The role of Catholic Students in Moral Development in Schools

As the saying goes ‘God created Man in His own image’ so Human beings are to behave as the Lord acts but the environment in which we live has brought a lot of challenges to Man to live as God, however such conditions should not prevent us from doing good.

The aspect of Human life consists of spiritual, moral, economics, social and physical. Any one of these can influence our life either positively or negatively depending upon how one views it.

In today’s presentation, I want to talk about the moral development of you the students as Catholics and what you can do to live a good moral life on your campus and after school.

I thank the organizers of this progrmme for inviting me to share with you on the topic: ‘the role of Catholic Students in Moral Development’

The term morality is not easy to be defined. However, in its general sense, Morality consists of the customs, habits, values, and traditions adopted by a given society or a group. It is about the quality of relationship that exists among people in a society. Again Morality is about the rightness or wrongness of an action, or conformity to societal norms. Norms are deeds that are praised by a society.

Morality in general, refers to quality in human acts by which we call them good or bad, right or wrong. It consists of system of rules.

W.K. Frankena, an authority in moral philosophy asserts that ‘morality consists of judgments (rules, principles, ideas) that pronounce actions to be good or bad, right or wrong, simple because of the effect they have on the feelings, interests, ideas of other people or center of sentiment experience or perhaps simply because of their effects on humanity whether on his own person or that of another’. What he is saying is that morality is a societal based in the sense that it involves a wide range of attitudes from sexual behaviour, integrity, honesty, to such matters as selection of occupation and choice of friends.

This means that as students , your attitude will determine the can of friends you move with. You can witness that in your schools those who are considered to be bad moves with bad ones and those who are perceive to be good also try to move with those who are seen as good. All depends on your morals.

In his book African Cultural Values (1998), Prof. Kwame Gyekye, says that morality is a set of social rules and norms intended to guide the conduct of people in a society. The rules and norms emerge from – and are anchored in-people’s beliefs about right and wrong conduct and good and bad character. It has been stated that morality is intrinsically social; arising out of the relations between individuals; if there were no such a thing as human society, there would be no such thing as morality.

That is why were say that society cannot be taken away when we are talking about morality. You as a student you have two main society or environment you associate with; that is the school and the home.

Most of you are angles at home but in school, school authorities and even your own friends see you as the most criminals. The reason is that you have allowed the bad friends on campus to influence your life at school.

Let us look at these important words, which have something to do so far as this topic is concerned

: Moral, Immoral and Amoral

I hope that for the word moral you are familiar with: things which are considered to be right acts or deeds are called morals. It means that when one does a good thing we say that he has morals.

Immoral are deeds that are seen to be wrong in a society. I hope that if I give chance to mention deeds which are considered to be wrong or bad in Ghanaian environment you can mention hundreds of them, yet some of you take delight in doing it.

Amoral acts are those that have nothing to do with morality. This means that not all human acts that are considered as moral act. For instance, if you refuse to iron the clothes before wearing them, though the act is wrong one in the sense that it is an improper way of dressing one cannot describe your action as being moral or immoral person. The behaviour of persons who have no sense of morality, that is, those who cannot make a distinction between right and wrong is also amoral. Such people include children and the insane, but I strongly believe that none of you is a child or an insane. And in view of that you will not expect to act as those people.

There are many cultures in this world and each of them has its own moral values and immoral values. It is therefore very difficult to have common moral values. Sometimes what one culture considers being of value is deeming a vice by another? For example, while among the Masai of Kenya a male member of an age set those initiated into adulthood together… can sleep with the wife of any member of the age set, this is considered a vice by, for example, the Asante of Ghana.

This situation indicates clearly that every society has the right to choose what they think it should be moral values for them. However, when selecting your moral values as Christians your base line should be the Holy Bible, because the source of all Christian values are from the Holy Bible and other Traditions that are view as good.

Let me be quick to say that there is some behaviour in the Bible which should not be considered as good deeds. One of them is what the daughters of LOT did by given him alcohol to drink to motivate him to sleep with them (Gen. 19: 30-38).

Nevertheless, there are some acts generally considered to be desirable and which Ghanaian society desire for all members like you. That is why the society takes great pains to inculcate those acts into members from childhood.

The moral, ethical and spiritual development of students is a fundamental goal of education. It is clearly not confined to one area of the curriculum. All teachers, across all areas of the curriculum have a responsibility to inculcate in their students positive values and a capacity for moral and ethical judgment.

