Moral and Value Development

Part I & II

Introduction:

The thought of trying to raise a child at this point in my life is more then overwhelming, it seems ludicrous. I feel like I am just now emerging out of my own childhood and finally becoming fully autonomous and self-reliant. The world we live in today is busy, fast paced, and competitive and the amount of knowledge that it takes to get by is vast. I have had two loving parents that have helped me through all of my difficulties over the past twenty-one years and the role they have played has been essential in my development.

Like most parents, my main parental goal will be to raise my sons and daughters so that one day they will become happy successful adults. It is very important that my offspring become people that are extra ordinary; it would never be okay with me for them to simply go through life without fully appreciating the ride. However, I realize that this is a very broad and general goal and that it is essential to have some sort of idea or plan to help this become a reality.

Many people picture the successful life as growing up, maybe going to school or getting a good job, and probably they see themselves eventually marrying and raising a family. Successfully providing for that family and comfortably growing old and dieing at a ripe old age just about raps up the later side of the "good life." Indeed, this is the American dream, is it not? To make money so that you can get what you want and live in comfort? Well, this is not the dream that I hold for my children. I feel that it is vastly more important that my children become people of conscience, then affluence. In my family, the most important aspect will be my children's moral development.

When I say that I want my children to become people of conscience I mean people that have three solid characteristics within themselves. These characteristics are kindness, or love, appreciation, and openness. Each of these characteristics are things that I hold to be the most important within my own life and they are the things that I would like most of all to pass on to my sons and daughters. I firmly believe that if these characteristics are established within their hearts, success and happiness will follow right along. It is critical to me that my children understand what in life is most important and what is of no consequence. I feel that what our society shows us to be the most important, possessions and material things, are actually of little consequence much beyond what is needed to survive.

When it comes to discussing moral development, Lawrence Kohlberg is the recognized expert. Kohlberg is responsible for theorizing the most influential approach to moral development, as we know it (Burke, 2004). Inspired by Piaget's early work on moral development of the child, Kohlberg used clinical interviews where he presented children of varying ages with moral dilemmas to study the process of moral development. Kohlberg believed that it is "the way an individual reasons about a dilemma, not the content of the response, that determines moral maturity" (Kohlberg, 1983, cited in Burke, 2004, 388). Now I will outline my three characteristics of conscience, in order to draw parallels with Kohlberg's moral reasoning.

Kindness, or love, refers to the way a person goes through his or her life. I believe that those that go through life with love in their hearts are able to enjoy themselves and those around them much more and consequently will be happier. The characteristic "appreciation" describes someone who is a deep thinker. Someone who takes the time to appreciate every moment, all that is taking place around them, the relationships that they have, and all the good things in their life. People who have appreciation are able to live in the moment and enjoy what they do regardless of what it is. Lastly is openness. This is the trait of someone who loves all of the diversity in the world. Openness is when someone responds to change and different ways of doing things warmly, rather then in immediate fear or distrust. Openness is tied to appreciation because it is appreciation for all of the differences in our world. Openness steers someone away from close mindedness and allows him or her to enjoy all the variations there are to be found.

In order for an individual to reach this level of moral reasoning they must climb to the very highest of Kohlberg's stages of moral development. Kohlberg calls this stage the universal ethical principle orientation stage. He describes individuals functioning morally at this stage as no longer approaching rules and laws as absolute truths, rather as "flexible instruments," means towards furthering human purposes (Kohlberg, 1983, cited in Burke, 2004, 390). Kohlberg further describes these individuals as guided by self-chosen ethical principles particularly pertaining to equal consideration and the worth and dignity of each person. Kohlberg emphasizes that the individual functioning morally at this level obeys his or her own self-chosen principles, or morals, which are abstract. This means that the individual does not simply abide the law of the land, rather he or she feels obligated to do what they have defined as right and promote justice and individual rights for all of humanity. This is the morality that I want my children to have.

I think it is obvious to see the parallels between my definition of a life lived with conscience and Kohlberg's sixth stage of moral development. "Appreciation," as I have defined it, corresponds with Kohlberg's sixth stage through the understanding of the worth of each person. In order to fully appreciate the relationships you have in your life you must recognize the worth and dignity of each person. "Openness" has a similar link to Kohlberg. To remain open-minded to all the change and diversity that one will bump into throughout life, one must proceed with "open consideration" and an understanding for the worth of others (Burke, 2004).

Another aspect of Kohlberg's theory that I found particularly attractive is the autonomy of right and wrong designated to a person that has reached the highest level of moral development. According to Kohlberg, someone functioning at a highly moral level no longer defines morality and ethics according to law or social agreement. Rather, this individual's understanding of right and wrong have risen above local magistrate and have become "self-chosen ethical principles of conscience" (Kohlberg, 1983, cited in Burke, 2004, 390). It is important that my children also attain this pinnacle of moral reasoning so that they too can define what is right and wrong in their lives. Laws have their place, especially at early levels within ones moral development, but laws are men's constructions and are not always flexible and understanding in every context. It is essential that my children do not simply go along with what they are told, but instead reason things out for themselves in order to decide if something is morally acceptable or not.

Another theory that coincides with my own beliefs is Lev Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory. The sociocultural theory recognizes that children are products of their cultural and societal upbringings (Burke, 2004). Vygotsky goes on to explain how children develop their unique cultural outlook on the world from their parents and other more mature members of their society. An appreciation for the diversity of life is also an essential aspect of my parenting philosophy as demonstrated by the "openness" characteristic. Understanding why people of different cultures act in diverse ways is vital to fostering good relationships and living in harmony with people from all walks of life. Diversity can be a source of much enjoyment in life if people take the time to understand it. As singer and songwriter Michael Franti says, "All the different people make the beauty of the world."

