Parents And Teachers: Working Together To Cultivate Morality In All Children

8 Pages 2079 Words

munities. The problem is, “our kids just don’t hear as much as they should about the compassionate, humane gestures people do for others” (Huxley, 1998).
Though researchers have determined that different influences can form an individual’s morality, “all recognize that no single cause can account for either moral or immoral behavior” (Damon, 1999). Our society tends to point the finger at the outside world of music, television, video games and their content as robbing our youth of their morals. Research has proven the development of morality is far more complex than a single source. Understanding moral development and the stages individuals go through is essential to begin fostering morality in others (Damon, 1999).
Morality is proven to be innate, yet needs to be developed for individuals to reach moral maturity. One of the key emotions in moral development is empathy. This emotion can be detected in infants within the first months of life. Infants will show signs of empathy as soon as they can recognize another’s existence. Hearing someone cry can prompt and infant to cry and laughter can prompt signs of happiness. During the second year of life, children are known to console family members and friends when they are suffering. To ensure moral growth, children need the conscious efforts of the adults in their lives to help them progress through the stages of moral development (Damon, 1999).
The six stages of moral judgment derived by Lawrence Kohlberg in the late 1950s provide a framework for understanding the complex development of morality. The first stage is one of avoiding punishment. The child decides what to do based on what he/she wants to and can do without getting into trouble. The second stage is also self-serving. Children tend to do what is right because they want a reward or what can be in i...