Lecture 7
Teaching
Morality and Values In
Early Life
Definition of Morals
• Morals are the rules which people use to guide their
behavior and thinking.
• When an individual is dealing with, or capable of
distinguishing between, right and wrong.
Definition of Values
•
A principle, standard, or quality considered
worthwhile or desirable
Morals and Values
• Our children are taught in various
environments- at home, at school, at
religious institute, at the movies, and they
are taught by reading books or magazines,
and by television and their friends.
Whatever they are taught will guide them in
their decision making and their problem
solving.
• If morals are not taught our children will
make decisions based on immediate needs
and desires, and based on emotions, not on
sound judgment.
Percent of Adults Who Support the
Teaching of Specific Values
The findings of one study indicate that the top five
values that are thought to be the most important
values to be taught are:
– Personal responsibility…………
97%
– Strong work ethic…………………
96%
– Honesty…………………………………… 96%
– Democracy………………………………
95%
– Acceptance of people of different
races and ethnic backgrounds …………… 91%
Some Stats…
• 91% thought that schools should emphasize
character education, teaching students values such
as respect for others, personal responsibility, and
citizenship.
A poll found…
• Morality and values topped the list of issues of most
concern to the public.
• The most pressing issues were said to be:
– Morality and values..........36%
– Education............................27%
– Health Care........................17%
– Crime....................................13%
– Taxes.....................................6%
The Shell Poll
o The study suggests that the three values that are most
endangered in America are respect, responsibility, and
honesty.
o Large majorities feel that the nation has become weaker in
terms of respect for other people (74%), respect for the
law (77%), and respect for authority (86%).
o 2/3 also say that society’s standards for acceptable
behavior are getting worse.
There were significant findings
in the polls regarding three
different questions.
Which issue is the most
serious problem in America?
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•
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Moral values………………56%
Race relations……………14%
The environment……….12%
The economy………………..7%
National defense…………6%
Which of these problems regarding
moral standards concern you
most?
• A tendency to blame others instead of taking
responsibility......................................................39%
• A lack of respect for other people...............30%
• Too much focus on money and materialism..28%
• Lower standards of honesty and integrity..24%
• More permissive sexual attitudes..................15%
• All of these..........................................................14%
What has the most potential to create
a positive effect on a child’s moral
and ethical standards?
•
•
•
•
•
Parents…………………72%
Peers/Friends…….26%
Teachers………………18%
Clergy……………………15%
TV…………………………….8%
Character Education
• “Let’s get one thing perfectly clear you are a character
educator. Whether you are a teacher, administrator,
custodian, or school bus driver you are helping to shape the
character of the kids you come in contact with. It’s in the way
that you talk, the behaviors that you model, the conduct you
tolerate, the deeds that you encourage, the expectations that
you transmit. Yes, for better or for worse you are already
doing character education. The real question is what kind?
Are you doing it well or poorly? By design or default? And
what kinds of values are you actually teaching?”
Character Education
• Character education often is used
synonymously with terms such as moral
education, values clarification, and moral
reasoning.
• It has been defined as “the intentional
intervention to promote the formation of any or
all aspects of moral functioning of individuals.”
Traits of Character Education
• Responsibility
Being accountable in word and deed. Having a
sense of duty to fulfill tasks with reliability,
dependability and commitment.
Traits of Character Education
• Perseverance
Pursuing worthy objectives with determination and
patience while exhibiting fortitude when confronted
with failure.
Traits of Character Education
• Caring
Showing understanding of others by treating them
with kindness, compassion, generosity and a
forgiving spirit.
Traits of Character Education
• Self-discipline
Demonstrating hard work controlling your emotions,
words, actions, impulses and desires. Giving your
best in all situations.
Traits of Character Education
• Citizenship
Being law abiding and involved in service to school,
community and country.
Traits of Character Education
• Honesty
Telling the truth, admitting wrongdoing. Being
trustworthy and acting with integrity.
Traits of Character Education
• Courage
Doing the right thing in face of difficulty and following
your conscience instead of the crowd.
Traits of Character Education
• Fairness
Practicing justice, equity and equality. Cooperating
with one another. Recognizing the uniqueness and
value of each individual within our diverse society.
