Schools, Morality, and the Collapse of Boundaries: Lessons from Recent Incidents

 

“A child nurtured with virtue becomes a lamp to the world; a teacher who guides with wisdom lights the path of many.”
— Dhammapada, Verse 183

The Buddha never saw education as passing exams or collecting certificates. Teaching was about shaping charater – imparting discipline, respect, moral clarity. A teacher who does this builds not just students, but society itself. Students, in turn, carry the duty to listen, respect, and practice moral learning. When this moral lens collapses, confusion and misconduct follow. Look around – when calamities of every kind plague a nation, its worth asking: Did we fail our education system or did our education system fail us? We carried forward a colonial model designed to produce clerks, not citizens; workers, not leaders. In doing so, we sidelined the indigenous systems that once formed strong minds, grounded values, and principled leaders and mighty inventions that continue to be held in awe. If we want order, wisdom, and moral strength, we must be honest enough to rethink how and why we educate—not just what we teach. Real reform begins when education returns to its true purpose: forming human beings, not just passing students.

 

Why Schools Exist

 

Schools are not merely centers for exams or certifications. They are moral ecosystems where character, discipline, self-restraint, responsibility, and social conduct are formed in partnership with parental guidance.

Schools do not replace moral foundations at home — they reinforce them.

 

When morality weakens at home, in schools, or both, no academic excellence can compensate for the damage to self and society.

A life detached from virtue is not progress, and celebrating it brings consequences.

 

Distorting Morality: When Boundaries Collapse

 

Schools function safely only when roles are clear.

When boundaries are blurred, violations do not appear suddenly — they appear predictably.

 

• Teachers reduced to service providers → authority collapses
• Students treated as autonomous adults → restraint disappears
• Leadership granted without maturity → responsibility erodes
• Parents sidelined → moral guidance fractures
• Society addicted to spectacle → misconduct becomes systemic

These are not isolated scandals. They are symptoms of moral breakdown: weakened discipline, fragile authority, and technology racing ahead of ethics.

No society can sacrifice moral architecture — in homes, schools, or public life — and escape the consequences.

 

The Child Then and the Child Now: What Technology Cannot Replace

The child of the past grew up with limits before liberties.

Without screens, algorithms, or digital supervision, children learned through living: through nature, play, consequence, correction, and example. They learned restraint by experience, respect by observation, and responsibility by expectation.

 

That child was not perfect – but the child was formed.

 

The child of today is growing up differently. Childhood is increasingly mediated by screens, templates, and policies. Decisions are guided by charts, emotions outsourced to professionals, discipline replaced by negotiation, and exposure arrives long before understanding. Technology now occupies the space once held by parents, elders, teachers, and lived experience.

 

Technology offers information – not wisdom.

Exposure – not discernment.

Simulation – not formation.

 

A child raised on devices but deprived of moral grounding does not mature faster; the child becomes confused earlier. Curiosity accelerates while restraint weakens. Empathy dulls. Boundaries blur. This is not empowerment – it is premature adultification without moral armour.

 

The consequences are now global and undeniable:

• Rising childhood anxiety, isolation, emotional fragility, and dependence on medication
• Early sexual exposure without maturity, accompanied by contraception, abortion, substance use, and adult vices experimented with in childhood
• Online cruelty replacing face-to-face correction, with children falling prey to grooming, scams, exploitation, trafficking, and abuse
• Children increasingly harmed – and harming – in ways once rare
• Fractured family bonds, where children raised without attachment later justify abandoning parental responsibility

 

Technology did not create these harms.

But it magnified them in the absence of moral guidance.

 

No device can teach right from wrong.

No algorithm can replace conscience.

No platform can substitute for character.

 

When moral formation is removed and technology is allowed to lead, childhood is not enriched – it is endangered.

 

Progress that abandons humanity is not progress.

Education that forgets character is not education.

 

If society truly wishes to protect its children, it must restore what technology can never provide: moral clarity, restraint, boundaries, and example.

 

A Civilizational Reversal

 

Then:
Moral formation before freedom.
Gradual exposure to complexity.
Authority grounded in credibility.
Correction guided by restraint.

 

Now:
Adult concepts imposed early.
Rights taught before duties.
Mistakes amplified online.
Guidance weakened, authority questioned.

The result is inevitable: confusion replaces clarity, and misconduct follows.

Western societies that adopted these models first are now confronting their failures and reversing course. Sri Lanka risks importing what others are abandoning.

 

Policies Without Moral Readiness

In weakened systems, policies such as Comprehensive Sexuality Education amplify harm – as child has not been guided to what is moral/immoral:

• Adult frameworks introduced before maturity
• Teacher authority neutralized
• Parental roles diluted
• Curiosity expanded without ethical grounding

Harm is not accidental. It is the consequence of policy without moral readiness.

 

Reframing Child Protection

True protection demands:

• Clear boundaries upheld by accountable adults
• Age-appropriate guidance
• Rejection of child adultification
• Education rooted in moral formation, not ideological experimentation

Law can support this — but law alone cannot replace moral authority.

 

Shared Moral Responsibility

 

Students must practice respect and restraint.
Teachers must lead with integrity and firm boundaries.
Parents must guide, monitor, and model values.
Institutions must enforce discipline with wisdom.
Society must protect children — not exploit crises for spectacle.

 

A Civilizational Warning

When authority collapses, childhood is shortened.
When boundaries blur, children suffer.
When morality weakens, society fractures.

Restoring boundaries, restraint, and moral guidance is no longer optional.
It is imperative.

 

 

 

Shenali D Waduge