We cannot expect young people to demonstrate good character and ethics if they have none to offer.  Children today are suffering from a transcultural epidemic that will have a devastating impact upon our world if left unattended. It is called ethical impairment.  

Ethical impairment reveals itself through symptoms like dishonesty, irresponsibility, disrespect, hatred, jealousy, greed, and indifference to others.  Studies show these attributes are afflicting young people today more than ever before. Ethical impairment also leads to anti-social behaviors and conditions such as violent crime, poverty, substance abuse, deception, ignorance, dependency, immorality, and even the new phenomenon of cyber-bullying.  For example, some children are now planning and videotaping violent attacks on others and posting them on popular websites such as YouTube. One such incident in Lakeland, Florida (March 2008) earned national attention as six teen females were arrested for luring a 16 year-old girl into a home, beating her unconscious, and taping the assault “for the express purpose of putting it on the Internet”, reported the Associated Press. The teens said they did it to impress their boyfriends and become famous. This is not an isolated phenomenon. The Josephson Institute discloses that 88% of all boys and over 75% of girls surveyed said they had hit someone in the past 12 months because they were angry (2006 Report Card on Ethics and American Youth).

Ethical impairment is an equal opportunity affliction that does not discriminate by race, gender, nationality, religion, or socioeconomic condition. From the common, gray misdeeds of the masses to the colorful corporate and political scandals that rock news headlines almost daily, ethical impairment (poor character) is the culprit behind it all.  Without bias, character and ethics are learned; environmentally incubated through daily influences such as family life, progressive culture, personal associations, popular music, television, movies and video games. For perspective, consider an American Family Research Council study which showed that children spend only 38.5 minutes per week (33.4 hours per year) in meaningful conversation with their parents, while they spend 1,500 hours watching television. Character and ethical development, therefore, is going on methodically with our kids 24/7, with or without our knowledge, consent or involvement. With the increasing breakdown of the family, we must ask ourselves whether or not we approve of who and what is teaching our children when parents are not around.  If not, then we must intervene strategically, decisively and early (before high school) because a child’s character matrix is programmed by the time they are 12 years old.

Edmund Burke aptly stated that, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” If you believe that dealing proactively with the cause of a problem is preferable to coping reactively with the effects of it later, then consider committing your philanthropic artillery to the defense and character education of our pre-teen children and stop ethical impairment now. Through EarlyAct FirstKnight, Rotary has a proverbial “Excalibur” with which to conquer the causes of ethical impairment in children and, once again, an opportunity to change the world.

Randall Parr

Executive Director

Knights of The Guild