Right, Wrong and Everything In Between Essay -- Ethics, Morality

In the fields of education and psychology, scholars generally advocate increased moral education in hopes of instilling in children a desire to develop their own character (Huitt, 2004; Nucci, 2008). Nucci (2008) argues that while all of the social concerns in the United States are not intrinsically moral, there exists a linkage between social issues and the decline of moral values. Claiming that the ongoing debate on morality in today’s youth relies too heavily on uninformed personal views, he urges the public to revisit the scholarly literature with its methodically conducted research (Nucci, 2008). Therefore, in order to further the development of society in the areas of moral responsibility and ethical behaviors, the need to investigate moral development of children, acknowledge a number of potential factors involved in this process, and ascribe points of its future direction becomes ever more time-sensitive. The following summary and discussion points derive from one-on-one observations and responses recorded from a multiracial 5-year-old boy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania whose parents are both Christians. He was clinically interviewed in his house, specifically in his own room that he solely occupies, without the presence of his parents, who were in the dining room at the time. During my interview session, because he was familiar with setting and the objects within, frequent distractions arose, yet whenever the boy gave his response to the question or situation, he did so coherently. Similar to the study of 5- to 9-year-olds conducted by Wainryb et al. (2004), the interview initially probed the boy’s sense of right and wrong. The findings show that this boy encourages sharing and will report classmates to the teacher for... ...ited Berkowitz, M. W., & Grych, J. H. (1998). Journal of Moral Education, 27(3), 371-391. Hoffman, M. L. (2000). Empathy and moral development: Implications for caring and justice. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Huitt, W. (2004). Moral and character development. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Kohlberg, L. (2008). The development of children’s orientations toward a moral order: I. Sequence in the development of moral thought. Human Development, 51(1), 8-20. Nucci, L. (2008). Moral development and moral education: An overview. Social and Moral Development and Education. Wainryb, C., Shaw, L. A., Langley, M., Cottam, K., & Lewis, R. (2004). Children’s thinking about diversity of belief in the early school years: Judgments of relativism, tolerance, and disagreeing persons. Child Development, 75(3), 687-703.