Every now and then, you read of a judge who refers to character in sentencing a criminal. It happened again recently, when a judge in California sentenced to prison a couple who used a severed finger in an attempt to extort money from a fast-food chain.
“Greed and avarice overtook this couple,” Judge Edward Davila pronounced. He then added that the couple had “lost their moral compass.”
My question, in reading the judge’s statement, was this. Did that couple ever have a moral compass to lose? Could they find true moral excellence on a “moral compass” as surely as the hiker can find true north on his or her compass?
I concluded that they had no compass. They were neither born with silver moral compasses in their hands, nor did they come into this world knowing that greed and avarice are wrong. Most likely, they came into homes much like those of many people we know – homes where greed and avarice were modeled for them. Their hearts agreed with the models, and they quickly honed their own covetousness. They were not very different from many people with whom we live and work daily.
Some readers will not concur, so let me explain. I think you will agree that people who invest hard-earned dollars in the lottery exhibit avarice and greed, not generosity. Most do not play the lottery in order to exercise openhandedness to an array of charities, but to accumulate things for themselves. The people in our nation who long to win the “Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes” seldom plan to give away all that money with kindness and generosity. They are ecstatic when they win because their materialism will be satisfied for a short time. Small children make extensive lists of gifts they want when a holiday or birthday is in the offing. They usually are not asking because they want to give them all to poor children. Their greediness is being exercised, because they have no moral compass to point in the direction of generosity and bigheartedness.
So I believe the couple whom the judge described as overtaken by avarice and greed were not at all overtaken. They were simply exercising a trait common to those who have not built character. They did not lose their moral compass. They had none.
Character education provides a moral compass when we use a good character education program. Parents and teachers who painstakingly lay line upon line, precept upon precept in helping young people build character, are giving those young people an accurate, moral compass. Parents and teachers, accessing materials such as the free “Character Builder Newsletter” can acquire tools for character education, whether at home or at school. They can order books and other materials, as well as character education activities to help young people of any age learn moral absolutes that are as unfailing as an accurate compass.
Character education provides a moral compass that is not likely to get lost. It is built into the head, by giving knowledge; built into the heart, by helping young people embrace it as their own; and built into actions by encouragement to exercise the traits. With each exercise of it, character becomes stronger, and that provides an “un-lose-able” moral compass.
That’s the view from my chair. What’s your view?