Government schools are expected to promote the moral values which are shared by the majority of people in our community. For schools to achieve this, that is why your school authorities have given you school code of conducts. Many of you view the school code of conduct book as something that aims to deny you of your human rights but the fact is that there is no absolute from under the sun. The life of every human being needs to be regulated by an authority. There is merit in the clear statement of this responsibility.

For schools to be able to promote morality among students in Ghana, our institutions which trained teachers should place premium on training the morals of such teachers. As a saying goes, you can not offer what you don’t have, so our teachers need to be formed in moral ways to enable them too to impact it on their students.

A 1993 press review of the debate spoke in journalistic terms of "overworked teachers girding themselves for battle in a new crusade for spirituality and moral values in the classroom". This shows the teachers’ concern: are they to become responsible for the moral behaviour of students? The accompanying headline, "Teachers Told to be Moral Guardians: Juvenile crime levels prompt push for moral values" (Oswald, 1993, p.43) does, however cynically, highlight the often ambivalent view of government. The government view stresses the need for schools to do more to improve moral standards and discipline. Policy documents may talk about values/spirituality in the curriculum in a holistic way; but there also seem to be undertones of a pragmatic social aim: the school is being given the role of solving social problems. In addition, there may be an underlying assumption that the moral concerns will harmonise with other government education aims motivated by economic rationalism: Eg. aims for higher standards in vocationally oriented competencies to achieve increased productivity and competitiveness on global markets (Crawford and Rossiter, 1993A). The ‘outcomes movement’ in education is strongly influenced by this thinking. The emphasis on values/spirituality sits in tension with the aims that seem to treat students as economic assets whose productivity is to be enhanced through education; performance indicators are like measures of their efficiency and of their ultimate instrumental value for the economy.

What is said about values in education often talks about a list of the desirable values in students that a school should promote. There is a phrases like “these are the values to be taught”, and “values need to be inculcated”, but little is said about how these values actually develop and change within individuals, about how values might be communicated, and about how educational processes within the formal curriculum might promote such value development in this country. Because of this omission, much of the discussion of values in education does not proceed far enough beyond a ‘wish list’ of the desirable values that a school education might ideally develop. Nevertheless, I see it as helpful to draw up a list of what are called ‘graduate attributes.’ They show the ideals the school is trying to promote, and this can give direction to both the curriculum and the community life of the school. However, this is not enough.

As we grow up, we learn what is good and bad; what is acceptable to society and what the society rejects. I hope that though you know what is good and acceptable, you sometimes do things that are general bad and such acts are called deviant behaviours.

Some of such deviant behviours which are common among students include: lying, stealing, fighting, drug abuse, truancy, bulling, kicking and aggression and breaking school rules.

Ways Catholic Students Can Develop Moral Values:

1. Absorbing beliefs/values/attitudes from human relationships: Absorbing the values implicit in the ways individuals are treated by parents and others. Human relationships as a source of values; particular ways individuals are treated may confirm certain values, or may promote other values through a negative reaction to the way they are treated.

2. Emulation of the values displayed by others: Individuals may emulate values displayed by others (both positive and negative). Heroes and heroines can be important sources of values. Friends, local and foreign people, as well as the stars of sport, music, film and television can be role models for lifestyle and values.

3. Values/attitudes arising from the satisfaction of personal needs: Values may develop out of the ways in which individuals satisfy personal needs -- patterns or regularities in the ways they behave in satisfying wants and needs (altruism, politeness, self-centredness, selfishness etc.)

4. Adopting values out of a sense of idealism: The attraction of an ideal can facilitate the development of particular values as ones the individual esteems and tries to incorporate into his/her life.

5. Adopting values inspired by spiritual/religious beliefs, and by religious experience and practice: Religious beliefs can be a fundamental source of personal values. This can include what individuals might describe as spiritual or transcendent experience.

6. Adopting values/beliefs/attitudes after exhortation: Individuals are told what is good and important for them and for the good of others (this will be affected by the level of respect for, and perceived authority of, the source).

7. Adopting values as a result of fear or coercion. This is where psychological pressure is brought to bear on the individual to change. It might be motivated by a sense of oppression, anxiety, fear, shame, guilt etc.

8. Changing values as a result of personal experience or events: This may be long term experience or shorter, critical (sometimes traumatic) experiences which trigger an appraisal of values. There may be a significant emotional component to the change. Change could result from experiences of the natural environment, and of animals and vegetation, as well as from artistic experience.

9. Changing values/attitudes in the light of the experience of different cultures: Travel and other ways of experiencing different cultures and lifestyles can prompt some change in the perceptions of others and can lead to changes in values.

