Virtue Approach to Moral Education

Teaching moral and social values in school is being emphasized all over the world and it is a matter of concern in itself. The increasing rate of rapes, thefts, violence committed by juvenile, irresponsible sexual behaviour leading to teenage pregnancy, widening gap between adults and children in family because of technological advances, etc. have led both psychologists and educationists to think seriously about the need of moral education. The National Curriculum Framework, 2005 recommends that the inculcation of ethics and values for personality development, qualities of justice, equality, democracy and cooperation should be an important part of the curriculum covered under Education for peace. The Social Science syllabus for class 6th to 10th tries to address these issues while Environmental Studies from class 3rd to 5th integrates aspects of nature to make them aware of the world around them and teaches them how to preserve and utilize the resources judiciously.

But, is morality something which can be taught systematically like any other subject in school? Even before answering this, one more question arises- why is it becoming essential to give moral education to children in school when they learn different moral attitudes at home?  This can be answered in two ways. Firstly, each child comes from a different socio-cultural background which consequently makes a difference in the values and attitudes taught at home. To develop a stable and harmonious society, it is essential that people respect and show tolerance to others’ principles. Schools can play an important role in doing this by providing a balanced curriculum which takes into account, the morals of different communities and promotes well-being of the society. Secondly, there are many children who are brought up in an environment where inter-personal relationships between family members are not cordial and there is lack of integrity in their behaviour. Such children fail to understand the proper code of conduct expected from them outside home and this excludes them from the normative picture of society. Therefore, schools are entrusted with the responsibility of teaching morality to children from early age to prepare them as responsible adults in their social and personal lives, irrespective of where they come from.

It will not be incorrect to say that moral education cannot be taught as a separate subject. It talks about a person’s behaviour and attitude, not in certain situations but his character as a whole. But, subjects like science, art and literature give chance to develop qualities like impartiality, appreciation of other’s expressions and understanding different perspectives respectively. Thus, moral education is integrated with various disciplines enabling the students to have an individual standpoint towards life as they understand it. Teacher also has a great responsibility in achieving the purpose of moral education. He/she stands as a model for the students and thus has to make sure that his/her personal opinions and attitude do not influence the students. In fact, the children should be in a position to make their own choices with regards to values and principles that they want to adopt, free from what the teacher asks them to. Thus unlike other subjects where a teacher is assumed to have more knowledge than students and so they are often forced to accept the statements made by the teacher, instructions in moral education ought not to be authoritarian. The instructions should not be a set of rules which are to be followed in certain situations or places; rather they should allow the students to internalize a particular mode of behaviour and standards which are not forced upon the children.  

Having said that moral education is essential for the overall development of children and society at large, there is no one way of going about giving moral education. There are various approaches on which debates are going on for quite long. Hirst said that children should be taught to reason correctly on sound moral principles while MacIntyre attempted to explain morality on the grounds of virtues (Wringe, 2000). Other approaches are to teach them to care for themselves and others (Gilligan, 1982; Noddings, 1984 as cited in Wringe, 2000) and to enable them in practicing a meaningful way of life. In this paper, I will discuss about the virtue approach to moral education as it has gained renewed interest in the field of philosophy of education.

Virtue ethics is one approach for studying ethical behaviour, the other two approaches being deontology and consequentialism. Virtue ethics emphasizes the role of an individual’s character and virtues in his actions. Deontology places importance to adherence to duties and rules while consequentialism says that the outcomes of an action determine the morality of the act (Hursthouse, 2013). Both deontology and consequentialism talk about acting, either following certain high moral ideas or by evaluating the consequence but virtue ethics is about being rather than doing. The virtues possessed by an individual reflect his character and his actions reflect his morality. Although the other two approaches also use virtue as a central aspect, it changes according to situation and cultures but in virtue ethics, the virtue helps the person in making consistent decisions.

Virtue can be defined as a “character trait that is for some important reason desirable or worth having” (Sher, 1992:94 as cited in Steutel & Carr, 1999, p.4). Honesty, perseverance, patience, politeness, tolerance, justice, courage, loyalty, etc. are virtues that are constituents of one’s character. They may not be useful always, but they help in taking crucial decisions when alternative way can be chosen. They enable us to overcome over weakness by acting in accordance with our character. For example, if a man is honest but the situation demands of him to lie for his own well-being, still he does not lie, then it is a virtue he possesses which does not change with time or situations. But, if someone is insincere in his work regardless of the situation, it is his character trait but not a virtue. Thus, only the desirable characteristics which are useful for one and all are counted as virtues.

Can virtues be taught is a question that remains unanswered. If we say that it can be answered by evaluating the students based on their responses to certain questions requiring morally acceptable answers, and if they are able to answer then, we have succeeded in teaching virtues. But this is not an absolute way of doing so. Virtues are not rules to be applied to questions; they are habits as said by Socrates (Kupperman, 1999). Aristotle made a distinction between moral education in early childhood and that in advanced stages. He said that till adolescence, virtues should be inculcated in the form of habits by making them go through pleasure when doing what ought to be and pain when there is a violation of the habit. This is essential because by the time children are 15, their character has already shaped and whatever changes occurring afterwards will be personality-related.

