No one wants responsibility any more.
And those who are responsible for the very place where it ought to be taught daily are often a party to the problem.
Two recent decisions involving the Hamilton County Board of Education and Hamilton County Schools come to mind.
Last week, school district officials said they would not punish students for a March 14 walkout in response to the Feb. 14 school shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school in which 17 people were killed.
The walkout would be in conjunction with a national student walkout planned over the incident.
"Students that desire to participate in this walkout respectfully and responsibly will be allowed to participate," officials said.
What students wouldn't want to ditch class for a quarter hour?
The district even issued guidelines to help school administrators prepare for and work with those who want to participate. Whether ribbons and participation trophies would be given each student who walked out, and whether Democratic Party members would be waiting outside to sign up the students to vote against Republicans who oppose gun-control measures, was not mentioned.
We believe sanctioning such an action - though Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson said in a statement "we are not endorsing a walkout" - is a dangerous precedent.
What if - God forbid - there is another shooting? And another? Or a suicide over a bullied student? Is the national shame of bullying not worth a walkout? How about the dearth of bathrooms for transgender students? Does that deserve a walkout?
How about the lack of education choice for students in low-performing schools, the lack of security in some schools, the fact the state's Basic Education Program is not fully funded? Isn't anyone upset enough to walk out over those?
We don't quibble with students feeling outraged and fearful over school shootings. We wouldn't argue with allowing them to have their say in a schoolwide forum or encouraging them to attend off-campus evening and weekend events to discuss the issues involved.
We could even understand if students felt strongly enough about their positions to walk out, knowing they would have to take responsibility for their actions and possibly be punished for their behavior.
But a planned, OK'd - but not endorsed - walkout? What's the risk? Where's the gain?
The walkout is planned to be 17 minutes, but how much classwork will get done a half hour before and a half hour after such an exercise? None.
"We will work with [students] to make this a safe and valuable learning experience," Johnson said.
The Hamilton County Board of Education that is accountable for overseeing schools showed a similar lack of responsibility just the week before in approving 7-2, with little discussion, a resolution opposing the state's A-F school grading system.
The state had introduced the grading system last year to increase accountability and compliance with the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act.
Chairman Steve Highlander said he'd done "a lot of research" and found "no research that [such a grading system] has improved results."
Of course, the grading system is not in place to improve results, but the academic measures taken because of the results are.
Such a system, Highlander said, gives "a false impression about schools and students."
Board member Karitsa Jones said such a system only stigmatizes students who attend schools that receive lower grades from the state. She said students only underperform because "they don't have everything they need, and we can't suffice for it."
She is both right and wrong.
Jones is right that many students don't have everything they need, and she is correct that the state and the school district are ill-equipped to supply what they need - more two-parent households, drug-free homes and the wherewithal to change their lots. But she is wrong in alleging more money will necessarily change the equation. After all, Jones is well aware the district's lowest-performing schools received some $11 million in extra funding in recent years, but that money did little to increase grades on state tests.
Neither mentioned that the grading system, according to the state, allows for schools that are not posting the highest proficiency scores but are making progress to earn an A ranking, making the playing field more level for schools with large shares of children living in poverty.
So why does accountability scare school board members?
We would have hoped, instead, that members would have such confidence in the changes Johnson is making in the district - and we believe he is - that they couldn't wait to see any F's move up to A's.
But schools and schools boards are only two places where responsibility no longer seems paramount.
Coincidentally, a man who understood the term, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, is in the news today as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences considers films in which his life played a role, "Dunkirk" and "Darkest Hour," for Oscars.
"The price of greatness," he once said, "is responsibility."
Mediocrity takes a whole lot less.