Nurturing Decent Human Beings: The Case for Moral Education in Our Schools
A Call to National Action
Schools are not , cannot be, and should not be just about academics. Even a majority of Americans think schools should nurture students to value kindness, civility, and truth. Nevertheless, there is no national commitment to moral education.
This silence leaves to chance the kind of individuals and society we will have in the future. Moral education in our schools is currently inconsistent, frequently unacknowledged, even controversial.
This book demonstrates why this situation must change as it clarifies the content of moral education and shows how it can avoid divisiveness and be effectively integrated into the life of every school. The focus is on K – 12 education, with one chapter devoted to colleges.
Essential reading for educators, parents, and anyone concerned about the values of the next generation and our country’s future.
Quotes from Educators and Reviewers
What gives the book its particular enjoyability is Nill’s own voice: part philosopher, part headmaster, always a storyteller. His anecdotes ring true to anyone who has ever taught, the joy of sparking curiosity in a young mind, the sting of injustice when students are silenced or mocked, the pride of watching graduates step forward as young adults with values intact. –Maria Ashford
If I know anything about the power of families and the power of schools to shape young minds, parents and teachers, principals and board members, professors and university regents, and policy makers and journalists should get their hands on a copy of Nurturing Decent Human Beings and read it with a laser focus. –Earl B. Russell
The author calls for the need for a national commitment to moral education, especially considering the current political, social, and moral climate….A thought-provoking and vital reading selection, especially for educators, parents and civic leaders! –Roxanne Zazzaro
A well researched, thoughtfully nuanced and yet urgently delivered “defense of education’s potential to transform lives” that is at once enlightening and thought provoking. —Diane Mackie
The Author
Michael Nill, a lifetime educator with a doctorate in Classics and Philosophy and a master’s in Educational Administration, retired as the headmaster of a PS – 12 school in New York City. Morality and Self-Interest in Protagoras, Antiphon and Democritus is his previous book.
Previous Book
Morality and Self-Interest in Protagoras, Antiphon and Democritus is a scholarly work devoted to reconstructing the moral views of three pre-Socratic thinkers. Without the benefit of the vocabulary of moral theory, they wrestled with the question of how morality and self-interest are related. If it is rational to behave in self-interested ways, can moral behavior be rational and benefit the one who so acts? Through the ages, this issue has remained relevant to moral theory in