The Role Of Education : The Philosophy Of School Education

“Developing in students the desire for the good is the ideal in character development. In this way, students come to a place in which they choose to pursue morally good behaviors, rather than the alternative, as a matter of

Christina H. Sommers describes ethics and its misperceived conception in the education system through her article Teaching the Virtues . Morality is defined through two concepts, social and self. Social morality is based on the social values and agreements set among the people. On the contrary, private morality originates from within us and is an example of decency, honesty, honor, etc. The education system lacks to discipline students on both aspects of ethics. One of examples given was a significant number of students who cheated on their finals

Many students come to school without a solid moral and ethical foundation because it has not been a priority at home. The lack thereof must not be used as an excuse. Educators must assume the responsibility to be effective caregivers, moral models, and ethical mentors. Successful character education is an integral part of a school’s culture, most effective when the virtues are integrated into the academic curriculum (Dean, 2014).

“Can We Teach Character? An Aristotelian Answer” by Edwin M. Hartman is an incredibly well written article on whether, as the title states, character can be taught. I will attempt to critique this article and illustrate points that may have been excluded, but the article is extremely well rounded. The purpose of the article is to determine whether teaching ethics is worth the time taken, whether students will actually act better as a result. Hartman translates Aristotle’s thoughts well, and overall it is a beautiful piece of writing.

C.S Lewis once said, “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.” Ethics, defined by Merriam-Webster, is a “set of moral principles.” Ethical behavior should create an ideal learning environment that builds the foundation of an ethical environment. The experience gained in an ethical AP English classroom will greatly affect the student’s future. Education is not limited to academic study, but is rather the holistic growth of a human being.

With the character and interests, Aristotle states that the virtue should start from moral behavior, which means treating other people well and not being self-interest. Next aspect is the values and strength of character, which explains the companion between values and ethics. In order to be a virtual person with strong character, that person has to have good values, generosity, honesty and motivation. In addition, it is really important for people to be moral and happy at the same time. In order to understand the concept of ethics more, people need to perceive what the factors of a good and happy life are. People cannot be really happy if they do good things because someone is watching them. It is a forced action. Morality is truly shown when people are willing to do so, not when they are forced to. Therefore, ethics is not composed of rules that people have to follow. It is the principle that people understand and voluntarily do right things. Besides the daily life, ethics principle is also applied to community and culture. All business students need to understand the concept of ethics in their future career. In workplaces or organizations, culture and moral behavior have strong connection among employees. Business students have to study organizational behavior class upon graduation to shape the ideas of cultural differences and moral behavior in their mind and prepare to act

Moral Development: how it ties to

What is also worth noticing is that spiritual maturity is greatly fostered through educating children. It is undeniable that the prerequisite for adults to encourage children moral awareness development is being the paragon of virtue. As a result, they always self-consciously conduct themself in parental position, which means the childish spontaneity in their speech and action yields to mature deliberation. In addition, having a kid, people profoundly penetrate the moral lessons in the university. These lessons, which took them a long time to learn by rote, now become a useful tool for them to teach etiquette to their child. In this case, parents put themselves at the place of teacher to thoroughly understand moral philosophy and deliver it in the simplest word which is suitable for an innocent thought. Consequently, practice ethical thought everyday will lead parents to higher level of maturity.

Teaching children morals and ethics today is important because it shows someone with innocence how to care, listen, and reason without prejudice. In this teaching, it becomes obvious that we, as adults, have stopped listening, caring, and even reasoning; an act that, if performed, can change the world for the better.

I think that the strength of Boston Prep’s character education program lies in the sequencing of ethics - the building upon the understanding of the five virtues every year along “with the students’ capacity for reasoning and reflection” (Seider, 2012, p.64). This strategy puts virtue always at the forefront. It is not a lesson to be learned and then forgotten at the end of the course. In this way, virtuousness is understood, by the students, as that which should always be aimed at.

Moral education is most successful when it is passive and indirect. Morals are a set of principles for right and wrong

Education is inevitable. It is all around us because we can learn from virtually anything. When you are cooking, dancing, talking or any other activity you have actually had to learn several things to be able to do them. In the educational perspective, I am a pragmatist and I tend to follow after Dewey's footsteps. The concept of Pragmatism is one that developed in the 20th century. My philosophy is based on the idea that learning should involve real-life situations. Learning becomes more concrete to a student when they apply it to real-life situations, as where learning things that do not connect to them has more of an abstract sense. Personally, I would have to agree with Dewey when he said, "I

In Robert Coles essay I Listen to My Parents and I wonder What They Believe “They need to be told what they must do and what they must not do” ( Coles pg.441). Children need instruction on what to do and what not to do This quote illustrates that children need guidance on what they should and should not do. This article by Robert Coles focuses on children, and their moral education. A moral education encompasses what children need to be taught including right and wrong. A moral education consisted of ethics and morals. Morals included personal character, and ethics put morales to the test . What happens if a parent does not do their job of teaching their children a moral education? Moral abdication, encompasses when parent only focuses on the emotional needs, and not the moral needs. Because of parents’ moral abdication, children will struggle with authority and withdraw due to confusion.

What does education mean if ethics is sacrificed for academic gains? As Aristotle once said, “educating the mind without the heart is no education at all”. Not to mention, ethics is the key in shaping moral identities in people, especially students. This essay examines the importance of teaching ethics to students and the challenges that come with it. Educating students on ethics can minimize academic misconducts, guide students to become self-reliant in decision-making and attain wisdom. Yet, less experienced teachers, ignorance towards the importance of ethics and the increasing pressure on teachers regarding students’ academic standards have become inevitable challenges in the implementation of ethics in education.

In order for a society to function, individuals must be productive members of that society. This is accomplished through education. The philosophy of education is determined by society. As society changes so does the concept of education.