Our society does not need to make its children first in mathematics and science. It needs to care for its children--to reduce violence, respect work of every kind, reward excellence, and ensure a place for every child and emerging adult in the economic and social world. Our main educational aim should be to encourage the growth of competent,…

Notes that troubled children and youth often lack specific skills that are prerequisites for development of conscience and prosocial orientation. Describes how Boys' Town Model of teaching concrete interpersonal skills serves to empower youth with new options for prosocial behavior. Contends that once in possession of expanded repertoire of…

Linkages among gender, decision making, and values related to moral development and equity/equality are studied for 54 graduate and 186 undergraduate business school students (48 percent females) attending a Southern urban university. Results illustrate gender-related differences in value systems, weights of decision issues, and decisions. Future…

An education professor recounts her mother's profound influence on her life over the years. Her most important lesson was the sacredness of life. Teaching lost its status when education became secularized as a tool for economic mobility, when concerns for the spiritual became embarrassingly atavistic. (3 references) (MLH)

Discusses how views of correctional teacher characteristics have changed and how teacher aims have been linked directly to student character formation. Includes historical and cultural contexts, teacher selection issues, and a summary. (Author/JOW)

Examines the relationship between moral right and moral duty to be educated, discussing duty, right, education, and moral theory and suggesting that moral right and moral duty to be educated are partially independent and totally compatible with each other. Neither is superior, and both should be included in moral theory. (SM)

Suggests that the formation of habits is the basis of character and morality. Supports this suggestion with citations from Henry James and other writers, and with examples of intellectual diligence from the lives of Helen Keller and Anne Frank. (HTH)

The cognitive model of restructuring thinking and developing values was applied in two Spanish institutions for young offenders. Its success is altering the focus of reeducation centers and prisons from a custodial to an educative atmosphere conducive to developing social competence. (SK)

This essay uses poetry and diary entries of highly gifted young people to portray the process of individual identity development. Among topics discussed are theories of identity development, adolescence, awareness of difference by intellectually gifted children, development of a protective mask to hide a love of learning, moral development, and…

Studies a program that used cognitive techniques to improve moral reflectivity in primary school children in Spain. Claims to have succeeded in increasing reflectivity in the experimental group in comparison with a control group. Argues that this investigation opens new ways for interventions in the field of moral development. (DSK)

Adolescent development can be influenced by two critical factors in camp programming: content of the values that shape and inform the camper and degree of challenge. Camp adventure activities successfully merge recreation and education in an outdoor setting that provides space for the explorations of youth. Camp can play a unique role in guiding…

Examines the use of civil and moral learning in higher education. Discusses an undergraduate course taught by the author that utilizes civic and moral learning. Suggests that institutions of higher education should not just spread knowledge to its students, but should impact how students make important choices that shape their lives. (Author/MKA)

Contributes to rhetoric, moral reasonings scholarship, and journalism scholarship by examining public rhetoric on abortion and American popular media coverage (1940s to 1990s). Finds that the feminine means of moral reasoning has emerged into the foreground of discourse on abortion. Compares emergence of a common-ground rhetoric on abortion with a…

This longitudinal study with 62 children and adolescents examined the validity of the consolidation/transition model in the context of moral reasoning development. Results of standard statistical and Bayesian techniques supported the hypotheses regarding cyclical patterns of change and predictors of stage transition, and demonstrated the utility…

Investigated 3-, 5-, and 7-year-olds' and adults' integration of information about intentions, acts, and outcomes in moral judgments of psychological harm. Found that participants at all ages judged it wrong to inflict fear or embarrassment on unwilling participants. Younger children tended to use outcome rules when assigning punishment; older…