Moral education

Umbrella term used to describe a variety of educational systems Character education is an Today, there are dozens of character education programs in, and vying for adoption by, schools and businesses. principles, pillars, values or virtues, which are memorized or around which themed activities are planned. Terminology [ ] "Character" is one of those overarching concepts that is the subject of disciplines from Character as it relates to character education most often refers to how 'good' a person is. In other words, a person who exhibits personal qualities like those a society considers desirable might be considered to have good character—and developing such personal qualities is often seen as a purpose of education. However, the various proponents of character education are far from agreement as to what "good" is, or what qualities are desirable. Compounding this problem is that there is no psychological motivators to measure the behavioral predispositions of individuals. With no clinically defined meaning, there is virtually no way to measure if an individual has a deficit of character, or if a school program can improve it. The various terms in the lists of values that character education programs propose—even those few found in common among some programs—suffer from vague definitions. This makes the need and effectiveness of character education problematic to measure. In-school programs [ ] There is no common practice in schools in relation to the formation of pupils' c...

Philosophy & Children The Challenge of Moral Education Wendy Turgeon on ways of getting children to think about values. If you ask any group of adults, from 18 through 80, whether kids today are worse than kids in their time, they will usually insist that they are. Teachers can offer terrifying examples of elementary school children cursing at them, middle school youngsters engaged in promiscuous sexual behavior, high school students selling drugs, and a pervasive acceptance of bullying, cheating, lying, and general bad behavior. What has happened to the world, that young people today appear so bereft of values? Are parents too busy? Is the media, from video gaming to television to movies, creating a selfish me-centered citizenry? Has moral relativism [as advocated in In the nineteenth century one of the prime functions of public education was to prepare a moral citizen. Basic Christian values were integrated into the curriculum, and taught as truths alongside reading, writing and arithmetic. With the pluralization of cultures in Western society, the decrease in a shared Christian tradition and the spreading of the postmodern notion that values are perspectival, this function of education was gradually phased out. Talk of values was avoided. However, it quickly became evident that no social group, such as a school, can profitably disregard all values simply by substituting rules and behavioral guidelines. So the challenge became finding what multicultural program educators...

The influence of the conduct and example of adults on the infant mind has been much too slightly regarded, though it would seem sufficiently obvious that the habits and characters of children are formed upon the model of those to whom they look up for support and protection. If these indulge in angry passions, show a disregard to truth and sincerity, and are otherwise immoral in their conduct, can it be a matter of surprise that the children should be depraved? —Manual of the Free School Society New York City, 1820 The trustees of the Free School Society, a philanthropic organization that established tuition-free schools in the early 19th century for poor children in New York, knew perfectly well what to expect of their teachers: only to have “the most unblemished characters with regard to moral conduct,” to be truthful, sincere, frank, open, self-controlled, firm, reasonable, loving, and kind. They were responsible, after all, for nothing less than “the habits and characters of the men and women of the next generation.” There was no doubt in the minds of the Society's leaders that the “evil example” of parents and the neglect of a proper education were what caused children to become the “pests of society.” In the 19th century, the belief that schooling had a beneficial impact on character and morals was far more widely held than was the notion that it led to a higher income. Elementary readers often contained a set piece, of the kind which children were supposed to memori...

Moral Education Moral education concerns proper ways to act toward other people and, in some cultures, proper ways to act toward supernatural forces (gods, ancestral spirits), nonhuman beings (animals of specified types), and physical surroundings (sacred forests, mountains, and waterways). From: International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001 Related terms: • Moral Development • Empathy • Education Program • Prosociality • Adolescents F.K. Oser, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001 3The Triforial System of Moral Education: A Theory The approach involving three core elements, all of which work at the same time, is designated as ‘triforial’ because the term suggests that the core elements have something in common, namely their foundation, their support, and their actualization of a moral structure. Based on three-arched windows, a ‘triforium’ permits different things each to be supported in a different way. A triforium is a kind of gallery in the interior of Romanesque and especially Gothic churches, consisting usually of triple-arched windows running under the roof space of the transept and nave. Despite all the problems of borrowing analogies, the concept of a triforial structure can readily be transferred to the realm of moral education, where the tripartite arched positions signify the three core elements, the structure they support, and the general formation to which the three core elements lead (cf. Klafki 1991)....

What might a moral education worthy of the name actually look like? While we cannot answer all of the questions, nor confront the full dimensions of the moral education debate, we can outline some key features of moral education in our own time and place. What follows reflects our own conversations and disagreements and reveals both the common ground we have come to occupy and the divergent commitments we continue to bring to the moral education debate. The question is not whether colleges and universities should pursue moral education, but how. Moral (or perhaps immoral) education goes on constantly, if not always self-consciously. Aristotle captured this insight when he argued that every association has a moral end, a hierarchy of values, which is cultivated through its everyday norms and practices. Colleges and universities, too, have such moral ends and purposes, expressed not only through institutional mission statements and curriculums but also, and often more powerfully, through the hidden curriculum of everyday campus life. The more these commitments remain unarticulated the less they can be subject to scrutiny and the more ignorant we remain of the ends that animate our actions and lives. One task for moral education in the modern college or university, then, is to articulate and scrutinize the moral ends of our shared enterprise. Truth seeking, a willingness to think deeply about alternative positions and arguments, to be swayed by evidence and argument, to ackno...

Summary • What is moral education? • Objectives and need for moral education • Moral and ethical values -A comparative study • The four pillars of moral education • Why do we need moral education to be part of the modern education curriculum? • How can schools implement moral-education values to students? Over the years, the term moral education has been defined in various ways by numerous scholars. There is no particular definition for the term. However, to understand it in simple and plain language we can say that moral education is the teaching of values that distinguish between right and wrong. It is this For centuries, academicians and intellects have debated the world over whether moral values should be taught in schools or not. Many believe that moral and ethical values cannot be taught but can only be learned through the actions of peers and elders. In this case, the foremost question that may arise is how do we distinguish the right action from a wrong one if we are not taught the same. One act may be considered right for a particular person and wrong to another. Therefore, it becomes necessary to universally consolidate a certain set of values and morals to enable community living. Moral values in education are as important as a Doctor of Philosophy. The The importance of moral education in schools can be determined through the The objectives of moral education can be summarized as below. • Moral education helps to differentiate between what is universally accept...