The Intelligent Student's Guide to the New World Order

No Right - No Wrong - Rational Conscience

It is assumed that none of the problems or personal dilemmas presented can be prevented or solved by self control and moral behavior. How do curriculum planners justify this omission? Your teachers are told that any statement regarding morality is considered to be an unexamined belief based on authority. The National Council for the Social Studies says decision-making should be what they call rational, rather than being based on authority or conscience. For example, in Wisconsin teachers were advised:

“A child generally comes to school with what R. J. Havighurst calls an authoritarian conscience acquired from his parents through a progression of punishments and rewards. He soon learns that he is not equipped to deal with all the new situations which confront him. Peers and teachers join and sometimes supplant parents in helping him to find solutions which are often in conflict with those offered by his parents. His task, then, is to change from this early authoritarian conscience to a rational one. This requires that he learn a process for resolving to his own satisfaction the conflicts that will inevitably arise whenever change or confrontation with an opposing view makes him question his existing values.” [11]