COVER STORY : The Moral of the Stories : Schools Counter Rise in Discipline Problems by Adding Lessons in Values

Norwalk-La Mirada school board member Pat Ruiz--fed up with students who swore in class, ignored teachers’ instructions and interrupted lessons--last fall proposed that all district students be taught values and ethics.

Her board colleagues agreed, giving preliminary approval to a plan to introduce the 20,000 students throughout the district to such principles as respect for others, honesty and compassion. If, as expected, the proposal wins final approval next month, Norwalk-La Mirada will become the first public school district in the Southeast area to set up a districtwide program that teaches values along with reading, writing and arithmetic.

Schools need to do something “to stem the tide of our kids going in the wrong direction,” said Ruiz, a former teacher.

Although Norwalk-La Mirada would be the first local district to create such a program for all students, a growing number of other area schools have added lessons in values.

In Long Beach, students at Newcomb Academy for Academic Excellence have daily discussions about moral values, and students at Jackie Robinson Academy have occasional classes in ethics. At Collins Elementary and Los Cerritos Elementary in Paramount, students learn about ethics, tolerance and respect for others in courses aimed at resolving conflicts.

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Newcomb administrators say they have seen higher grades, fewer disciplinary problems and better attendance since the school began teaching students such values as responsibility and self-discipline. Only one student was suspended last year, compared with 24 suspensions the year before the program started, said district spokesman Dick Van Der Laan.

Newcomb directors say the emphasis on values, combined with such changes as cuts in class size and more instruction in academic subjects, helped raise the number of A’s and Bs by 17% and resulted in a 9% drop in Fs at the school, which has an enrollment of about 1,000.

Long Beach Unified administrators strongly encourage all schools to teach values, but the district does not have a formal policy, said board member Ed Eveland, a strong advocate of such lessons.

“If we go back to building a strong moral code for kids, we can attack the root of many problems we’re seeing now with drugs, violence and gangs,” said Eveland, who pledged to push for character education during his successful school board campaign two years ago. “Diminishing moral standards have led to the problems we’re having.”

The local efforts to teach values and ethics mirror a growing nationwide trend. Throughout the country, one in five school districts has some type of program designed to build character in students, said John Martin, executive director of the Character Education Partnership, a national advocacy group in Alexandria, Va.

These programs have encountered almost no opposition.

The values being introduced to students are so traditional that no one could possibly object to them, said Allan Parachini, the spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. He warns, however, that a district could run into some opposition regarding how the values are taught.

“The only concerns we would have is if (a) district adopts this agenda, that it steers a wide berth around any religious or political indoctrination,” he said. “We can see potential for something like that to creep into this.”

The movement to teach values began gaining momentum in the mid-1980s as district officials, educators and parents became increasingly concerned about escalating crime and drug abuse among youths, Martin said.

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Recent polls also reflect the public’s increasing concern over juvenile delinquency. The category of “fighting, violence and gangs” along with “lack of discipline” ranked as the biggest problems facing public schools, according to a nationwide Gallup poll.

Long Beach parent Lisa Beene applauds the extensive effort to teach values at Newcomb, where her son is a sixth-grader.

“Values and morals should be taught at home,” she said. “But the reality is (they’re) not. . . .

“We live in a society where it’s a luxury to have a parent stay at home with a child. Parents today do not have the time or the access to a child that educators do in terms of the amount of hours. There’s a moral vacuum and schools need to help fill it.”

At Newcomb, an elementary school on the city’s upscale east side, students in grades six through eight participate in daily sessions that stress values. Students in kindergarten through fifth grades have monthly lessons, although teachers frequently hold informal discussions.

“In all the work that we do, we’re trying to teach kids that through positive values, hard work and dedication, you’re going to achieve,” said Joseph Palumbo, Newcomb co-director.

This month’s value is respect. In March it will be kindness.

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Recently, a group of third-graders in teacher Diane Asari’s class discussed the importance of self-discipline after reading a fable about a carefree grasshopper who sang and danced all summer while a group of hard-working ants stored food for the winter.

Students gathered around in a circle and exchanged ideas while Asari took on the role of moderator.

“It’s about discipline,” a freckle-faced youngster said. “The grasshopper didn’t think about working and he almost died. He only thought about himself and not the future.”

“It’s about responsibility,” a platinum-haired boy chimed in. “The grasshopper learns a lesson. If you work, you get something out of it.”

During these discussions, students often apply the moral message of the story to real-life situations, Asari said. ‘It puts them in situations where they have to think about making the right choices.”

Teachers at Newcomb say they also have noticed improvements in student attitude and behavior since the school began teaching values.

After the Northridge earthquake last year, students collected money to donate to victims of the disaster, teacher Fay Tracy said. A few months ago, Tracy’s students wrote letters to console a classmate whose father had died. Recently, they sent comforting notes to a school custodian who sustained third-degree burns when his car caught fire while he was fixing it. “Many students didn’t even know the employee,” Tracy said.

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Ruiz, who pushed for the districtwide effort in the Norwalk-La Mirada district, said she believes that educators should make more of an effort “to teach children about responsibility, respectfulness, and the difference between right and wrong.”

Fellow board member Rudy Bermudez said he believes that juvenile delinquency would not be as widespread if schools made a more deliberate attempt to teach students about ethics and responsible behavior.

“We may not be in the state we’re in today with the problems that we now face in society, if schools had these programs. . . . We really need this. It’s an item that not all children are learning in the home.”

At Norwalk-La Mirada, a team of parents, teachers, students, district employees and administrators selected seven values to introduce next fall: honesty, responsibility, compassion, perseverance, respectfulness, cooperation and conviction.

District officials said they will avoid areas likely to generate controversy, such as religious beliefs.

“There are enough core values that are so universal that people don’t really disagree,” said the district’s curriculum director, Robin Avelar La Salle. “There are values that are so basic, like honesty.”

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As part of the new program, teachers are considering using a series of videotapes that force students to cope with moral dilemmas. In one tape, for example, one friend sees another shoplifting at a mall. “The moral question is, what do you do?” said Avelar La Salle. Students will be encouraged to discuss how they would respond to such an incident.

The district will also include discussions of values in basic courses, she said. In history, for example, values such as honesty or compassion may be explored through discussions of world leaders and the moral dilemmas they faced and choices they made.

“The goal would not be to come up with the right answers, who was honest or dishonest,” she said. “The idea is to discuss different perspectives.”

Supt. Ginger Shattuck said the district’s plan “will provide an opportunity to instill ethics as well as reinforce what values are being taught at home.”

Some experts warn that educators can still encounter problems teaching even the most generally accepted values. For instance, there are occasions when two values such as honesty and kindness conflict.

“An honest response may be a cruel response,” said Lynn Beck, professor of education at the UCLA, who warns that teaching values should not be looked upon as a panacea for societal ills. “There are no quick fixes,” she said.

In Norwalk-La Mirada, however, Ruiz and her colleagues have decided they must take action.

Ruiz, who taught for 26 years, said her most common disciplinary problems during the early years were students chewing gum in class, speaking out of turn or shoving each other in line--mild concerns compared to now-prevalent student violence, drug use and pregnancies.

“Teaching of values in the home is lacking,” Ruiz said. “It’s mirrored in the growing level of disrespect and violence in society. How we tear each other down. How we see children with little respect for human life.

“If we don’t come up with solutions early on and take a proactive stance, then these problems will continue to grow.”