Traits of Character Education
• Integrity
A firm adherence to a code of especially moral or
artistic values. Being honest, trustworthy and
incorruptible.
Traits of Character Education
• Patriotism
A love for and loyalty to one's country
Traits of Character Education
• Respect
Showing high regard for an authority, other
people, self and country. Treating others as
you would want to be treated. Understanding
that all people have value as human beings.
• http://www.ilovethatteachingidea.com
Approaches to effective
Character Ed.
• There are many different approaches for providing
meaningful character building experiences for your
students, but we will concentrate on the following:
– The Holistic Approach
– The Smorgasbord Approach
The Holistic Approach
• Integrates character development into every aspect of
school life.
• The distinguishing features of this approach are:
– Everything in the school is organized around the development
of the relationships between and among students, staff, and
community.
– The school is a caring community of learners in which there is
a obvious bond connecting the students, the staff, and the
school.
– Social and emotional learning is emphasized as much as
academic learning.
– Cooperation and collaboration among students are
emphasized over competition.
The Holistic Approach
• Values such as fairness, respect, and honesty are part of
everyday lessons in and out of the classroom.
• Students are given ample opportunities to practice moral
behavior through activities such as service learning.
• Discipline and classroom management concentrate on
problem solving rather than rewards and punishments.
• The old model of the teacher-centered classroom is
abandoned in favor of democratic classrooms where
teachers and students hold class meetings to build unity,
establish norms, and solve problems.
• Obviously this is a “best-of-all-worlds” approach and requires a
significant commitment from the administration and teaching
staff.
The Smorgasbord Approach
• Building a caring community
• This approach is about building a community in the school
with students playing an active role in shaping the culture
and environment of the classroom as well as the school at
large.
• Teach values through the curriculum
• Give students opportunities to engage in thinking about
character and values by asking more higher order thinking
questions.
• Class discussions
• Includes morally challenging classroom discussion using
critical thinking skills and providing a group bonding
experience and engaging students in deep, meaningful
reflection about the kinds of people they are and want to be.
The Smorgasbord Approach
• Service learning
• Approach to teaching in which academic
goals are accomplished through community
service.
• Explicit instruction in character and values
• This direct approach is to teach it as a
subject within itself, by creating specific
character education lesson plans.
Character Education:
Why are we doing this?
• Quality character education helps schools create
a safe, caring, and inclusive learning
environment for every student and supports
academic development. It fosters qualities that
will help students be successful as citizens, in the
workplace, and with the academic curriculum. It
lays the foundation to help students be
successful in all of the goals we have for our
public schools. It is the common denominator
that will help schools reach all of their goals!
Group Discussion
• In your opinion, is it being done well or poorly?
• Do you think it is done by design or default?
• What kinds of values do you think should be taught?
Patriotism
• What does it mean to be an American?
– September 11 has raised this question that few
Americans have seriously considered since WWII.
– Young people especially need to reflect on
patriotism, for they will soon hold the future of our
democracy in their hands.
Patriotism
• Most teachers have been urged to mark September
11 with lessons that stress the need for enhanced
“tolerance” and “diversity.”
• Few have lessons about America’s founding
principles, or the cost at which our freedom was won.
How can our schools
encourage patriotism
• If students are to become patriots they must
understand and embrace the principles of liberty,
equality and justice on which the nation is founded.
• They must develop the qualities of character that
mark true citizenship: courage, responsibility,
gratitude, and self sacrificing devotion to the
common good.
• As educators, our task is to help young people see
that America is worthy of their love, and to help
them become worthy of their heritage as U.S.
citizens.
How can our schools
encourage patriotism
• A way to go about doing this is to change the
way that our schools teach history
government and literature.
– Most schools use standard- issue textbooks in
history and government classes. Unfortunately
these text are generally dry, lacking in detail, and
monotonous in style.
– Students can never grow to love America by
reading these types of text, and need stories that
engage their imagination, excites their gratitude.
How can our schools
encourage patriotism
• America’s story consists of two major
components: principles and people. Our
challenge is to bring both to live for students.
