Moral support: How we raise a ‘good person’ in fractured times.
Here at the playground, the rules are clear: Be nice. Don’t hit. Take turns.
But if the rules are clear here, they get hazier as life progresses.
The standards of moral integrity prevailing since ancient times – and until recently passed along in sanctuaries and Sunday schools, Scout meetings, history lessons, fairy tales, and traditional “great books” – have undergone a sea change in the past 10 years. As religious attendance plummeted, the Western canon itself came under attack, and an extreme political divide undermined what common ground remained.
As a result, “The moral and spiritual canopy under which life was lived is gone,” says Robert Wilken, professor emeritus of the history of Christianity at the University of Virginia.
Where tradition once conveyed established virtues and vices, today’s culture is a bottomless font of input, from school, sports, and social media, to celebrities, politicians, and friends. One person’s villains are another’s heroes, and vice versa, with no clear agreement on right and wrong.
And while remnants of a traditional moral framework remain, parents are picking and choosing which ideas to pass on – and in what context. Morals thus have become even more than ever a matter of individual preference and less a matter of societal norm.
The new morals options couldn’t have been clearer than during interviews with two parents approached at random one sweltering summer morning at Freedom Playground in suburban Philadelphia.
Alex Brophy describes his family’s target values as centered on diversity. He tries to avoid pitfalls like ableism and gender stereotyping, he says: “I want my kids to appreciate people from different backgrounds.”
Fellow playground parent Liz Boring says hospitality is a key virtue under development in her family, as they focus on tone of
