A renewed interest in teaching character education in public schools has surfaced over the last few years. There is an increased demoralization of children in today's society and concern on what role schools can play in reversing this. Many educators and parents are pushing to bring the teaching of morals back into schools with the hope of changing this trend. James Noll (2001) states, "the schools are failing to provide the moral education they once did; they have abandoned moral teaching" (p. 89).
             Throughout history, "education has always had two great goals: to help people become smart and to help them become good" (Lickona, 1996). Thomas Lickona (1996) maintains that Horace Mann, the first figure of education, urged morality to be taught to children because democracy demands moral citizens.
             Some of the earliest schools in America focused on teaching virtues with the Bible as the main sourcebook. While children learned reading and arithmetic, they also learned lessons about honesty, courage, respect, hard work, and kindness. As religion in schools became a concern, McGuffey readers took over. They praised "values of honesty, hard work, and thrift" (Hall, 2000).
             Character education began to decline in the 20th century with, according to Lickona, the introduction of Darwinism, philosophy of logical positivism, and the pluralism of American society (Noll, 1995). Morals became a matter of personal judgment and not a subject for schools to teach.
             An important change occurred in American education when schools shifted the emphasis away from values to "knowledge, techniques, and the so-called useful subjects and skills. As a result, many persons have come to feel that the weakest point in education is at the level of values" (Bowen, 1952, p. 3). Education shifted from values to plain subject matter, such as reading and arithmetic. Schools started focusing on indivi...