Drowning in the Clear Pool: Cultural Narcissism, Technology, and Character Education- A Primer for S

With marked increases in school violence, educators have again been called upon to emphasize character education in their classrooms. While diversity of community values has rendered such efforts increasingly problematic, a more fundamental impasse to character education is cultural narcissism. Adolescents influenced by an inflated sense of grandiosity, entitlement, devaluation of others, and self-absorption often dismiss character education as irrelevant or constraining to their «me-centered» life-styles. To counter cultural narcissism, teachers need to foster character education by developing the moral system (self-understanding, social cognition, moral sentiments, and moral judgment) in each of their students. A creative use of educational technology can help teachers raise moral sensitivity, while simultaneously diluting the negative influences of cultural narcissism that pervades much of contemporary American life.