Moral teaching as part of education

Students’ moral development is an important dimension of education. Family, undoubtedly, has the great duty to pass on to the young citizens the spirit of humanism and the sense of moral responsibility

The purpose of education should not be focused only on ornamenting students with great degrees for transforming them into effective workforce but also on equipping them with moral qualities; so that they could develop the sense of responsibility to act ethically in the workplace as well as the sense of moral obligation to serve the country. The purposes of education in the 21st century, however, remain a topic of national debate. But it does not have to be either-or; the goal of true education should be preparing students for future life, work, and citizenship. And it is possible only by educating them with moral education. An obvious question now arises: who should teach about morality?

In general sense, moral education means whatever is done to influence how people think, feel, and act regarding issues of right and wrong. Moral education, in other words, can be described as character education or value education. Though there requires a general agreement among our education planners and curriculum designers about moral education’s contents and scopes, a report on Moral Education of Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) based in USA, however, claimed: to be moral means not only to be able to judge what is right but also to care deeply about doing it, and to possess the will, competence, and habits needed to translate moral judgment and feeling into effective moral action.

As a nation, we can claim to have acquired the requisite technology, advanced infrastructure, vibrant economy, and educated population, but we are failing to have citizens with qualities of high moral characters. Consequently, everywhere there is unethical practices and lack of integrity, transparency, and accountability. Our society is gradually plunging into chaos and disunity; our materialistic and "me-first" attitudes are making us less cooperative and also increasing social distance among us. According to Dr. Jamal Sanad Al-Suwaidi, Director General of Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) in UAE, recognizes that sustainable development should be supported by two bases: a physical basis represented by scientific, technological, and economic advancement; and a moral basis represented by values, attitudes, and the way we perceive others and ourselves. Hence, morally mature citizens are an important prerequisite for our country and for citizens’ moral development, value-based education should be given priority. Such education should start while a society’s future members are still children and are not misdirected yet.

Now to come to our original question: who should teach about morality? Though different social institutions have their individual roles in implementing positive values in children and youths, significant roles are played by family and educational institution; parents and teachers are the main representatives in family and academic institution, respectively. Moral education, of course, begins at home, but it must be supported by formal education system and institutes. This fact can be established if these two social institutes’ scopes and limitations in teaching moral education are analyzed following way.  

Family is the most important platform for the children to learn moral values. Whatever the society or culture or time is, the value system practiced in a family becomes automatic to the young family members. Parenting, without a doubt, is one of the most difficult tasks in the World. Though ultimately parents should be the ones to teach their offspring good values, there are parents who miserably fail to practice what they preach to their children and expect them to follow; and set up examples of bad parenting instead. On the other hand, in today's modern life, parents are busier than ever. Particularly, full-time working parents (both fathers and mothers) are seen being unable to invest a considerable amount of time, patience, and energy to raise well behaved and responsible children. Sometimes, children and youngsters also take the advantage of the informal environment prevailing in the family and just refuse to follow the advice of their elders. Besides, situations like fragmentation of the family, unhealthy family relationship, ignorance of parents, absence of parents (foster kids/ orphans), etc. hamper children and youth’s character development process to a very large extent, while some children and teenagers simply do not get moral lessons at home. Furthermore, family diversity is a matter of fact as there now exists a greater choice and variety than ever before in terms of family lifestyles. We should bear in mind that the set of values and standards of behavior practiced in one family may differ from that of other families. Since there is no list of universal morals accepted by all families, so there exists an endless conflict: which values to teach and how to teach?

In such a situation, the educational institutes (used here as an umbrella term that includes schools, colleges, universities, and other academic and training institutes) should take an added responsibility to prepare children and young individuals to deal with the moral challenges of the future. The fact is also endorsed by bulk of literatures that the academic institutes have required organizational structure, effective mechanism, conducive environment, and supportive members to identify common moral values and to offer students’ all round development: moral, emotional, spiritual, religious, social, intellectual, physical, and the like. Educational institutes should not just be a place exclusively for reading and writing; it should be the best place (away from home) for students to learn and practice respectful and responsible behaviors in order for them to develop right characters. Teachers are (and should be) the proper agents for the transmission of positive values into students. A large percentage of students’ moral learning happens from values exhibited by their teachers. Therefore, it would not be exaggeration to say that teachers could be second parent to students; many times, a psychologist and a therapist. Teachers can even affect students’ moral characters more than their parents. Dr. Thomas Lickona, former president of Association for Moral Education (AME) in USA, termed teachers as “effective caregivers”. The teachers thus should not ignore moral education; it should be one of their most important responsibilities.

Students’ moral development is an important dimension of education. Family, undoubtedly, has the great duty to pass on to the young citizens the spirit of humanism and the sense of moral responsibility, but family’s teaching methods are mostly informal and unstructured; there even lacks a set of common moral values uniformly defined and followed by all families.

 In contrast, formal education system and educational institutes, through various curricular and co-curricular activities, can play the great role in identifying unanimous moral qualities and instilling them in students. Students are the members of a small society in educational institutes that exert a tremendous influence on their moral development. Whatever students learn here determines, to a great extent, how they will live out their lives in future and how they will contribute in building the nation in future; because today’s students are tomorrow’s citizens.

