Ethics course in high school?
Should a basic ethics course be taught at this level? I’m not saying get too complicated and make everyone read the Nicomachean Ethics in its entirety but at least touch on it. I think Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations are very accessible for high schoolers. Seneca and Epictetus too, seem to be at that level of reading.
Comments (21)
I would prefer to see these subjects be treated like math and science, with dedicated classes and teachers. Navigating ethics requires good critical thinking and logic skills though so I would actually start with that as a base.
What would your own ideal education in ethics look like in elementary and high school?
Of course, yes. I had ethics in my school. It was so satisfactory. We did not make a "huge" study on Aristotle or other classics but at least we gave it a try. I had a good teacher. The classes were oral and full of debates. I remember it was diatributed in just one day at week: Fridays.
I think this ensures our knowledge and ability to reasoning.
I work mainly with high schoolers but for elementary school topics like the Golden Rule and perhaps a simpler version of the trolley problem could be taught. With high schoolers I would mainly focus on the basics of Aristotelian, Stoic, and Kantian ethics. As I said I think Meditations is a very important book for young people; should be required reading in high schools.
I would remember that children and young people are amazingly observant, impressionable and very alive to hypocrisy. The best education is to model good behaviour. If we can't do that, ethical theories are so much yaddah.
Yes, ethics should be taught in highschool. Not just yes, but to an even greater point of clarity: the absence of philosophy in highschool and lower level is, in my honest opinion, the greatest blunder of the modern educational system. The idea that you can learn about biology, calculus, Shakespeare, and Slovensky, but not even a single introductory course is offered - by and large - in the field that serves as the backbone of all fields of intellectual study, is a travesty of the highest order.
Ethics, being arguably the most important branch of philosophy, is essential education. The kind that is indepensible for proper childhood development. The fact that it is missing from cirricula, to me, explains alot about why society is looking the way it is right now.
Thats a good start I suppose, but ethics are sorely lacking in the average person sonI can’t help but want more. I think its just as important as any other school subject.
Right, but in order to be a model of good behaviour one needs to be educated in ethics. Perhaps you disagree but I find such models of good behaviour to be quite rare, bringing us back to square one with a necessity to teach ethics in school…and as early as possible imo.
100,000% it is specifically the fact that children are impressionable that induces the need for ethics.
I don't think so. You just need not to be a bad person. Example: you lose your temper and take it out on the kid who didn't do nothing wrong. Then you teach them about the Kingdom of Ends. They will smell a rat. Kant, they will learn, is for people who care nothing for justice. Which would not be the learning outcome intended.
I think these texts (excerpts) would suffice for an ethical education (in predominantly Euro-American societies at least):
• elementary school – a historical survey of formulations (with many examples of mis/applications) of "The Golden Rule"
• middle school & high school – stories and novels which are about characters wrestling with moral dilemmas
• high school – (at a minimum) Lucretius' De rerum natura, Epictetus' Enchiridion, John Dewey's Human Nature and Conduct, Peter Singer's The Expanding Circle, Philippa Foot's Natural Goodness and Martha Nussbaum's The Fragility of Goodness...
update:
Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed
I don’t think I can agree. Certainly children being impressionable means its a good time to teach ethics, but its a good time to teach them anything. Little sponges they are. I wouldn't called that inducement though. What induces need for ethics being taught to kids is simply the tragic absence of ethics in the adult world.
If by inducing the need for ethics you mean you are worried about kids being taught wrong things then I think ultimately we go back to square one again…you need to teach the good things as early as possible. This touches on my earlier mention of teaching critical thinking and logic even before ethics…what better way to ensure ethical behaviour than teaching the skills to tell the difference on your own?
Rght, and you learn to not be a bad person by learning ethics. You aren’t disagreeing with me here.
Well, yeah, I have to second that. I yield my assertion to yours. Yours is higher quality. That is correct.
Quoting DingoJones
Yep, 100%. I spoke too soon, you're absolutely right.
I appreciate your gracious response. Ill try not to let it go to my head. :wink:
Hah! Yeah, no kidding. It's funny because, this is actually one of my life goals, to start a school with a philosophy curriculum, private. I've been ruminating on this topic for a couple years now, and you just stole the words out of my head and said them better than me. Which is rare, friend, so kudos. lol
I think thats a great idea. Alternates to standard education are getting more and more common. I think our current standards don’t give kids enough credit. They can handle more than just repetition and narrow subject matter.
Aside from ethics, what else do you think makes the cut from philosophy as invaluable education? I think there are definitely many parts of philosophy which are either useless or so esoteric they won’t land with most kids/people.
Epistemology. Schools have a way of telling us what information and knowledge is there, but not how to obtain it, the methods, the tools, the conceptual frameworks. Not to mention logic/critical thinking. Most leave high school without ever even hearing what the the word "fallacy" means, let alone what constitutes a valid argument. The school system is a travesty from top to bottom, everytime I hear about more moeny being given to them I get a little sick.
I agree, if you dont understand fallacies you dont really understand how to not contradict yourself except in the most obvious ways. Especially in todays era of misinformation and lies, critical thinking and basic sense making skills are hugely important in navigating our modern world. Our education systems are archaic. New ideas like yours are whats needed. :ok:
First I have to find the people willing to let philosophy win over ideology. Prospects aren't looking too good just yet.
Kicking and screaming, mostly against their will is the only way humans get moved forward. :wink:
Shit, I'd rather live in the woods with my wife and dog....