Christina Hoff Sommers

In more than a dozen U.S. states, educators are participating in the “character education” movement—a push to teach moral values in schools. Critics of this movement contend that schools could impose beliefs contrary to those taught in the home. In the following viewpoint, Christina Hoff Sommers argues that schools should teach moral values. She maintains that teachers must use history and literature to teach uncontroversial moral principles such as honesty, integrity, and sacrifice. Because these principles are part of the nation’s moral heritage, America’s children have a right to learn them in school, she concludes. Sommers teaches philosophy at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. She is also a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization.

As you...