Virtue
What is the main problem in the field of higher education today, according to Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers?
Sommers is concerned about several things that take place on college campuses in America. She is aware that students cheat rather than do their own work, for one thing. She reports on a survey by the Boston Globe that revealed a shocking 75% of high school students have admitted to cheating; the percentage of college students that cheat is 50% and the percentage of college-age students that would steal from their employers is 34%.
All of this shocking to Sommers but she believes the source of these negative statistics is the fact that students are not being taught ethics. Instead the students are enrolled in courses in moral relativism and social justice (along with other social issues); very little was being taught regarding morality, personal morality and taking responsibility for person behaviors.
Her passion for teaching students ethical truths and moral facts comes through this article very powerfully. The fact...
She offers suggestions for solving this problem, beginning with the thought that students should be required to take classes on "the philosophy of virtue" -- and a good start would be to teach Plato, Augustine, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill. On top of that -- even though younger people may not be able to relate to some of those philosophers -- she believes that children at the elementary and secondary level should be reading biographies of "great men and women." Teaching "moral stories" has gone out of date but Sommers' view is that teachers at that level should be teaching moral stories. Would that be brainwashing? She scoffs at that notion. Teachers should emphasize "civility, kindness, and honesty" and teachers should be told stories "that reinforce goodness" because students' "own character is at stake."
Reading through the essay by Rigterink…