The writer is Editor of “SMEs of Bangladesh” Publication Series

 The Bangladesh Rating Agency

Ltd. (BDRAL)

Email: [email protected]

 

 

Moral teaching as part of education

Students moral development is an important dimension of education. Family, undoubtedly, has the great duty to pass on to the young citizens the spirit of humanism and the sense of moral responsibility

The purpose of education should not be focused only on ornamenting students with great degrees for transforming them into effective workforce but also on equipping them with moral qualities; so that they could develop the sense of responsibility to act ethically in the workplace as well as the sense of moral obligation to serve the country. The purposes of education in the 21st century, however, remain a topic of national debate. But it does not have to be either-or; the goal of true education should be preparing students for future life, work, and citizenship. And it is possible only by educating them with moral education. An obvious question now arises: who should teach about morality? In general sense, moral education means whatever is done to influence how people think, feel, and act regarding issues of right and wrong. Moral education, in other words, can be described as character education or value education. Though there requires a general agreement among our education planners and curriculum designers about moral educations contents and scopes, a report on Moral Education of Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) based in USA, however, claimed: to be moral means not only to be able to judge what is right but also to care deeply about doing it, and to possess the will, competence, and habits needed to translate moral judgment and feeling into effective moral action. As a nation, we can claim to have acquired the requisite technology, advanced infrastructure, vibrant economy, and educated population, but we are failing to have citizens with qualities of high moral characters. Consequently, everywhere there is unethical practices and lack of integrity, transparency, and accountability. Our society is gradually plunging into chaos and disunity; our materialistic and me-first attitudes are making us less cooperative and also increasing social distance among us. According to Dr. Jamal Sanad Al-Suwaidi, Director General of Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) in UAE, recognizes that sustainable development should be supported by two bases: a physical basis represented by scientific, technological, and economic advancement; and a moral basis represented by values, attitudes, and the way we perceive others and ourselves. Hence, morally mature citizens are an important prerequisite for our country and for citizens moral development, value-based education should be given priority. Such education should start while a societys future members are still children and are not misdirected yet. Now to come to our original question: who should teach about morality? Though different social institutions have their individual roles in implementing positive values in children and youths, significant roles are played by family and educational institution; parents and teachers are the main representatives in family and academic institution, respectively. Moral education, of course, begins at home, but it must be supported by formal education system and institutes. This fact can be established if these two social institutes scopes and limitations in teaching moral education are analyzed following way. Family is the most important platform for the children to learn moral values. Whatever the society or culture or time is, the value system practiced in a family becomes automatic to the young family members. Parenting, without a doubt, is one of the most difficult tasks in the World. Though ultimately parents should be the ones to teach their offspring good values, there are parents who miserably fail to practice what they preach to their children and expect them to follow; and set up examples of bad parenting instead. On the other hand, in todays modern life, parents are busier than ever. Particularly, full-time working parents (both fathers and mothers) are seen being unable to invest a considerable amount of time, patience, and energy to raise well behaved and responsible children. Sometimes, children and youngsters also take the advantage of the informal environment prevailing in the family and just refuse to follow the advice of their elders. Besides, situations like fragmentation of the family, unhealthy family relationship, ignorance of parents, absence of parents (foster kids/ orphans), etc. hamper children and youths character development process to a very large extent, while some children and teenagers simply do not get moral lessons at home. Furthermore, family diversity is a matter of fact as there now exists a greater choice and variety than ever before in terms of family lifestyles. We should bear in mind that the set of values and standards of behavior practiced in one family may differ from that of other families. Since there is no list of universal morals accepted by all families, so there exists an endless conflict: which values to teach and how to teach? In such a situation, the educational institutes (used here as an umbrella term that includes schools, colleges, universities, and other academic and training institutes) should take an added responsibility to prepare children and young individuals to deal with the moral challenges of the future. The fact is also endorsed by bulk of literatures that the academic institutes have required organizational structure, effective mechanism, conducive environment, and supportive members to identify common moral values and to offer students all round development: moral, emotional, spiritual, religious, social, intellectual, physical, and the like. Educational institutes should not just be a place exclusively for reading and writing; it should be the best place (away from home) for students to learn and practice respectful and responsible behaviors in order for them to develop right characters. Teachers are (and should be) the proper agents for the transmission of positive values into students. A large percentage of students moral learning happens from values exhibited by their teachers. Therefore, it would not be exaggeration to say that teachers could be second parent to students; many times, a psychologist and a therapist. Teachers can even affect students moral characters more than their parents. Dr. Thomas Lickona, former president of Association for Moral Education (AME) in USA, termed teachers as effective caregivers. The teachers thus should not ignore moral education; it should be one of their most important responsibilities. Students moral development is an important dimension of education. Family, undoubtedly, has the great duty to pass on to the young citizens the spirit of humanism and the sense of moral responsibility, but familys teaching methods are mostly informal and unstructured; there even lacks a set of common moral values uniformly defined and followed by all families. In contrast, formal education system and educational institutes, through various curricular and co-curricular activities, can play the great role in identifying unanimous moral qualities and instilling them in students. Students are the members of a small society in educational institutes that exert a tremendous influence on their moral development. Whatever students learn here determines, to a great extent, how they will live out their lives in future and how they will contribute in building the nation in future; because todays students are tomorrows citizens. The writer is Editor of SMEs of Bangladesh Publication Series The Bangladesh Rating Agency Ltd. (BDRAL) Email: [email protected]