Parents, the primary source of moral education :

Training children at school to form a just society

by S. Devasirvadham

Children are a nation’s future. In other words, they will be the builders of tomorrow’s nation. Many social institutions help develop a community’s ethical values and civic commitments. However, schools bear a special responsibility in this regard to provide formal and informal instruction to nurture and prepare those in their charge to create a just society - a society that is compassionate and works together in harmony for the good of all who live under its social system.

Every society wishes to foster morality in children and produce responsible citizens. It is a fact that parents are the primary source of Moral Education. Moral education is more effective, however, when it reverberates in all spheres of the community and occurs in varied contexts such as school, workplace, business, politics and mass media, in addition to home.

The Goals

The goal of teaching moral or ethical values is to help children become citizens with high moral principles and a good sense of civilised behaviour firmly established in democratic norms.

In this regard, values such as fairness, justice, honesty, respect, responsibility, courtesy, belief in hygiene and compassion towards all forms of life lay the foundation for a just and humane society. The values we live by affect how we relate to other people, in addition to our activities in the physical and social environment.

In connection with the reaching of the goal stated above, character formation is critical. “… character carries with it a connotation of ‘good traits’. Thus, character traits are associated with, if not synonymous with, virtues. So a good person and, in the context of a liberal democracy, a good citizen will have these virtues.” - Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, on Civic Education - May 2013.

An important task of moral and civic education is to provide students with intellectual resources that would help them to reason and find their way through serious problems and make responsible decisions about complex issues of moral and civic importance. Many countries function in a smooth way in public life because of the strong civic sense their citizens possess.

The need for it

Our children are rapidly acquiring a detailed knowledge of sophisticated modern technology, but how deep is their knowledge of ethical and social values, in comparison? For example, how many of our computer-literate adolescents realise that the “likes” received in life through direct interaction with people are far more concrete and productive than the “likes” received on Facebook? Also, are they all systematically taught the social and legal consequences of the often unethical use of the Internet?

Both the current educational policy and the interests of the parents in our country focus almost exclusively on an education in science and technology for children. However, the opinion of many educationists is that the knowledge and skills gained in science and technology could result in immense harm in the absence of moral direction regarding the ethical limits within which they should be employed, and humanity would move from one crisis to another. This means that moral education is even more important in the present context where humans have reached a high level of progress in science and technology.

Moving on to the issue of social responsibility at its most basic level, we find that using the dustbin to dispose of waste material, for example, is quite an alien concept to most of our children. How many of them, for that matter, are taught the civility of sneezing into a handkerchief, without spreading the viruses? Next, take a walk on a crowded pavement and note the number of youngsters who do not realise the dangers of holding their umbrellas close to the head like wearing a hat and thereby seriously endangering other pedestrians.

Indeed, this does not mean that we ourselves, as adults, exemplify model behaviour in any of the afore-mentioned situations. But it cannot be disputed that, as children, in our little corner of the “less-developed” world, we were far more inclined to show respect for our teachers and other elders and were more receptive to their advice, drawn from long experience in life. At present, people are so driven towards achieving their personal goals that civil behaviour has lost its priority.

Natural environment

The values that we live by also contain respect for the natural environment including its non-human inhabitants. “Until he extends the circle of compassion, to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” - Albert Schweitzer.

Let us pause at this point to consider our mute partners-in-life, who live right in our midst: service animals and companion animals on whom we often see cruelty being inflicted by irresponsible owners or other citizens. Could this treatment be justified? On the contrary,

“The question is not,
Can they reason?
Nor, can they talk?
But can they suffer” - Jeremy Bentham

Studies show that compassion towards animals in early life is linked to compassion towards people, in adult life. In relation to the boomeranging effects of man’s abuse of the lower species and nature, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and a co-founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute, Arun Gandhi says, “In the final analysis, this arrogance towards ‘lesser’ life and towards nature is going to recoil on us. I am convinced that the deterioration in our humanity is directly related to our abuse of life and nature.” - True.

A feature that has to be impressed on young minds is that the destruction of the natural environment will ultimately become a threat to the existence of man himself. The man – elephant conflict due to the destruction of the natural habitat of these mega-herbivores by man, for his various activities, is a case in point.

Few realise the value of the close historical and cultural relationship that has long prevailed between the elephant and our society. In Sri Lanka, no traditional religious pageant is complete without its retinue of these magnificent creatures.

There is a need to understand that the boundary of moral relationships has to be extended beyond the narrow limits of human-human relationships to one of human- nature relationships in such a way that moral rights are not confined to humans only but extended to every form of life.

Golden rule of morality

In the course of a recent conversation on a topic similar to the one under discussion, an academic expressed the following views and principles: In the moral education of children, there is a core universal principle of morality which should be built into the conscience of every child. This principle is meant to make the distinction between considerations of expediency and considerations of human behaviour.

