[i_am_proteus]

Fewer members of this generation are learning ethics through religion. I'm not religious and I don't believe that religion is necessary for ethics, but I do recognize that religion was a traditional vehicle for introducing young people to an ethical system.

Grade-school civics is one solution, but I think there are some other family- and community-based ways (religious or otherwise) we can raise the next generation with a strong ethical code.

[opportune]

There can also be secular ethics classes in early high school. I had one in my private school. We covered virtue ethics, deontological ethics, utilitarianism and briefly outline some modern material. Won't give people a great understanding but should at least introduce them to the concept and give them a foundation they can use to learn more

[meddlepal]

Teaching a particular brand of ethics (religion) over 18 years while a child is growing up as a member of their community is very different from teaching a survey about different ethical systems at a high school level crammed into a semester. The outcome of the latter is "there's a lot of different ways to look at things." No moral compass has been installed.

I say this as a Philosophy degree holder. Arguably I have a lot of ethical training and it shapes some very abstract thinking, but learning all these systems and poking at them does not make me an ethical person.

Personally I got lucky that my parents instilled some decent values in me and taught me to value critical thinking skills. I'm not really sure what the solution is, an awful lot people are not getting that today.