Moral Education

Just what is “moral education” and why do we need it?

Education may be defined as an endeavor to formally train or teach an individual or groups, or foster and develop skills in such person or persons in a certain subject and to form the basis for systematic study and application in that subject.

Morals are attributes an individual or a group acquires to facilitate making distinctions between right and wrong in people’s conduct, and include principles, standards and habits of behavior applicable to these distinctions.

Moral education is not a current “buzz word,” something new. Moral education and the need for it is as old as earth itself. The Chinese sage Lao Tzu had this to say, “Fathers should not be too tolerant, nor be too strict. Only when there are wise fathers are there good children. Only when there are kind fathers are there respectful children. How many people could ever become talented without being taught, act on their own without encouragement, gain a sense of purpose without study? Fathers should be aware of that.”

Over the millennia throughout the history of humanity, stories and lore have been told dealing with morals, and numerous books about the subject have been written. Fables, allegories and myths often contain moral elements from which one might learn proper conduct or “ethics,” the Greek word for morals. History has thereby shown all along the preoccupation with - and need for - virtuous, moral conduct.

All societies have their codes of ethics. In democratic societies, public ethics are often stated in rules of law. Primitive, illiterate societies also have their rules of conduct, their taboos and modes of proper behavior. Tribal elders in these societies are often the ones who decide on and mete out punishment for transgressions against the group’s moral code. In the over 2,000 year-old Christian traditions the specific code of conduct is the Ten Commandments, in the Jewish tradition it is the Talmud, in Muslim society the precepts are spelled out in the Koran.

During each historical era, when society experiences a sharp moral decline, a wise, compassionate enlightened being comes onto the scene to attempt to bring people back to the correct path and show them the error of their ways. Over 2,000 years ago Jesus appeared to the Jews and later, Mohammed appeared to the Arab world, each peoples at that time in history being given another chance to amend their wrong-doings.

In our current era, in the year 1992, a sage appeared once again to give mankind a chance to reflect on her morality. This man appeared in China. His most famous written work to date is the book Zhuan Falun, meaning “Turning the Law Wheel” that bases his teachings on the Law of the Universe, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. This text contains an outstanding blueprint for everyone’s moral conduct for our day and age, and outshines all conventional modern theories of moral behavior in its elegant simplicity, clarity, and wisdom.

In the late 1940s, Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, whose early work focused primarily on the study of young children, deemed morality a developmental process, and reported that younger children’s concepts of morality are rather simplistic compared to those of older children who had reached the age of reasoning, which, as accepted by most modern child psychologists, is seven years old.

Piaget found that young children are not yet able to form their own view of things from the perspective of others’ viewpoints, an ability that develops later and will be much more easily developed when the children have good role models. Young children, he found, often behaved well because they feared punishment, an attitude that changed with maturity, when the child’s intentions and not fear of results were more prominently observable. Further maturing in their moral development enables children to figure out the salient features of an action, as they relate to moral codes and apply also to social conventions, a cognitive process most human beings can master.

American scientist Lawrence Kohlberg, Ph.D., a behavioral psychologist, was for many years professor of moral education and ethics at Harvard University. He began his thought-provoking work in the 1970s. His best-known and well-publicized work, “The Theory of Moral Development” is in extension of and a further collaboration with Professor Jean Piaget’s theories of moral development.

Professor Kohlberg postulated, and has demonstrated through several well-documented studies, that moral development and the moral reasoning that lead to moral maturity occurs in stages; that such development is not nation-specific but applicable all over the globe. He reported that individuals from virtually all nationalities progress in more or less the same way along the road to moral development. Dr. Kohlberg’s conclusions had been verified in cross-cultural studies in countries as diverse as Turkey, Taiwan, Mexico, India, Honduras, The United States, Canada, Britain and Israel.

Some sources list seven of his “Stages of Moral Development,” while others only list six. If one allows for a pre-moral or pre-conventional stage – a stage where behavior is motivated by anticipation of pleasure or pain, also called egocentric behavior - then one could allow for the number seven. The other six stages are listed as follows:

Stage 1 – obedience and punishment; Stage 2 – individualism, instrumentalism and exchange, such as viewing human relations in terms of a market place where fairness and reciprocity seem prevalent; Stage 3 – “good boy/girl” where behavior is often judged by the intention of the perpetrator; Stage 4 – law and order considerations, i.e., the individual is oriented toward authority, fixed rules and maintaining the social norm, for their own sake; Stage 5 – the social contract/legalistic orientation, usually with utilitarian overtones, where the correct action is often defined by what the social standards are agreed upon by the whole society, emphasizing procedural rules to reach consensus, leaving open the possibility for changing these laws after rational considerations; Stage 6 - the universal ethical-principle view – to define right and wrong based on decisions of conscience and self-chosen ethical principles “that appeal to logical comprehensiveness, universality and consistency,” principles that are abstract and ethical, also called ‘The Golden Rule,’ and are not to be viewed as concrete moral rules, such as The Ten Commandments.” (Direct quote from Dr. Kohlberg) Rather, they are universal principles of justice, represent the reciprocity and equality of human rights and show respect for the dignity of human beings as individual entities.