This principle has been called the Golden Rule of Morality in the history of Ethics, where each individual or group should recognise the legitimate interests of the other, comparing those interests with those of one’s own so that each one could act with a genuine feeling of empathy. In other words, “One should not inflict upon another being pain or hardship that one does not legitimately desire to be inflicted upon one self.”

Next, he went on to say that one must have the ability to put oneself even hypothetically in the situation of the other even if one would not ever have the likelihood of being in the other person’s situation.

“People are inclined to talk about ethical values only when they are at the receiving end of acts of injustice as it often happens in political life .

However – Justice and fairness enacted while in a position of power is much more admirable than an affirmation of the moral values of justice when one is at the receiving end of moral justice.”

Starting early

All authorities on child development agree that massive advances occur in physical, cognitive and psycho-social development in childhood, from birth to adolescence and then continue upto adulthood, in various stages.

Thus, children need to be exposed to the norms of moral and social ethics early.

What is conspicuous by its absence is that although all our universities offer courses in ethics, for young adults, public schools fail to have similar courses for their students, to help them absorb a sound fundamental knowledge of ethical behavior, in their formative years.

Moral values and civic virtues do not have to be taught through ponderously dense ideologies which are difficult for children to grasp. There is a reservoir of wisdom to be found in fables, great stories, biographies, history and literature in all the languages of our country, acclaimed films and even well-loved songs to name a few sources. Indeed, learning good values in school could prove to be an enjoyable experience that students look forward to.

Good values in addition to being taught should be exemplified, expected, practised and praised. What has been taught should be reinforced through practical sessions, discussions, projects and competitions. Such co-curricular activities are needed for a holistic approach. An ancient Chinese proverb expresses the importance of practical reinforcement lucidly:

“Tell me, and I will forget, show me and I will remember, involve me and I will understand.”

(Siegel and Rockwood: cited in Equity and Excellence in Education: volume 26, issue 2 ) In this regard, many possible activities could be listed; for e.g., voluntary community service, visits to homes-for-the-aged, nature walks, trips to heritages sites, mixed cultural events to foster inter-ethnic harmony, talks given by veterinarians, canine-shelter supervisors and guardians of law and order, to name a few. Demonstrations could accompany the talks, where possible, as in the case of pedestrian rules or police dogs at work: the scope is immense.

Next, certificate-awarding competitions could be organised, as further steps. For example, paintings with a message to the community would be very relevant in this context.

Projects to encourage students to invent simple tools of practical use to farmers would make these students realise the importance and place of those who toil on behalf of the society.

Similarly, innovative appliances to help the differently-abled would create better awareness of and greater concern for them. Such methods of transforming knowledge and creativity into objects of science and technology would prove to be very productive indeed, in more ways than one.

Examples of countries that have introduced moral education

It is surprising that when many of the most technologically advanced countries have included courses in ethical conduct in their school curriculum, we tend to undermine its value. We should note here that in the past, certain schools in our country did teach the subject of Moral Science/Ethics (general) and this is still appreciated by the now elderly past pupils themselves.

In Japan, Moral Education forms an important component in school education. “Moral education has a fundamental role in Japanese society. It is a distinct area of instruction at every level of compulsory education, and attitudes, habits and behaviour which are consistent with the Japanese value system are infused throughout the curriculum The Japanese concept of moral education is far from vague or formless. Twenty-eight themes in eight categories are covered at the elementary level.” (members-tripod.com - Japanese System of Education)

In relation to this, justice, fairness, duties, trust, family, nation, harmony with nature and the appreciation of it are some of the included themes that can be cited.

Another good example of a country that recognises the importance of moral education is Singapore.

Its Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) program for schools has a comprehensive syllabus based on the ethical and civic needs of the community and nation. An important feature that is to be appreciated is the concern the government shows for its citizens with special needs and also for animal life - both companion animals and wildlife.

In relation to this, in “Parliamentary Replies” to the media, on the new CCE (Character and Citizenship Education) syllabus, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education of Singapore says (Nov. 12th 2013): “Through discussions on issues related to animal welfare, students will learn the concept of responsibility, and the values and attitudes they should adopt to be responsible citizens of the community, respect each other, while appreciating different strengths and abilities and being sensitive to special needs.”

When contacted for clarification on the inclusion of Animal Welfare, the officer in charge of Character and Citizenship Education, Ministry of Education (MoE), Singapore, stated thus: “….. regarding Animal Welfare in Singapore, our lessons explore the values of Respect and Care for both domestic and wildlife animals.

In Primary Level, children are taught responsible Pet Care. In Secondary Level, they discuss through case studies, how their lifestyle impacts wildlife.

We also work with our partners, Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), to provide on-line resources to teach our students about animal welfare.” (Mail text: 27. O1. 2015). According to a government-maintained website, “The New MoE syllabus also includes issues such as common special needs, elderly issues and disabilities, where they learn to be sensitive to special needs”

The government’s stated aim is to groom its children “to be responsible members of the family, community and the Nation”.

Isn’t this the goal of our nation, too?