The Problem is Character

Last updated on: August 25, 2026 at 9:30 am by Layne Wallace

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The Problem is Character 2026-08-25T09:30:36-04:00 Layne Wallace

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The Problem Is Character

The headlines are eerily familiar. Art teacher Samira Hardcastle at John F. Kennedy High School in the Metro Nashville, TN area, who was named Teacher of the Year at her school and Blue Ribbon Teacher of the Year for her district, has resigned. Among the many issues leading to her resignation is grading. She alleges that district administrators directed her to change grades. She is not alone in Nashville. Another teacher, Diana Wills, alleges that administrators directed her to change failing student grades.[1]

Similar Patterns

This is not the first time a school district has been accused of falsifying student performance measures. In 2006, administrative pressure on teachers to improve test scores led to a massive cheating scandal in Atlanta, GA. In Atlanta, teachers, principals, and administrators systematically changed answers on standardized tests to improve scores. Cheating occurred in at least 44 schools. The report implicated 178 educators.[2] Though the issues in Nashville are small in comparison, they share the same root. The problem is a problem of character.

In Nashville, Hardcastle reports, “The news is that behavioral issues are down. They are not. We are just banned from reporting them, forcing us to keep disruptive students in the classroom.”[3] The local press reported Hardcastle’s claim that “… teachers are being discouraged from formally reporting some behavior problems, which she claims makes district statistics appear better than what educators are actually experiencing inside classrooms.” [4]

What did the administrators do? Notice the move here. Administrators pressured teachers to change grades, discipline reports, or test answers so their district would look better, at least statistically. None of these actions improved the actual education of the students or did they improve the classroom environment. No. Administrators pushed for false reporting and outright cheating.

Aftermath of a Scandal

In the aftermath of the Atlanta cheating scandal, writers focused ire on the incentives. Teachers, principals, and administrators earned bonuses based on student achievement on the standardized tests. Schools could also lose funding, or even face closure if the student performance did not improve.

As economists rightly argue, people respond to incentives. Incentives, however, are not the story here. If incentives cause cheating, then people would always cheat. There is always an incentive for cheating. If a student can get a higher grade by cheating, that is an incentive, by definition. If teachers and principals get rewarded for student improvement, that is an incentive as well.

Incentives to cheat not only exist in education, but in virtually every institution. So, blaming the incentive is not helpful. The problem is deeper than incentives. The problem is one of character.

What Would Socrates Say?

The ancient Greeks believed that a person rightly educated would always do the good. As an undergraduate philosophy student, I scoffed at that logic. Education has no such power, I thought. Of course, I was conflating what the Greeks meant by education and what I experienced in the educational system. The Greeks believed that education was moral. Students should be required to learn the good. Learn is too weak a word. They believed the student was to so internalize the good that doing what is wrong was anathema to them. The process of learning was to create moral habits.

Death of Socrates

If one were to ask the ancient Greeks what went wrong in Atlanta and Nashville, they would say that someone misunderstood the good, someone replaced the good. To cheat is to value a grade or a statistical marker over education. The goal for an educational institution is giving students the education they need for their future. The goal should never be creating statistical markers that show the institution meets an outside standard.

The Problem is Pervasive

If the problem were limited to just two metropolitan school systems and even localized in education itself, the remedies would be simpler. The problem is pervasive, however. In Jan 2025, authorities charged a Colorado crime lab analyst with 100 criminal counts alleging she had altered reports in sexual assault cases. The false reports call into question 500 cases going back to 2008.[5]

There Is No Policy Fix For a Character Problem

The first instinct officials have when faced with scandals like these is to address policies. What they fail to understand is that there is no policy reform capable of preventing character failures. The problems our society faces are not policy problems, at least not primarily. Society’s problems are problems of character.

Perhaps the best way to look at it is this. Look at the news. Anytime the news reports on a scandal, look for the human element. Who did it? How did he get away with it? Who knew and did nothing? Doubtless there will be those who knew and profited from it. New laws, policies, and procedures are no match for character problems.

A Spiritual and Ethical Renewal

Society needs a spiritual and ethical renewal. I have been struck over the years at how our educational institutions teach ethics. Ethical curricula tend to focus on ethical theories. Student learning modules will stress Bentham, Kant, Plato, Aristotle, Feminist ethics, social justice theories, divine command theory, and a host of other ethical formulations. Many of these theories are in direct contradiction to each other. The result is that the student gains enough ethical theory to justify exactly what he intends to do. A student can find an ethicist who will validate his ethical decisions, no matter what they are.

Philosophers at the School of Athens

This is actually unhelpful. It would be much more helpful to teach the Cardinal Virtues of justice, prudence, fortitude, and temperance. Beginning with young children, teach the values until they have internalized them. Then, after they have a grounding in what is good, alternative theories can be taught.

Society Always Teaches

One might argue that our society does not teach values. On the contrary, it teaches them at every opportunity. In classrooms, in art, media, and news, our society teaches rights, democracy, and free human expression. It actually does that quite well, even if accidentally. What would be very helpful to add is the virtues that make living in a society like ours possible.

Of course, that is only part of the answer. The other answer lies in a renewal that can only come from spiritual sources. As a pastor and one who has taught ethics, I would argue that only a spiritual renewal can change the course of our institutions and our society. Only the living Christ can transform hearts at the scale society needs for healing. I pray for that renewal.

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