Moral Education: Beyond the Teaching of Right and WrongCasual reference to moral education or the manner in which young people should be brought up to behave may provoke a range of responses depending on the context and the personalities and ideological perspectives of those present. In the past, these responses sometimes included a Rousseauesque assertion of the inherent goodness of all human beings, which only needed to be left to emerge uncorrupted and undistorted, with the help of infinite loving-kindness on the part of teachers, all with the patience of saints. More extreme versions of this view may have comprised vehement protest at the very idea of the state, through its educational institutions, concerning itself at all with such matters, which were felt to be properly the province of the family or religious organisations, if not a matter of individual choice for young people themselves when they were grown up. Explicit proposals for moral education were invariably at risk of being perceived as indoctrination or an abuse of children’s rights of freedom and autonomous development. More frequently these days, the response may be a succinct list of the speaker’s own choice moral prescriptions, an assertion that these need to be inculcated in a clear and unequivocal way to all young people of whatever age, inclination or social experience and, often enough, a statement of the sanctions to be applied to those who do not or will not conform. |
Contents
3 | |
Morality and Religion | 19 |
4 | 25 |
The Development of Moral Reasoning | 33 |
Maximising Happiness | 43 |
Rights and Rationality | 51 |
Virtues | 62 |
Caring | 83 |
Morality One or Many? | 94 |
The Outcomes of Moral Education | 105 |
Sexual Morality | 119 |
Families and Family Life | 129 |
Moral Education and Citizenship | 142 |
And Global Citizenship? | 152 |
Moral Education in Practice | 159 |
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Common terms and phrases
achieved actions adults argued argument Aristotle assumptions attempt behaviour belief cared-for caring chapter character citizens citizenship claims commitment communitarian concerned conclusions conduct conflict consequentialist considerations context course criticism cultural Curriculum deontological desirable discussion Divine Command theory essential Ethics of Care Etzioni expression flourishing groups happiness human important individuals interests involved justified Kant Kantian kind Kymlicka less liberal liberal democracy lives MacIntyre marriage matter means modern moral development moral education moral issues moral judgements moral reasoning moral relativism nature necessarily Noddings notion obligations one’s parents particular philosophical political possible practice principle pupils rational recognised regard rejected relation relationship relativism religion religious responsibility role Rule Utilitarianism rules sense sexual sexual morality simply situation social society someone sometimes supposed teachers theory things traditional family understanding Utilitarianism valid values Virtue Ethics virtuous young