• Even though these are important
components, teaching young people to be
patriots requires more. It is what the Greeks
call a paragon, or character ideal.
How can our schools
encourage patriotism
• Many of today’s students difficulty
distinguishing between celebrities and
heroes.
• We must acquaint them with America’s great
statesmen, lawgivers, military heroes, and
social crusaders, lead them to say, “I want to
be like that.”
How can our schools
encourage patriotism
• Today’s affluent students generally take
Americas economic freedom for granted. For
this reason, they need to hear the stories of
immigrants, who endure great hardships for a
chance to live the American dream.
• Students should also read the inspiring stories
of African Americans who despite a heritage of
slavery overcame extraordinary obstacles to
achieve success.
Pledge of Allegiance and it’s
controversial issues
• A federals appeals court ruled that reciting
the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional
because the pledge contains the words
“under God”
• The U.S. court of appeals said that the
phrase violates the First Amendment’s
prohibition on the establishment of religion.
Pledge of Allegiance
• The court said “a profession that we are a nation
‘under God’ is identical, for the establishment clause
purpose, to a profession that we are a nation ‘under
Jesus’, a nation “under Zeus’, or a nation under ‘no
god,’ because none of these professions can be
neutral with respect to religion.”
Pledge of Allegiance
• The pledge of allegiance is considered to be an
important recognition of the freedoms on which the
united states was founded and a tribute to those who
have defended the ideals of liberty, equality and
justice for all.
Pledge of Allegiance
• Virginia State Senator Warren Barry says not
enough schools make a regular practice of
saying the Pledge of Allegiance these days.
As a result he says he feels these students
don’t have a real appreciation of the Pledge
and should know the flag is symbolic of “our
freedoms, our liberties, and our culture”.
Discussion
• Should the Pledge be recited everyday?
• Do our students understand and respect what the
Pledge stands for?
• Do you think that it is unconstitutional to recite the
Pledge?
Can “Character Education”
Reverse Moral Decline?
• There are many debates about this question with
some feeling as though it would make a significant
difference, yet others view character education as
useless.
Character Education Can
Reverse Moral Decline
• “If we want our children to possess the traits of
character we most admire, we need to teach them
what those traits are and why they deserve both
admiration and allegiance.”
– William J. Bennet
Character Education Can
Reverse Moral Decline
• Many people have come to the realization that our
society is in deep moral trouble. Some of the signs of
this include:
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The breakdown of the family
The deterioration of civility in everyday life
Rampant greed at a time when 1 in 5 children is poor
A sexual culture that fills our television and movie screens
with sleaze
– Beckoning the young toward sexual activity at even earlier
ages
– The enormous betrayal of children through sexual abuse
– A report (1992) indicating that the United States is the most
violent of all industrialized nations.
Character Education Can
Reverse Moral Decline
• With the awareness of these critical issues in our
society, schools cannot be “ethical bystanders.”
Schools must do something about this societal crisis,
therefore, it is necessary to teach morals and values
in schools.
Theodore Roosevelt stated it best, “to educate
a person in mind and not in morals is to
educate a menace to society.”
William Killpatrick adds that “the schools are
failing to provide the moral education they
once did; they have abandoned moral
teaching.”
Character education was taught in the earliest
days of schools through discipline, the
teacher’s example, and the daily school
curriculum.
Why then did Character education decline?
Why Did Character Education
Decline?
– Darwinism
• Led people to see all things, including morality, as being in flux
(continually changing).
– Logical positivism
• Asserted a radical distinction between facts (which could be
scientifically proven) and values (which were mere expressions of
feeling, not objective truth).
– Personalism
• Celebrated the worth, autonomy, and subjectivity of the person,
emphasizing individual rights and freedom over responsibility.
• Turned people inward toward self-fulfillment
– Pluralism of American society
• Who’s values should we teach?
– Secularization of public arena
• Won’t moral education violate the separation of church and state?
Why Character Education Now?
•
Three causes:
• The decline of the family
 Schools have to teach values kids aren’t
learning at home and schools, in order to
conduct teaching and learning, must become
caring moral communities that help children
from unhappy homes focus on their work,
control their anger, feel cared about, and
become responsible students.