All these fairly complex contemporary scientific theories are explained and elaborated in the marvelous, contemporary and yet age-old book of wisdoms and prescriptions of conduct for our modern societies, the above-named book, Zhuan Falun. This book even explains what happens when human morality declines dramatically and, once this has happened, what we can do, individually and as a society, to make the world a better place again. The writer elaborates clearly why moral education is crucial for the stability of societies of the future.

It is no problem for any fairly well-educated person to follow learned hypotheses, postulated by educational psychologists, as well-reasoned and elegantly presented they might be, but doing this might be a difficult undertaking for people who lack the benefits of higher education. The book Zhuan Falun, however, if read with comprehension and insight, is easily be understood by anyone, even by numerous individuals who are illiterate. This book is a blueprint for daily conduct in our technologically advanced but morally regressed time in history.

Precisely because our present society for the large part has given ever more rise to the mentality of instant gratification and considers deferred goals old-fashioned and backward, looks upon an altruistic deed - well done, with noble intent, and from high principles - as something unusual and odd, we need to early on instill in our children the reasons for acquiring the rationale for a morally upright lifestyle. Because the spiral is headed downward, we urgently need to train them to become good adults.

This so vitally important mandate falls to morally strong parents, teachers and other significant role models. These role models do not necessarily need to study the latest and thought to-be-most-useful child psychology texts to influence young ones successfully – all they have to do is read the book Zhuan Falun get a good understanding of the dire, urgent need of and reasons for uplifting modern society’s morals.

Fables, myths and allegories as well as prophecies, some as old as 5,000 years, tell us that there is a direct relationship between natural and man-made disasters and the degree of moral decline of a society or societies, a belief equally held by oriental and occidental people.

When evaluating these occurrences and dealing with disasters, it is prudent to consider the different stages of moral development people bring to bear on their decisions. Where the group’s moral development is strong, such disasters might be viewed as a hint from a higher power. When the levels of moral development, in groups or in societies, are mixed, the evaluation of such disasters might lead to diverse views and strong disagreements.

Those disagreements and why they happen might depend on yet other circumstances, as researched by eminent American scientist Abraham Maslow, who looked at moral development from a different perspective. How people deal with good fortune and adversities and how these decisions affect their actions, he found, can be evaluated across all cultures, along seven levels. The broadest and most basic is level No. 1. Physiological needs: hunger, thirst, bodily comfort (food, clothes, shelter, air and water); the next level, No. 2, - safety needs, including being out of danger; level No.3 are belongingness and love needs; affiliation with others, to be accepted in a group; level No. 4 – esteem needs, including self-achievement, to feel competent, gain approval and recognition; No. 5, cognitive needs, to know, comprehend, understand and explore; No. 6, aesthetic needs, order, beauty and symmetry in one’s surroundings, and finally, No. 7, needs for self-actualization and transcendence, the highest level to reach, a level that includes finding self-fulfillment, to realize one’s potential, and help others realize their potential and help them find self-fulfillment.

Professor Maslow explicitly stated that UNLESS the first level has been satisfied, it is impossible to advance to the next higher level; when the second level is reached, only then can one move on to the third, and eventually to the top. Most people, he cautioned, are unfortunately traveling back and forth between the first three levels and never achieve a higher plateau. He did not elaborate whether or not it is possible to have strong moral convictions even at the most basic level, though it is highly likely that even people who never reach the pinnacle of development, self-actualization, are very well aware of and have a strong sense for right and wrong of an action.

So, what do all these theories and hypotheses have to do with one’s moral outlook?

In examining what is happening in certain societies during this present era one must wonder why some of those fare relatively better than others, either economically, politically and spiritually; have greater domestic tranquility; are prospering; are largely free of natural or man-made disasters and are able to intervene for those who have lost their voice in their struggle for autonomy and human rights. On closer examination, an odd phenomenon emerges. It seems that those societies who, on the surface at least, subscribe to morally upright conduct and live by ethical standards, especially among the leadership of their nations, are rewarded for their conduct with the absence of major calamities, absences of disastrous disease epidemics, and of floods, droughts and civil wars and other disasters of major proportions.

The majority of those countries that seem to fare better are industrialized nations. Second, Third and Fourth-World nations at present are not faring so well. What can explain this puzzling find? The answer to that complicated question again lies in the book Zhuan Falun, where the writer states that these circumstances have to do with the “cause-and-effect relationship,” going back centuries, and the reasons can be found in ever more declining moral conduct by individuals, societies and whole nations over hundreds and perhaps thousands of years.

Every new act begins with a new idea; unless that idea is followed by an action, it is worthless. Our thoughts determine our conduct. Persevering, we can make the conscious decision to think moral thoughts, urge others to act in a morally upright way and, down the line, observe the fruits of our labors such positive changes have brought.

References:

“Zhuan Falun,” by Li Hongzhi
“The Spirit of Tao,” translated and edited from the Chinese by Thomas Cleary, Shambala Press, Boston/ London, 1993
“Religions, Values and Peak Experiences,” by Abraham Maslow, Viking Press, August 1970
“Future Visions: The Unpublished Papers by Abraham Maslow,” Abraham Maslow/Edward Hoffman, Sage Publications (no year given)
“The Development of Sociomoral Knowledge: A Cognitive Structural Approach,” by Hugh Rosen, Columbia University Press, January 1980
“Moral Development: A guide to Piaget and Kohlberg,” R.F. Duska, Mariellen Whelan, Paulist Press, October 1975