Ethics Newsline®

Future historians, looking back to characterize our age, will try to spot and name the most important trends. Here’s my vote:

I think we’ll be known as the period that finally outgrew the idea that there’s a simple fix for complex problems. We’ll go down as the era that became impatient with the merely measurable. We’ll be known for going beyond the smug comfort of “hard” answers, for recognizing that the “soft” issues were in fact the most important. They’ll call us “The Age of the Intangible.”

That, at least, is one way to read the responses to the latest polling data from the Institute for Global Ethics. Our survey, conducted by Strategic Marketing Services for the Institute and the Maine Department of Education, sampled 400 voters across Maine. To be sure, we only asked three questions. We asked them only in one state. And we focused only on education. But if it’s true that “as Maine goes, so goes the nation” — and that questions about education are really questions about our collective future — then these results flag a trend worth watching.

First, we asked what people thought was “the biggest problem facing the teen generation today.” We gave them eight choices: “AIDS,” “crime or violence,” “drugs,” “lack of job opportunities,” “cost of college,” “declining moral and/or social values,” “inadequate education,” and “lack of motivation or direction.” The runaway leader, with 34 percent of the total, was “declining moral and/or social values.” Tied for second, at 17 percent, were “drugs” and “lack of motivation or direction.”

Think about that list. Compared to the “values” and “motivation” choices, the other six topics have clear, hard answers. We know what causes AIDS, what works in dealing with drugs, and how to combat crime. We may not be putting into practice what we know, for lack of funds or lack of political will. But the research is on our shelves. Similarly, we’ve done a lot to address the scarcity of good jobs, poor education, and college costs. These aren’t mystery topics.

Nor are they the ones that most concerned the respondents. They focused on “values” and “motivation.” Nothing hard here; these are the classically “soft” topics, the intangibles that public policy so often ignores and researchers find befuddling. Yet it is precisely here that the public is shouting, “Pay attention!”

Question Two thickens the mix: “What do you think is the most important issue in education today?” The list had six items: “improving teacher quality,” “keeping drugs away from schools,” “reducing the number of students in each classroom,” “setting higher achievement standards,” “teaching children values and discipline,” and “putting more computers in classrooms.” Again, the front-runner was the least tangible issue on the list: “values and discipline,” at 39 percent. It almost doubled the size of the response for the runner-up, “teacher quality,” which got only 21 percent.

Question Three added a new dimension. “How important a role do you think public schools should play in teaching children ethical and responsible behavior?” Those answering “very important” or “critical” totaled 63 percent.

Taken together, the message is surprisingly clear. There’s a crisis of values in our future. It far outstrips the more commonplace topics in education reform today. And the schools themselves are being given permission to deal with it. Never mind that the issue is difficult to address. Never mind that it gives the shivers to those who like everything neatly defined. Never mind that it’s such a basic issue that it demands cooperation with the home, the community, the workplace, and the faith groups. These respondents, it seems, see past those concerns. They’re telling us that the crisis of values is here, it’s big, and schools can’t duck it.

What’s the message here for corporations? Three things rise to the surface. First, schools need help with character education. That’s something that’s been known for at least a decade, but that the schools are still struggling to digest. A bit of support, either in kind or in dollars, can make a real difference right now.

Second, the public isn’t buying the old notion that if you focus only on the hard issues, you can ignore the soft stuff. Some corporations still think that way — still assume that what matters are only the things you can quantify, like productivity and market share and financial performance. Of course these matter. But these days, the more astute executive is taking on the tougher challenge of dealing with the intangibles.

Third, there’s only one public. The same people who care about education buy products and services. They use the same minds to think about business and about the next generation. If the question had read, “What’s the biggest problem facing business executives today?” would we be surprised if they had said, “declining moral and/or social values”? If it read, “What’s the most important issue in the corporate environment today?” might they say, “teaching values and discipline”? And if we asked how important this topic was for business, would two-thirds of them say “very important” or “critical”?

The trend is being set. Those who see it will set out on the difficult course of finding practical ways to address the intangible. Whether schools or corporations, they’ll be the winners.

(c)1999 by Rushworth M. Kidder