Moral Education

Every society is concerned about fostering moral character in children and forming responsible citizens. Controversy often accompanies these interests because adults do not always agree about what moral character is or how to cultivate it. Does a person with moral character support societal traditions, much like a tribal leader does, or challenge them, as did Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr.? What exactly do children need to learn in order to be engaged citizens? Further, do children develop moral character through exhortation or through lived experience? Questions like these are debated.

The debate over defining moral education is often pitched between two seemingly opposed perspectives: traditional character education, focused on the development of specific kinds of virtuous traits and habits (Narvaez, 2006) and rational moral education, which focuses on moral judgment and reasoning regarding justice and fairness. The integrative ethical education model (IEE) described below embraces both traditions. IEE defines moral education as the development of moral expertise, which requires both virtue, as intuitions and skills, and moral cognition, as reasoning, imagination, and understanding.

Author : Anthony Holter | Darcia Narvaez
References : http://www.education.com/reference/article/moral-education/

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