In an age where accountability seems scarce, more and more people are clamoring for the return of shame and accountability. The idea isn’t that we should celebrate humiliation or discomfort. Rather, shame provides a bulwark for social cohesion and a foundation for a more responsible society — one where leaders are held to task for their actions.

As children, we’re often taught basic manners through what psychologists call “subtle shaming” — teaching us how to wait our turn, or how it’s mean to take the other kid’s toy.

“In later life, our personal sense of shame may also help us meet our own expectations and live up to our values,” wrote Dr. Joseph Burgo, a practicing psychotherapist for four decades and author of the book “SHAME: Free Yourself, Find Joy, and Build True Self-Esteem.”

Dr. Burgo’s lesson appears lost on Denver Public Schools — the poster child for the lack of shame and accountability. Outgoing Denver school board member Auon’tai Anderson and Superintendent Alex Marrero epitomize this era of shamelessness and unaccountability.

Last week, Anderson was the only board member who joined DPS staff at the Great City Schools Conference in sunny San Diego, California. Even as he’s vacating his seat next month, Anderson is still vacationing on the taxpayer’s dime.

As I’ve revealed previously, public data for fiscal 2023 showed that Anderson had spent $18,382 — exceeding his share by over $13,000 — on air fare, hotels, per diem and event costs related to seven conferences in six cities. He spent over $1,600 in public money on private screenings for movies.

That doesn’t include $3,500 that DPS reimbursed Anderson in legal fees paid to his lawyer for representing him during a 2021 district investigation — an investigation that found Anderson guilty of behavior so egregious, his colleagues censured him.

Anderson shamelessly pursued and accepted the reimbursement — and the district shamelessly tried to hide the payment details from public records requests. Plus, in July 2022, Anderson’s school board campaign paid another one of his personal lawyers — Issa Israel — nearly $1,500 in two payments.

Let’s be clear: Tay Anderson has enjoyed swanky trips, private movie screenings and comped legal fees courtesy of Denver taxpayers and campaign donors — even as his approval rating stands at 9%. It’s clear he has no shame — nor a desire to accept accountability for his actions.

Meanwhile, the school board has given Dr. Alex Marrero a 2.5% performance pay bonus totaling $8,235 — even as school safety, academic and leadership crises perpetually engulf DPS. Marrero’s bonus follows a pay raise, approved by the board, that brought his salary up to $329,400 a year.

As Chalkbeat noted, the 12-page summary of the board’s superintendent evaluation (its first since he was hired in July 2021) is “mostly full of kudos,” with criticisms (“growth areas”) both “sparse and muted.”

They claim Marrero achieved 80% of his goals in the 2022-2023 school year — touting accomplishments like following board policies, keeping schools open (the pandemic is over), promoting a podcast, creating new councils of minority groups and expanding certain services.

Their critiques simply urged Marrero to ensure board members get to take part in celebratory events and school visits that will make them look good, as well as be on the same page with the board when regarding public communication.

Let’s be real: Marrero’s evaluation focused on everything except the goal of a school district — achieving stellar student academic outcomes.

The evaluation touts a 2.5% increase in the four-year graduation rate to 76.5%, the highest in district history. Yes, it’s nice to see more students graduate — but to what extent can we really trust graduation as the metric of achievement and college readiness?

Nowadays, DPS pushes “equity grading” — the absurd notion that giving an “F” for work a student failed or hasn’t bothered to turn in is unfair. Instead, teachers are instructed to mark failed or missing assignments “Incomplete,” with a neutral GPA impact, and offer “credit recovery.”

DPS holds professional development workshops on equity grading — for which teachers receive credit — and promotes the book “Grading for Equity” by Joe Feldman. (Among other things, Felderman defends inflating the number of A’s given to students.)

Schools use grades for determining graduations, yet DPS has reduced expectations in the name of “equity” — all to spare students any embarrassment or accountability for failing to complete assignments or performing poorly. Graduation alone is a woefully inadequate metric for achievement.

A staggering 70% of DPS students grades 3-8 fall below math proficiency standards, while 60% trail in English. In each category, that’s still 2.5 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels. Among high schoolers, SAT proficiency remains below pre-pandemic levels. That’s unacceptable.

In 2020, the previous board — including three incumbents — evaluated Marrero’s predecessor, Susana Cordova. They credited Cordova for “maintain(ing) steady leadership” through multiple “crises” but critiqued her for failing to hold the proper “new vision” for the district, among other areas. They gave her mid-level scores across the board. Cordova resigned three months later. Numerous prominent civic leaders blasted the board for forcing her out.

Marrero didn’t get category scores. His evaluation was positively glowing, despite cratering academic outcomes. He’d already gotten a pay raise without any prior evaluations. Is this really the “new vision” he’s supposed to foster?

Truthfully, society really is in need of a revival of reasonable shame and genuine accountability — and it must begin within Denver Public Schools.

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and host of “The Jimmy Sengenberger Show” Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on News/Talk 710 KNUS. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.