Joe Crowley: “I think this is, I say to the gentleman, in all honesty, long overdue. We have to go back to teaching civics. We have to…”

“I think this is, I say to the gentleman, in all honesty, long overdue. We have to go back to teaching civics. We have to go back to teaching responsibility. We have go back to teaching on self-worth. How can a child have respect for others when the child does not even respect himself or herself? That is what this legislation, I believe, is attempting to do and will do teaching respect, citizenship, I will just list them, justice and fairness, honesty, caring, responsibility, trustworthiness. That almost sounds like the Boy Scout oath that I recollect as a child, but things that I think have been lost unfortunately, and not only reflective in schools, but just in general. We see it on television. We see it in the movies, and that is what the children are exposed to today. They are not getting enough, I do not believe, of that attention on these issues in the classroom. I do not understand what we are afraid of. I do not know what it is we are afraid of by instilling these into children, that is what is going to make them better individuals when they get older.”