Moral Detectors
When Moses came down Mt. Sinai he gave the people two tablets. They werent Viagra and RU486, the recently legalized abortion pill. By all accounts it was the Ten Commandments that were in the tablets. The Commandments have stood unchanged throughout thousands of centuries. They have weathered thousands and thousands of criticisms and have remained the supreme code. Our American forefathers quoted the Ten commandants religiously. They are the basis for major religious organizations.
What makes the Commandments unique is their timeless message of morality and decency. The problems we face today concerning murder, adultery and honesty are dealt with in the Commandments. Any child knows that it is very wrong to kill or steal. Ask them why and they will say, It is forbidden according to the Ten Commandments.
Lately it has been reported that we now have had a big wave of violent murders in our schools. In 1997 over 6,100 students were expelled. The reason given by the Department of Education was that students had brought guns to school. The 6100 students do not include students expelled for bringing in knives or drugs. Thousands more are expelled daily for fights, threats, and general mayhem that they cause. What's really disturbing is the fact that the recent murders of school children are taking place in predominantly middle class, lily white communities. This phenomena has blasted the theory of bad neighborhoods, inner cities and ghetto type communities produce bad and violent youth. The murder and maiming are not products of bad homes nor neighborhoods, but products of something else.
We can safely state that there is no monopoly on bad kids or bad schools. It happens anywhere anyplace and anytime. Any school can have a tragedy. We can't even blame the parents as it has been reported that the fifteen year old, Kiplin P. Kinkel, charged with murdering his parents, students and wounding 18 others, comes from a model, stable home. The model parents, with all their understanding and parenting, cared about their son but could not help him. They ended up losing their own lives. Where did they go wrong? I wonder.
As a clergyman I search for the answer to these disturbing questions. I know that there must be answers somewhere or some place. I was helped in finding the answer this week when I opened my mail. My little day school received a notice from the Department of Education. It was an information memo informing school administrations that as in the past, they had to be on the look out for disturbed teachers and pedophiles who have had their license removed for sexual abuse with their students, they need to be aware of a new epidemic. The report reveals we must check all the records of physicians who volunteer or who wish to visit our schools. There is now a new list available at the capital with a free toll number to call in order to check the credibility of the physician. Is he still licensed or is he under investigation - how frightening.
State Law now requires to finger print everybody who works within the children's school, whether they are janitors, kitchen help, coaches, teachers, nurses, principals, bus drivers or physicians, they all are suspect. From early ages to senior students in high school, everybody is a possible victim and guess who your perpetrator is - your fellow student or teacher or health provider. With the recent shootings at school I am real worried about the school environment.
It seems that a new bumper sticker should be issued with the words "Schools may be hazardous to your childs health" or maybe a new public message billboard sending a message "Guns dont kill - Schools do."
Yes, I believe that guns are a big problem in this society but then again we must remember that in the days of Davy Crocket and David Boone there were plenty of guns on the mantle pieces. They were readily accessible to the family but it has never been reported that the children took the guns and shot each other or their school teachers. This fact we should not ignore. ( Personally I do not own a gun nor will I allow them in my home - it makes no difference whether they be toy ones or real ones.)
I think that what may be happening is that we are now seeing the results of bad school education. It has been close to 25 years that we have not allowed schools to teach right from wrong. Anything that is of religious dogma; example the Ten Commandments has been purged from our schooling. What we have in the School system are teachers who cannot express morals, values, right or wrong nor the mention of G‑d. The idea of goodness so well expressed in the Ten Commandments are now forbidden to be taught or even suggested. Heaven forbid that a teacher should speak about the responsibility of being moral.
The outcome of this educational flaw in our educational system has burst into a major problem of unprecedented proportion. Why shouldn't a student murder somebody unless he is taught that it is wrong and that is because G‑d said so. Why shouldn't the teacher commit sexual indecency with consenting High School students. The answer again is found in the Ten Commandments. It is wrong. The reason you dont steal, rape and murder is because G‑d gave us a moral code to live by.
I dream that instead of having metal detectors at the entrances of our schools we will have a special machine called a moral detector. A machine that you will have to walk through before you are able to enter a school campus. The machine will detect if you are moral person. If not the machine would go off and refuse you entry.
On Sunday, May 31st, people of the Jewish nation will celebrate the holiday called Shavuos (weeks). The holiday occurs seven weeks after the story of the Jews liberation from slavery in Egypt. It is also called Pentecost which means 50, remembering the fifty days of the journey in the desert. According to Jewish tradition it 3310 years ago that G‑d revealed himself to the world and presented the Ten Commandments to those in the desert at Mt. Sinai. Remember, the Ten Commandments are available to everybody. The bible with all its stories contain lessons for the right way of living.
Studies on parochial schools show that children who are taught the Ten Commandments, right from wrong, and religious inspiration are hardly ever involved in murders.
Maybe we ought to let the Ten Commandments back into our School. With G‑d on our side our kids would be a lot safer.