Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom on TED.com

Barry Schwartz: “And, perhaps most important, as teachers, we should strive to be the ordinary heroes, the moral exemplars, to the people we mentor. And there are a few things that we have to remember as teachers.

• One is that we are always teaching. Someone is always watching. The camera is always on.
• [...]they have come to the realization that the single most important thing kids need to learn is character.

1. They need to learn to respect themselves.
2. They need to learn to respect their schoolmates.
3. They need to learn to respect their teachers. And, most important,
4. they need to learn to respect learning.

That’s the principle objective. If you do that, the rest is just pretty much a coast downhill.
And the teachers: the way you teach these things to the kids is by having the teachers and all the other staff embody it every minute of every day. “