Teachers, liberal or not, aren’t to blame

Re “Schools that graduate thieves,” Current, Jan. 1

If only God could have had Dennis Prager’s help with the Ten Commandments, they could have been more succinctly expressed. Prager no doubt thinks he could have done things better.

But why, apart from his usual prejudice, does he blame left-wing teachers for young people who think that stealing is acceptable? They have much more prominent examples to follow: convicted ex-WorldCom Inc. chief Bernard Ebbers, convicted former Tyco International CEO Dennis Kozlowski, accused Enron chief Ken Lay, et al. It is doubtful that they were influenced by left-wing teachers.

Could it be that young people are more influenced by the examples they see around them than the sermons preached to them?

JAMES M. SMITH

Los Angeles

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Blaming secular education for a failure of moral character is a classic conservative cop-out. The majority of Americans claim to be churchgoing Christians. Presumably they are guided by such traditional tenets of religious training as the Ten Commandments. And presumably they have had the guidance of one or two parents. One can be secular and still able to determine right from wrong.

To reveal why personality traits of our children are unsavory, perhaps we should examine the integrity of our religious training and our parenting skills. We should look in the mirror, not in the classroom.

TRACY FIGLER

Reno, Nev.

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Prager is correct; many of my twentysomething friends do not have any moral qualms about downloading music. However, his assertion that support for theft follows political divides seems somewhat dubious. I can think of few greater defenders of intellectual property than college professors, who are part of the same liberal education that he lambastes.

Similarly, in arguing the difference between theft as a legal and moral good, perhaps he ought to turn his attention to those who, regardless of political affiliation, hire lawyers and accountants to find loopholes to help them avoid paying taxes.

JOSHUA D. ROSENFELD

Redondo Beach