Why Character Education Now?
•
Troubling trends in youth character
 Young people have been adversely affected by
poor parenting; the wrong kind of adult role
models; sex, violence, and materialism
portrayed in the media; and pressures of peer
groups.
 This is evident by trends in:
•
Rising youth violence, increasing dishonesty, growing
disrespect for authority, peer cruelty, bigotry on
school campuses, decline in work ethic, sexual
precocity, growing self-centeredness and declining
civil responsibility, increase in self-destructive
behavior and ethical illiteracy.
Why Character Education Now?
• A recovery of shared, objectively important ethical
values.
Adults must promote this morality by teaching the
young values as respect, responsibility,
trustworthiness, fairness, caring, and civil virtue.
“Good character consists of knowing the good,
desiring the good, and doing the good.”
Developing Character
• In order to establish Character Education,
each teacher needs to:
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Act as a caregiver, model, and mentor
Create a moral community
Practice moral discipline
Create a democratic classroom environment
Teach values through the curriculum
Use cooperative learning
Develop the “conscience of craft”
Encourage moral reflection
Teach conflict resolution
Developing Character
• The school as a whole should:
– Foster caring beyond the classroom
– Create a positive moral culture in the school
– Recruit parents and the community as partners in
character education
Challenges Ahead
• The factors that will determine if Character
Education will take hold in American schools
and succeed are:
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Support for schools
Role of religion
Moral leadership
Teacher education
“Educating for character is a moral
imperative if we care about the future of our
society and our children.”
Which Values?
• Some have argued that it is not possible to
reach an agreement regarding which values
to teach.
• Others are concerned about the separation of
church and state and believe any attempts to
teach values or morality will introduce religion
into the classroom.
• “Whether or not we deliberately adopt a
character or moral education program, we are
always teaching values. Even people who
insist that they are opposed to values in
school usually mean that they are opposed to
values other than their own.”
Values
• The fact is that there are a lot of values we all
share. Nobody argues that discrimination is
morally appropriate or that lying is better than
telling the truth.
• “There is no way of teaching subjects without
teaching values. So let’s be up front about
that and have explicit curriculum. If we don’t,
we are going to teach values only in hidden
and most devious ways. Let’s have
discussions about the values we want to
transmit.”
Reason to Oppose Character
Education
• Alfie Kohn does not think that Character
Education can reverse moral decline
because he says that “the techniques of
character education may succeed in
temporarily buying a particular behavior. But
they are unlikely to leave children with a
commitment to that behavior, a reason to
continue acting that way in the future.
• “Today, we have children raising children, we have children
in overcrowded adult prisons and jails, we have children
attending drug and alcohol treatment centers, children
suffering and dying from illness and sexually transmitted
diseases, children killing themselves and children killing
other children. This is what happens when we do not teach
our children morals or live as an appropriate example.”
Moral Controversy
Sex
Education
Interesting Facts
• During the 1960s, schools expelled pregnant
students (married or unmarried) and school
re-admission after delivery was prohibited.
• The attitude in the 60s was that a pregnant
students was socially contagious and that
pregnancy would spread among students.
• As sex education has increased over the
decades the teenage birth rate has declined
and no longer are teen mothers punished by
denying them an education.
However…
• The United States has the highest rate of teen
pregnancy out of any country in the developed world.
Experts say that restriction to sex-ed, contraception,
and condoms fuel this rate, while in European
countries (who have less than half of the amount of
teen pregnancies) teens are given confidential
access to contraceptives.
• In 1996, the teen pregnancy rates were:
• 93.0 per 1000 in the United States
• 62.6 per 1000 in England and Wales
• 42.7 per 1000 in Canada
• 15.1 per 1000 in Belgium
Definition of Sex Education
• Sex education is education about sexual
reproduction in human beings, sexual
intercourse and other aspects of human
sexual behavior.
• It is also about developing young people's
skills so that they make informed choices
about their behavior, and feel confident and
competent about acting on these choices.
Aims of Sex Education
• Sex education seeks both to reduce the risks
of potentially negative outcomes from sexual
behavior. For example, unwanted or
unplanned pregnancies and infection with
STDs, and to enhance the quality of
relationships.
