Preparing Moral Educators in an Era of Standards-Based Reform

Overview & Synopsis

Schools have a responsibility to prepare good citizens. This entails teaching moral education along with transmitting academic knowledge and skills. Moral education should be an explicit aim for every educator. Yet, ethical discourse is largely absent in K-12 classrooms and moral education has a small role in teacher education programs in the United States. To prepare the next generation of teachers, moral education should have a prominent place in teacher education. To accomplish this, the three major approaches to moral education--character, developmental, and caring--should be taught to teacher education students. The same is true of the strategies of: (a) leading moral discussions in the classrooms; and (b) using academic service learning. In this article, the author contends that the definitions of an educated person and of success in teaching must include more than teaching a student enough content and skills to score well on high stakes tests. The definitions must also include preparing students to become full and responsible citizens who recognize and respond appropriately when facing ethical issues and dilemmas.