From the Presbyterian News Service comes word of a survey of teenagers guaranteed to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. It seems that while 80% of teenagers believe they are “ethically prepared” tp face the future, almost 40% also believe that “breaking the rules” to succeed is acceptable behavior. Junior Achievement and Deloitte also found out the following about the membership of Future Criminals of America:
•80 percent of teens either somewhat or strongly agree that they are prepared to make ethical business decisions when they join the workforce, yet more than a third (38 percent) think that they have to break the rules at school to succeed.
•More than one in four teens (27 percent) think behaving violently is sometimes, often or always acceptable. Twenty percent of respondents said they had personally behaved violently toward another person in the past year, and 41 percent reported a friend had done so.
•Nearly half (49 percent) of those who say they are ethically prepared believe that lying to parents and guardians is acceptable, and 61 percent have done so in the past year.
•Teens feel more accountable to themselves (86 percent) than they do to their parents or guardians (52 percent), their friends (41 percent) or society (33 percent).
•Only about half (54 percent) cite their parents as role models. Most of those who don’t cite their parents as role models are turning to their friends or said they didn’t have a role model.
•Only 25 percent said they would be “very likely” to reveal knowledge of unethical behavior in the workplace.
There’s so much wrong here that it is hard to know where to start, or where the problem lies–with parents, religious institutions, schools, the entertainment industry, government; probably all of the above in one measure or another. I think it’s safe to say that the adult world is failing our children if such a large proportion of them think this way. I also think it’s safe to say that the solution has to begin with parents being willing to instruct their kids, model ethical behavior, and if need be provide a measure of shelter from an intellectual and moral climate that seems to exalt behaviors that are anti-social, inhumane, violent and extraordinarily self-centered.
February 27, 2009 at 6:14 pm
My husband is a tax auditor. This survey doesn’t surprise me at all.
February 27, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Today’s children are largely disconnected from the beliefs and teachings of their parents. I’d like to relate a story told to me just today by a Roman Catholic CCD teacher, slightly OT, but making a similar point.
At a special Mass where the children were to take major parts of the Mass, this CCD teacher and two of her 8th grade girl students were sitting in the sanctuary, just a few feet from the altar, because the girls were to read some of the lessons. When the priest got the the consecration, one of the girls said out loud, “What is he doing? Is that that bread stuff? Are we going to have to eat that bread stuff? I puke on that stuff!” This is a child of about 14 years who has clearly not absorbed any understanding at all of the faith of her parents and family. It is as though she had never had any association with the Church at all, even though she was regularly in the CCD class.
Today’s youth have gotten their ideas about right and wrong from sources entirely outside the Church and the family. They appear to have come mostly from movies and TV.
February 28, 2009 at 12:21 am
I don’t think so. Children learn from their parents actions, not their words. That’s what I was getting at above – so many adults think cheating is ok, and do cheat. Their kids will pick up on that.
February 28, 2009 at 8:26 am
When I started teaching at the Basic School (1983-85), I happened to read an article about a survey of college students. It reported some huge percentage–on the order of 70 to 80 percent–had cheated in the previous year and did not think it wrong to do so.
When I gave my first class to the newly commissioned Lieutenants (which, by law, had to come in the first week of their training), in addition to the required articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, I stressed that they were entering a new world. While they might have gotten the idea in the civilian world that cheating was OK, it was not tolerated in the Marine Corps. In particular, officers found to have cheated were gone! I stressed that there were no second chances. in the case of an officer who had demonstrated that he could not be trusted.
We had about only one cheating incident in every four classes or so, i.e., a class or company was 26 weeks long and made up of 200 to 250 students. What bothered me was that the cheaters were tearful and stunned that we took cheating seriously. “But, sir, it was only a quick look at Lieutenant ____’s answer sheet.” They could not fathom that their conduct had demonstrated that they could not be trusted.
After awhile, I began my first class with “Marine Corps trivia:
“Who was Major Samuel Nicholas?” (First Commandant of the Marine Corps.)
“Who was Dan Daly?” (Only enlisted Marine to receive two Medals of Honor.)
“Who were Lieutenants _______ and ______?” Invariably, the guesses were Medal of Honor recipients, or honor graduates of TBS. The shock effect of the correct answer, “they were officers who were discharged for cheating in the past ___ months,” was apparent. Perhaps that is why we had a much lower incidence of cheating.