• It is also about developing young people's
ability to make decisions over their entire
lifetime.
Worldwide Controversy
• Although some sort of sex education is part of many
schools' curriculum, it remains a controversial topic
in several countries as to how much and at which
age schoolchildren should be taught about
contraception or safer sex, and whether moral
education should be included or excluded.
• In the United States in particular, the topic is the
subject of much controversial debate. Chief among
controversial points is whether sexual freedom for
minors is valuable or detrimental, as well as whether
instruction about condoms and birth control pills
reduce or increase out-of-wedlock or teenage
pregnancy and STDs.
Statistics
• Only 7% of Americans say that sex education
should not be taught in schools.
• 15% of Americans believe that schools
should teach the Abstinence-Only-UntilMarriage Program.
• 36% believe that Comprehensive Sexuality
Education should be taught.
Abstinence-Only-UntilMarriage Program
• Federal funds are available to schools who
teach using this method.
• President Bush has been pushing for this
program since he was first instated into
office.
• Emphasizes abstinence from all sexual
behaviors and does not cover information on
contraceptives, STDs, masturbation, etc.
Federal Definition
• its exclusive purpose is teaching the social, physiological, and
health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity;
• teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the
expected standard for all school age children;
• teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain
way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted
diseases, and other associated health problems;
• teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in
context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual
activity;
• teaches that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is
likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects;
• teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have
harmful consequences for the child, the child's parents, and
society;
• teaches young people how to reject sexual advances and how
alcohol and drug use increases vulnerability to sexual
advances; and
• teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before
engaging in sexual activity.
Problems with this program
• Very little evidence that teens who go through this
program refrain from having sex longer than others.
• When they do have sex, they often fail to use
contraception.
Comprehensive Sexuality
Education
• Comprehensive Sexuality Education is a program
that starts in kindergarten and continues through
high school.
• It brings up age appropriate sexuality topics and
covers the broad spectrum of sex education,
including safe sex, STDs, contraceptives,
masturbation, body image, and more.
• Argued that this program does not teach sexual
morals.
Proponents of this program
• View it as necessary to reduce risk behaviors
such as unprotected sex, and equip
individuals to make informed decisions about
their personal sexual activity.
• Additionally, proponents of comprehensive
sex education contend that education about
homosexuality encourages tolerance, but
does not "turn students gay" as some
conservatives believe.
What about Both?
• 46% of Americans believe that schools
should teach that abstinence is best, but also
discuss how and where to obtain
contraceptives.
• Typically, most schools fall in the middle of
the two types of programs.
• Neither one usually provides confidential
access to contraceptives.
Should morality be included?
• Proponents believe that curricula which fail to teach moral
behavior actually serve to prevent children from making
informed decisions; they maintain that curricula should
include the claim that conventional morality is "healthy
and constructive", and that value-free knowledge of the
body may lead to unhealthy and harmful practices.
• Opponents of this view argue that sexual behavior after
puberty is a given, and it is therefore crucial to provide
information about the risks and how they can be
minimized. They hold that conventional or conservative
moralizing will put off students and thus weaken the
message.
Study of the Effects
• A researcher named DiCenso compared
comprehensive sex education programs with
abstinence-only programs.
• Their review of several studies shows that
abstinence-only programs not only did not reduce
the likelihood of pregnancy of women who
participated in the programs, but that 'abstinenceonly' actually increased it.
• Four abstinence programs and one school program
were associated with a pooled increase of 54% in
the partners of men and 46% in women.
• The conclusion of this review was that "the
overwhelming weight of evidence shows that sex
education that discusses contraception does not
increase sexual activity".
Final Quote
• “Education is the responsibility of the schools
whether it is about smoking, alcohol, drugs,
violence, racial diversity or sex. The
assumption that these are the sole
responsibility of someone else is a disservice
to our children. Parents have a key role in the
total education of their children in partnership
with the schools. But too many parents fail
part of their responsibility resulting in this
country's highest teenage pregnancy rate in
the industrialized world.” – Charles
Gershenson