Public Education: Parents, Teachers & Morals
A shared goal of parents and teachers is to ensure the moral development of children. According to Richard Weissbourd, director of the human development and psychology program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, 70 percent of public school parents want schools to teach children right from wrong, and 85 percent want them to teach values. While educators are concerned with the character and behavior of the students who leave their schools, some lament that they are doing the job of parents when they have to teach moral behavior.
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Morality
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A difficulty for public school teachers who want to teach morality is to identify the set of moral values that has broad appeal among diverse citizens. Another challenge, Weissbourd points out, is to find ways to get children to behave according to these values. Professor Larry Nucci of the University of Illinois at Chicago argues that the instruction of values must recognize that societal conventions often change in a democratic society, making it difficult for students to recognize all elements of values such as fairness and human welfare.
Moral Development
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Character education programs arose from the belief that deeper indoctrination of universal values, such as honesty, fairness and caring, could influence behaviors. Character education was founded on the work by Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg. Piaget was a psychologist who determined morality was part of the human developmental process and resulted from interpersonal interactions. Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg built on this idea and identified six stages of development, but he rejected the relativist view of morals in favor of the belief that the adherence to certain values demonstrates optimal moral behavior.
At Home
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Both Piaget and Kohlberg recognized that moral development required opportunities for children to participate in moral reasoning. According to University of Rochester professor Judith G. Smetana, such moral reasoning is facilitated by conversations with parents after a transgression. When parents explain the reasons for rules, children have the opportunity to reflect, respond with questions and appropriately apply the expectations in the future. Children can develop further when they are involved with moral problem-solving, including identifying remedies or punishments. Because so much of a child̵7;s life occurs at school, parents need to feel part of the school̵7;s moral community so that values and behaviors are mutually reinforced.
At School
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When it comes to the education setting, children learn morals from the curriculum, adult behavior, school governance and peer norms. Therefore, as Nucci tells us, moral education needs to be ̶0;integrated within the total school experience.̶1; The curriculum can support moral education through the study of moral events and decisions in history and literature and the examination and discussion of moral questions. Students also need opportunities to apply moral reasoning and develop moral responsibility in such things as service learning, school governance, peer conflict resolution and student court.
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