Compare and contrast the two main ways in which schools teach moral development.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The two main ways schools use to teach moral development are character education and values clarification. Both approaches have different objectives, methods of teaching, and roles for the teacher.
Character education is a direct education approach that involves teaching students a basic moral literacy to prevent them from engaging in immoral behavior and doing harm to themselves and others. The argument is that some behaviors are clearly morally wrong and that students need to be taught this throughout their education. Character education is taught through class discussions, role playing, and rewarding students for proper behavior. It is also demonstrated for students through the moral code of the school.
Values clarification involves helping students to clarify what their lives are for and what is worth working for. Unlike character education, which tells students what their values should be, values clarification encourages students to define their own values and to understand the values of others.