10. Developing values through personal reflection on experience or learning: Individuals may change their values as a follow up to new knowledge and understandings. These could come from experience (as noted above) as well as from reading, watching theatre, films and television.

11. Developing beliefs/values/attitudes in the light of experience of an ethical, formal educational process: While all sorts of experience can be considered as contributing to an individual’s education, this category refers to formal/semi-formal educational programs which respect personal freedom and individuality. Through information, analysis, interpretation, evaluation – involving preliminary judgments about worth -- individuals may be persuaded or prompted (by the process) without coercion, to consider the desirability or importance of adopting particular values. The educational process may or may not be designed specifically to promote particular values; whether or not the individual changes depends on the individual and not on the program; educational programs do not automatically change values – the intention to change values through education is no guarantee that change will result. Sometimes the change in participants’ values may be unintentional as far as the program is concerned.

12. Changes in attitudes/values through a counselling process: A counselling process in which the individual works interactively with a counsellor (professional or non-professional) can lead to the adoption of different attitudes and values as well as different ways of behaving. It may include change coming from advice as well as from desirable changes that the individual comes to consider and then tries to adopt.

13. Developing attitudes/values through indoctrination: Values may be changed through an instructional process that educators would see as inappropriate or unethical. That is, through a process which is thought to be flawed by being too partial, or which intentionally does not give a full picture of what is going on, or which keeps relevant information from participants. The persuasion to change values is not fully open to rational evaluation. There is some form of deceit when information is concealed or misrepresented.

14. Values influenced by propaganda: A process like indoctrination, propaganda deliberately sets out to change values/attitudes by promoting a particular ideology. It may appeal to nationalism, fear of foreigners, fear of compromise of one’s own lifestyle, or fear of danger. It may give misinformation and appeal to images and myths that are not true.

15. Changing attitudes and values as a response to advertising: Values and lifestyle may be influenced, even subtly, by advertising. This may affect particular values; or it may have an influence on lifestyle (Eg. to varying degrees, attitudes to consumerism and the use of money).

16. Values influenced by economic circumstances: A desire to make money, to achieve financial security, to provide for family and children, or other economic pressures may affect people’s values and attitudes. This sort of change may be driven by envy of those perceived to be privileged or better off; it may be influenced by compassion for those who are poor, or unemployed, or who have less financial resources.

17. Changing values through participation in the life of groups: This can involve groups of peers, interest groups, sporting groups and many different sorts of organisations. Individuals can absorb the attitudes/values that are prominent in the group.

18. Changing values as a result of political action: The action of governments and their agencies can affect people’s values in positive and negative ways.

19. Other processes:

Sometimes a group of change processes is said to be involved in socialisation. This refers to the way individuals can absorb values/beliefs/attitudes and lifestyle in a relatively unconscious way. It can occur in the home and local community as well as in particular groups or social agencies like schools. However, it is helpful to contrast socialisation with education (especially school education). The former is a relatively informal ‘environmental’ or ‘community’ learning process, although there can be clear intentions to socialise individuals into a particular values/belief system; on the other hand, classroom education within a school is a relatively formal instructional/learning process which is primarily concerned with handing on an intellectual culture, and with helping pupils learn how to think, and to become ‘literate’ in a number of key learning areas (including religion); aesthetic and affective elements are included within the educational mix

What catholic Students should do to help promoting good moral values in our schools?

1. You are to be playful all the times

2. You are to be lay abiding students

3. You have to respect school authorities, classmates, friends and the most important one is respecting yourself.

4. You have to treat all human beings with kindness and respect

5. You have to be practice chastity and also to disassociate yourselves from lesbianism, homosexuality, gang rape, going stark naked and sexually harassing girls.

Bible Quotations for Moral Training and values:

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Ephesians 6:4 And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up (nourish them) in the discipline (training, nurture) and instruction of the Lord.

Proverbs 29:17 Correct your son, and he will give you comfort, He will also delight your soul.

Proverbs 19:18 Discipline your son while there is hope, And do not desire his death

Anyone . . . who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. (James 4:17)

Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 22:34)

Since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

Where there is no law there is no transgression. (Romans 4:15)

Before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. (Romans 5:13.)

In Conclusion, I wish to say that the moral training of our students should not be let in the hands of schools or teachers alone but I am calling on all to join the fight against the high rate of immoral acts which is a major contributing factor for the falling standard of education in this country.

I wish to entreat you the students to be mindful of whatever you do because that it determine who you will be in future.

Group Discussion Questions

Please provide bout five for discussion after the talk

Prepared by Williams Boakye-Baafi,

E-mail; baafiw@yahoo.com