It seems that there's a proposed contract between the state education department and Boston University's newly formed Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character to teach character and values in New Hampshire's schools. Teaching ethics in the schools -- now there's a radical idea. I'm all for it -- but not for what I think the educators and politicians want.
As usual, moral education is discussed in a vacuum, as if its lack in the schoolroom has no connection with how schools are structured, the pressures of adolescence, or the surrounding society. Moral education is deficient in the school system we have because the school system we have is by and large not moral in nature. It's a system based on acquiescence to authority (for both teachers and students) and learning enough to get a good job. If moral education means anything, it at least means vigorous investigation, good-natured skepticism about authority, and the chance to come to conclusions one can live with -- all traits missing from most of the system's curriculum.
We must realize that those authorities calling for moral education usually mean two things when they intone the "moral education" mantra: we must get back to some system of values that supposedly existed in the past and that the present offers no values worth emulating. In short, given who they are and how they got to their positions of influence, "morality" means teaching behavior that supports the status quo, which does not mean devoting a lot of energy to critical analysis of social structures or creating students who are free-thinkers.
But if we really wanted to have a "moral" education, which is different from simply "moral education," then we would revamp our system to accomplish it. What would that entail? First, reduce the curriculum to four areas: math, science, history, and literature. Second, create smaller classes -- ideally, six to ten students -- who would be tutored by excellent teachers. Third, restructure the time in school away from the assembly line of "periods" and towards an environment that encourages deliberation and inquiry. Once this preliminary editing has taken place, then the teachers will have the time to teach their students how to read intelligently. And once students can do that, they can confront the knotty moral problems they are going to find in literature, history, and science. It's in talking about and solving these problems that education in morality really happens.
We need to build a system that encourages moral behavior. When that gets done, we won't have to suffer the nonsensicality of people making contracts with Centers for Ethics and developing programs which are nothing more than sermonizing in curricular garb.
An Easter Message
The Hero