Ebel, must be constructed from information by each individual learner; it cannot be looked up, or given to students by a parent or teacher. " A student must earn the right to say 'I know' by his own thoughtful efforts to understand" (Ebel, 5). The intellectual proficiencies many educators hope to teach are, like information, essentially useless to Ebel without a knowledge base on which to draw from.
             Ebel feels that a good teacher can "motivate, direct, and assist the learning process to great advantage". Although Ebel feels that good teachers are essential to providing a "favorable learning environment," he puts much of the accountability for learning on the students themselves. Ebel feels that teachers are there to facilitate students in their learning, not to coerce those who are indifferent and unmotivated and do not wish to learn, against their will. Ebel states that "for the most part, motivation to learn is an attitude a student has or lacks well before a particular course of instruction ever begins" (7). In spite of the fact that his stress is unmistakably concentrated on the students, Ebel does briefly describe his idea of a "good teacher". Good teachers, according to Ebel, have learned from past experiences. Such teachers provide "immediate recognition and rewards" for student achievement. Ebel in praising the school's role in moral education, calls teachers "models of excellence and humanity" (4).
             Ebel discusses moral education as another of education's special missions, second only to the teaching of useful knowledge. The author defines moral education as "the inculcation in the young of the accumulated moral wisdom of the race" (4). Ebel feels that moral education is being neglected and should have more emphasis placed on it. He feels that our youth has grown up as "moral illiterates." Although somewhat res...