Teaching Theft in Middle School

Taking a brief respite from my usual self aggrandizement and self promotion, I thought I'd post the text of a letter I'm posting to the local school board. This letter came about due to a conversation I was having with my children. One child suggested that I burn MP3s to my ipod from a CD she had borrowed from the library. I explained that to keep these songs after we had returned the CD to the library would be stealing. Another of my children chimed in to tell me about how his Civics teacher was telling her students about how she did exactly that, and I realized that the school system (or that teacher in particular) was working to undermine the values that I was trying to teach my children.

The text of the letter is below:

I am writing this letter to express a concern about the Civics class in Lakewood Middle School, and in particular the one in which my son is a class member. It's my understanding that Civics is considered a social science, and more specifically the study of good and proper membership in a community. I presume that this would also include the observation of copyright and intellectual property laws.

However, the teacher of this Civics class related to the students that she borrowed CDs from the library, burned the songs to MP3 and kept them after returning the CDs to the library. More egregious in my mind than the actual theft, was that by relating this story she is teaching her students that this is acceptable behavior—which is a direct dichotomy to the values that she should be instilling as a teacher of Civics and as a role model to the students.

I understand that teachers are human and imperfect, but when instructors set this kind of example a moral decline is perpetuated in the students. We live in a time that our efforts should be spent in lifting society to a higher standard, not in rationalizing a lower standard.

Sincerely,

Joel Jenkins