Traditional notions that correction is punishment, psychiatric therapy, hard labor, or industrial production are inappropriate. Correctional educators must recognize that their role is central in corrections, even though some criminals may need therapy, social care, employment, or skills. Crime is essentially a moral question, since the result of criminal action is harm to other people. The task of the correctional educator is to intervene in such a way that the offender ceases or diminishes these actions. Correctional educators, like other educators, must equip students not only with the skills for employment, but also with the capacity to make morally sound decisions. To make these decisions, students need competencies to overcome three kinds of cognitive deficits which contribute to faulty decisionmaking. Offenders must be helped to correct deficiencies in perception, in concept-formation, and in response repertoire. Efforts to develop these competencies in the face of procedural problems, administrative hindrances, and the realities of dealing with a prison class of unwilling learners can seem either impractical or an enormous task. Most prison educators find themselves focusing instead on immediate academic tasks. However, dealing with the presenting problems will be superficial unless the immediate problem can be related to a broader category of problem. Teachers who are willing and prepared to deal with the underlying problems as well as with the immediate ones can receive important rewards. Teachers who are willing to deal with issues of a social, political, and ethical nature have a real chance of having a valuable impact on their students' lives as well as making the learning experience rewarding and stimulating.