  It should be more than obvious that knowing mathematics, geography, history, economics, astronomy etc will not prevent a person from murdering someone because he or she feels she has the right to. Instead, excuses such as the following are provided.

     He offended me so I killed him.
     I didn't like the way he looked at me, so I set his house on fire..
     He dared me to do it so I sucker punched the old lady and took her groceries.
     I had to prove myself to the gang to gain respect, so I burglarized that home.
     He tried to stop me when I tried to get away while stealing his car, so I stabbed him.

     Everyone does it!
     He deserves it for being stupid.
     He should not be in this country to begin with.
     He tried to get past me!


     That last one was offered in court as an excuse for plowing into the side of my car by a lady who slammed her car into mine because she saw me getting by her on the right lane while she waited on the left lane that was marked for turning left at the intersection and which prohibited right turns. She casually offered that explanation to the judge in court and lost the case. To her, her explanation made  perfect sense. Try to get by me I slam my car into yours!

    Paralyzing someone for smiling is another one I encountered. All the kid had to do was not associate with the other younger kid who smiled in a way that annoyed him. Instead he attempted to paralyze him. Inflicted damage that lasted for a lifetime of pain and suffering. 


     But if you examine the school curriculum of these brainless violent individuals, there is not one class dedicated to teaching them ethics during their formative years. In short, they are expected to gain a sense of right and wrong by some process of osmosis. Or perhaps by being told at church that some behavior is wrong because it displeases God. For some that might be enough but if that is the only reason provided many choose to place their own feeling above God and do it anyway. The vast numbers of professed Christians who are criminals such as thieves is a testament to that fact.

     It should be readily obvious that if not provided with solid ethical reasons for a behavior, the person will provided his own reasons and plow ahead blindly maybe into a life of crime, failed marriages, lost jobs and even wind up in the electric chair. So the question is why doesn't the educational system not  include cogent reasoning and ethics in its required curriculum?  Why is such a negligent society surprised  it's adult citizens rampage like savages and the crime rate increases seemingly beyond control when it is to blame?