`speechless' Brings One Word To Mind: Cute

At Least 4,200 Fans A Game Is Team's Goal 
A National Consultant Outlines The Economics Of Putting A Team In The 
Projected Arena

Friday, December 16, 1994 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 18A 





Virtue, not prayer, might be better goal in schools &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Strewn across the American cultural landscape are battlefields resembling
the trench wars of World War I. You know them well: They're the conflicts over
issues such as abortion, gun control and gay rights, where both sides hold
strong positions -- and spend years lobbing grenades at each other without
yielding an inchThe divisive issue of school prayer likely will ground on such
a treeless and cratered field. Unless.... &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Maybe there's a way to avoid that fate. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The key is to rethink the terms of victory. Prayer supporters trace their
cause to that day in 1962 when the Supreme Court outlawed officially
sanctioned prayer in schools. The supporters see "winning" as reversing or
overriding that decision, and getting teachers and students to invoke God in
unison once again. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But what if the terms were changed? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 What if, instead of targeting the Supreme Court decision, prayer supporters
turned their eyes to a less-well-known, but perhaps more momentous, event --
one that speaks even more clearly to the problems of America's schools? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In other words: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 What if supporters kept prayers out of the classroom -- but invited the 10
Commandments, or something very like them, back in? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 We submit that prayer supporters' real goal is not to get kids to pray for
one minute a day. It's to get kids to behave themselves for the other 1,439
minutes a day. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The goal is not prayer, but virtue. Prayer is just a means to that end.
It's a proxy, a way to encourage kids to think in a religious way -- and so,
with luck, to prompt them to behave in a moral way. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Looked at in this fashion, the banning of school prayer was not the pivotal
moment in the so-called "decline" of schools. That moment came later: When, as
a result of the prayer decision, the 10 Commandments got yanked from the
schoolhouse walls ... now, there was a moment that the nation, in hindsight,
should mourn. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Because in the place of Moses' two stone tablets, which had guided Western
behavior for more than 3,000 years, society put up -- what? A few lines from
that purple dino-philosopher, Barney? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In truth, nothing went up on the walls, and that's exactly the point.
Schools began treating virtue and conduct with a kind of official neutrality
-- an "on the one hand, on the other hand" approach to developing character.
The graduate-school buzzwords were such phrases as "moral relativism" and
"values clarification"; the real-world result has been confusion and failure. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Take sex education. Today, "sex education is educational," writes columnist
Joanne Jacobs of the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Students end up knowing more about contraception and condoms than when
they started. But knowledge is not wisdom. Unfortunately, most of the research
done to date shows that even exemplary sex education programs that rely on
imparting knowledge and decision-making skills have little effect on sexual
behavior. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Kids don't go out and have more sex, as opponents fear, but they don't
have less unprotected sex either. And they're not significantly better at
protecting themselves from pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. You
can lead a horse to water but you can't get him to use a condom
consistently.... &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "What does work? Successful programs clearly and explicitly tell young
teen-agers not to have sex just yet, and show them how to resist sexual
pressures. There's no effect on sexually active kids, but those who haven't
started can be persuaded that waiting till they're older is normal and
socially acceptable." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Drug education is another clear example. As mentioned in this space the
other day, the firm "Just Say No" approach of the 1980s had a rare and
dramatic result: It worked. Drug use fell from the early 1980s through 1992,
according to The New York Times. Kids responded to a clear and unwavering
social norm. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But that message isn't so prominent today, either in schools or in the rest
of the culture. And since 1992, drug use among teens has been on the rise. &amp;n

Virtue, Not Prayer, Might Be Better Goal In Schools 
Strewn Across The American Cultural Landscape Are Battlefields Resembling The 
Trench Wars Of World War I. You Know Them Well: They're The Conflicts Over 
Issues Such As Abortion, Gun Control And Gay Rights, Where Both Sides Hold 
Strong Positions -- And Spend Years Lobbing Grenades At Each Other Without 
Yielding An Inch.