Setting minimum competency levels for teachers is a symptom of what is wrong with educational attitudes in the United States. Without an adequate commitment of education, and in light of the entrenched position of the educational establishment, the nation's stopgap efforts will not serve education's critical need for fundamental change. (PGD)

Argues against the notion that teachers lack vision, asserting instead that the educational power structure and the realities of teaching every day prevent teachers from being heard or from realizing their visions. Suggests that those urging more outspoken involvement in educational improvement from teachers are overly optimistic. (PGD)

Welcomes the statements made in another article in this journal as evidence that committed, visionary teachers are present in the schools and are willing to be heard. (PGD)

The Council for Basic Education has received enthusiastic feedback from teachers who have accepted its summer stipends for self-directed, indepth study in their subject areas. These efforts will not realize their full potential unless school districts recognize and use the professional expertise of these re-inspired teachers. (PGD)

Collaboration among five public school systems, the Digital Equipment Corporation, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has created the Math/English/Science/Technology Education Project. The program recruits and prepares prospective teachers under the guidance of experienced, practicing teachers, and provides the new teachers with…

Moral instruction was an accepted part of the educational system until the 1930's. More recent approaches to moral instruction are discussed and criticized. The author states that it is specious to talk about student choices, that school is inherently doctrinal, and that the question to ask is, What will be indoctrinated? (MD)

Criticizes the ideas of the "great tradition" article (EA 519 521, this issue), pointing out that there is little historical agreement on the nature of morality, and that advocating mindless conformity to externally imposed standards of conduct is to caricature the moral life. (MD)

Criticizes the "great tradition" article (EA 519 521, this issue), asserting that traditional methods of moral instruction failed because they indoctrinated conduct and did not teach individuals moral understanding. Suggests that indoctrination is incompatible with education. (MD)

Critiques the terminological, historical, prescriptive, and descriptive difficulties in the "great tradition" article (EA 519 521, this issue). It is important that schools teach the application of critical thinking to moral problems. (MD)

Criticizes the "great tradition" article (EA 519 521, this issue), pointing out that the cause-and-effect relationship between values clarification and the increase in juvenile problems is tenuous.(MD)

The author responds to criticisms (EA 519 522-525) of his "great tradition" article (EA 519 521). Points out that only one philosopher in the past 24 centuries was sympathetic to giving choices to children and adolescents. (MD)

Academically successful schools need to master student discipline and accept that character development is as important as academic development. Provides recommendations on how schools can do both. (MD)

Describes interviews with high school teachers and students from New Hampshire, Illinois, and Georgia in which the author asked teachers and students to define the term "character" as part of an investigation into the moral lives of children. (MD)

Outlines the history and roots of affective education and points out its shortcomings in contemporary educational programs. (MD)

Outlines the program of Bethany Baptist Academy, a fundamentalist religious K-12 school in the Midwest. The school socializes the students to think and behave according to the dictates of its religious doctrine. (MD)