Many who seek to maintain America as a civilized and moral culture have been deeply troubled by increasing human behavior that doesnt reflect this character.

A recent event demands the response, Enough!

On July 9, Jamel Dunn, age 32, of Cocoa, Florida, drowned in a retention pond. His body was recovered July 14, two days after his fiance reported him missing. A week later, a family friend discovered on social media a video taken by five teenagers, recording the drowning, plus their reactions.

Not only did the teenagers ignore Dunns screams for help; they took great glee in his losing battle, laughing and jeering at his struggle, yelling things like, Nobody is going to help your a--!- to the point when his head finally goes under water, and they shriek, Oh he just died!

The teenagers went unpunished because authorities could find no laws they broke. But as civilized and moral human beings, we know something fundamental was very violated.

Our species of humans survived and thrived while others like Neanderthals did not, because we alone depended upon each other from the beginning. This universal truth is expressed in our Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

These teenagers were raised in American families and educated in American schools. Whatever we may think we taught them, we allowed them to reach adolescence as uncivilized and immoral individuals, which is much worse than being illiterate ones.

If they have no respect for human life, arent they prime candidates for violent crime?

I find them repulsive. But arent they children we failed? Why werent they taught human civility, morality and character?

American education is a crass enterprise, controlled by the interests of business and universities. It has little room or motivation for teaching and inspiring civility, morality and character.

Our schools strongly emphasize academic achievement and test scores. Some try to humanize themselves with social and emotional learning, even character programs. But kids know these are just add-ons that are not connected to the central college/jobs focus.

Families and parentsin the worst shape Ive seen in my 66-year teaching careerbuy into the schools academic focus out of fear their child will lose out in the college competition. Thus parents unwittingly abdicate their moral authority to the school.

Schools and parents are complicit in ignoring the moral development of children. Of course we have many parents, families and teachers who do a fine job in developing children with character, but that is not the norm today.

America was a powerful expression of humanity in civilization, founded on the belief that each individual has a unique potential that is to be valued. American educations first priority should be challenging and supporting every American child. In addition, the family must be an integral part of this process, since in character development, parents are the primary teachers and the home the primary classroom.

This rigorous process will produce self-confident, motivated and moral students with a larger purpose. Their scholarship and maturity will be welcomed by colleges and their drive and personal qualities by employers as well.

Im not describing utopia, just good teaching.

Horace Mann, the father of our public school system, said if he had a year to teach spelling, hed spend the first nine months on motivation. But today weve got a robotic educational system that essentially treats children like a herd of cattle, bombarding them with knowledge until they graduate. It insults their unique potential and Americas basic purpose.

There is a better way. I founded a school 51 years ago to test the educational focus on unique potential and character development; we helped the concept spread to public schools. Today we see thousands of graduates and their parents lead meaningful and fulfilling lives of honor.

The key to our success: Teaching children and their parents to discover their unique potential and character, and to value that learning process. This is what is missing from educationand our culture today.

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Our American Character is Under Siege - HuffPost