Once, their character gets a strong foundation, the education at advanced stage can make them aware of the value of goodness. They have to be taught that things such as money, power and sexual desires which often lure people into misbehavior can be overpowered by strong virtues of inner peace and satisfaction (Kupperman, 1999). Although these are true in general, we cannot deny that the ways in which this is taught has to change with time because increasingly the world is becoming competitive and demanding. So, we have to make sure that young people are able to cope up with the world while abiding their virtues.

Moral education at an advanced stage is important mainly because of three reasons: students should be able to take others’ perspective, to achieve a sense of self and lastly to go through challenging experiences in order to strengthen their character (Kupperman, 1999). It is essential for the students to realize that their actions can have negative effects on others and so they should think about the consequences of their acts before doing it. Exercises like role-play, imaginary works of fiction, drama, etc. can help in teaching this properly. The many roles of a son/daughter, brother/sister, friend, etc. help an individual to realize his/her place in others’ lives. But, having an image of self as an individual, having individual rights, freedom and self-esteem is most important. For this, not only schools but families have a big responsibility in helping the child build a positive self-image. While on one hand, schools usually instruct how to behave cordially with peers and teachers, upbringing at home focuses on child-centered virtues like love and care between child and parents. Finally, to prepare them for facing challenges in life, they should be posed with such situations in school. They should also be asked not only to reflect on their past and take responsibility for it, but also think about possible outcomes of certain activities, for example teenage pregnancy as an outcome of unsafe sex. Sports activities can develop virtues of self-discipline, cooperation, ability to accept failures, etc. Thus, certain activities at school can gradually but surely contribute in strengthening character of young people.  

Although, this approach strives to give liberty to individuals to make their own choices about how they want to live, it has its own limitations. Wringe (1998) says that in this age, living combines both morality and one’s self-interest so that no one is affected badly for the good of other. Thus, inculcating virtues should intend to enable students in recognizing limits of freedom while valuing others’ freedom as well. Indoctrination and instruction of certain beliefs and rules of behaviour will not serve the purpose of moral education as students will think of morality as something which restricts their desires and forces them to follow what other expect of them. According to Aristotle, each virtue has two corresponding vices which indicate excess and lack of that particular quality. For example, courage is a virtue with cowardice and recklessness as corresponding vices. Thus, while teaching moral values, children should be told explicitly about these aspects of virtues so that they learn to keep a balance between what ought to be and what may be harmful for them.

White (n.d.) while talking about educational aims says that aims which direct the attitudes of students towards being a democratic and responsible citizen are more important to formulate. The curriculum should be designed in such a way that virtues of “respect, self-directedness, tolerance ,benevolence ,cooperativeness in the  pursuit of common ends; self-control in relation to anger; patience; proper control of one's bodily appetites for food, drink and sex” (White, n.d.) are inculcated. Thus, even before determining educational aims, it is essential to identify the desirable traits of character expected from their behaviour. Children should be prepared to tackle different relations bound by love such as parents, friends, sexual partner so that they emotionally they are strong to play these roles. While proper conduct of physical desires need knowledge of physiology of body, nutrition, drug addiction, etc., virtues of friendliness and caring need social interaction which is provided largely by school. It is accepted widely that both family and school guide the desirable qualities in a child, they hardly have a say in the curriculum making process. Sectionalism in this process should be avoided as much as possible. A democratic process of deciding the objectives should be used so that opinions of all stakeholders are taken into account. Parents, teachers, psychologists, educationists, the State and last but not the least, views of children count the most and a curriculum devised in such a way will only achieve the aims of moral education.

References

Hursthouse, R. (2013).  "Virtue Ethics". In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/ethics-virtue/

Kupperman, J. J. (1999). 14 Virtues, character and moral dispositions. In J. Steutel & D. Carr (Eds.), Virtue Ethics and Moral Education (pp. 205-216). London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.lightforcenetwork.com/sites/default/files/Virtue%20Ethics%20and%20Moral%20Education%20-%20David%20Carr%20and%20Jan%20Steutel.pdf

Murray, M. E. (n.d.). Moral Development and Moral Education: An Overview. Retrieved from http://moodle.unitec.ac.nz/file.php/950/Day_9_childhood/MoralDevelopmentandMoralEducation.pdf

NCERT. (2005). National Curriculum Framework 2005. New Delhi: National Council of Educational Research and Training. Retrieved from http://www.ncert.nic.in/rightside/links/pdf/framework/english/nf2005.pdf.

Steutel, J. & Carr, D. (1999). 1 Virtue ethics and the virtue approach to moral education. In J. Steutel & D. Carr (Eds.), Virtue Ethics and Moral Education (pp. 3-18). London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.lightforcenetwork.com/sites/default/files/Virtue%20Ethics%20and%20Moral%20Education%20-%20David%20Carr%20and%20Jan%20Steutel.pdf

White, J. (n.d.). New Aims for a New National Curriculum.

Wringe, C. (1998). Reasons, Rules and Virtues in Moral Education. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 32(2), 225-237. Retrieved from http://www.fatih.edu.tr/~hugur/PATIENT/Reasons,%20Rules%20and%20Virtues%20in%20Moral%20Education.pdf

Wringe, C. (2000). The Diversity of Moral Education. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 34(4), 659-672.