Urie Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems theory is another theory that takes environmental and cultural differences into account. Bronfenbrenner's approach to development views a child as developing within a complex system of relationships, layer upon layer of environmental influences; with cultural influences playing an important role (Burke, 2004). These layers range from the child's immediate surrounding and relationships with family members, to cultural and societal pressures and ways of life. Similarly to my personal belief, the Ecological Systems Theory discusses the differences in development between cultures. The "macrosystem," the outermost level of Bronfenbrenner's model, includes cultural values, laws, and customs as definitive influences on the way a child develops and the adult that he or she becomes (Bronfenbrenner, 1995, cited in Burke, 2004).

So, how does one go about instilling these values into a child? Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory gives an interesting perspective on how children develop to become members of their society or cultural group. According to this theory, children mainly learn through social interaction, especially cooperative dialogues with knowledgeable members of society (Vygotsky, 1934, cited in Burke, 2004). Vygotsky is particularly interested in how values, beliefs, and customs are transmitted to the next generation, unlike Bronfenbrenner who concentrates more on the individual's personal development. I found this theory to be of particular relevance in shaping my parenting philosophy because of how important I feel it is to pass on my values and beliefs to my children. The sociocultural theory would emphasize that the people around me and interacting with me, and therefore around and interacting with my child, will have a huge impact upon my child's development. Therefore it is essential that I surround my family and myself with people of high moral standards, in order to foster rich moral development.

As a parent, I play the role of the guide, gently steering my children in the direction that they must go in order to become persons of conscience. As a parent I must try and refrain from telling my children outright what to think and believe. Vygotsky's idea of scaffolding seems to be a good way of helping my children to develop, without playing too big of a role. Scaffolding is a parenting technique in which the parent gives an amount of support to a struggling child that fits the child's level of performance (Burke, 2004). This means that as a parent my role would be to guide my child towards understandings by supporting he or she as much as necessary, but still allowing them to ultimately discover things on their own. Vygotsky states that as performance increases scaffolding is slowly taken away so that responsibility shifts more and more to the child.

Giving children the freedom to learn for themselves deals with issues of autonomy. Erickson's Psychosocial Theory recognizes the importance of autonomy, pitting it against shame and doubt. Erickson explains that if a toddler is not given some independence, a chance to learn things on their own, they will feel forced and will be troubled by shame and doubt (Burke, 2004). Erickson's theory, based on Freud's Psychosexual theory, varies from Vygotsky and Bronfenbrenner's because it uses Freudian terminology such as the Ego, Id, and Superego to describe social development. The Psychosocial Theory states that proper parenting includes being warm and sensitive, allowing the child a chance to do things on its own. This is an essential aspect of parenting that helps a toddler develop into a mature and self-confident individual.

I believe that one of the best ways to guide my child towards positive development is to lead by example. I must become a person of conscience before I am able to help my children develop accordingly. This fits well with Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory and the concept of modelling, or imitation. The Social Learning Theory, part of the Behaviorist perspective, describes modelling as the way children acquire many of their behaviours from simply watching and imitating those that are around them (Bandura, 1977, cited in Burke, 2004). By living my life as a role model for my child I will hopefully encourage them to adopt many favourable responses and values even as they become more and more selective in their modelling.

Another role, as a parent, will be showing my children what is important in life and what is simply static. One of the first steps I will take towards this end is eliminating the overwhelming presence of television from my house. This is something that my parents did for my family and I believe that it made a huge difference in our development. In my opinion, the vast majority of TV is nothing but garbage and I do not want it affecting my children's impressionable young minds. I would much rather have my children learning to enjoy reading or doing something equally constructive. I feel that too many people allow their children to sit in front of the television for hours on end, promoting poor health habits along with other negative behaviours.

Part III

For this third section I thought that it would be interesting to look at a parenting philosophy that appears to have little in common with my own emerging philosophy. I decided to choose a philosophy that addresses none of the areas of development that I have put the most emphasis on. The resulting philosophy is Information Processing, a theory that couples a boring title with extremely dry and literal processes that cannot be further from my own philosophies. Here is the possible outcome of an upbringing that focuses solely on information processing, may God forbid it from ever becoming a reality.

The Information Processing model compares the human mind to a computer in the hope of further understanding how a person manipulates and saves information (Burke, 2004). Viewing the human mind as a "symbol-manipulating system through which information flows" seems to me, similar to calling St. Peters Basilica a church. However, I will try to keep my bias out of the rest of this hypothetical situation. A parent that has made the decision to raise their newborn strictly from an Information Processing point of view must definitely see cognitive development as the most important aspect of their child's development. These parents would understand their child's mental processes and behavioural responses as "presentation to the senses at input to behavioural response at output" (Burke, 2004, 21). Therefore, like a computer, the correct stimulus is all that is needed in order to create the proper response.

These parents would be obsessed with problem solving, the focus of Information Processing, probably starting their child at an early age on simple problems and collecting data on his mental progress. In order to teach their child a new task or help them overcome a developmental challenge, the parents would walk their child through the precise series of steps used to solve the problem until he or she could do it on their own. The child's learning would come almost completely from trial and error experimentation within "problems" set up for him by his parents. His progress would be tracked and in a hope to see progress towards more organized and "planful" mental processes.

The child's parents would not be looking for their child to emerge into another "stage of development" or make any great leaps in cognitive processing, rather they would expect a gradual increase in problem solving skills and coherency of thought process. In fact, these parents would not expect their child's overall thought process to change drastically, but instead to simply become more sophisticated. Individuals prescribing to the Information Processing model of development would believe that perception, attention, memory, planning strategies, categorization of information, and comprehension would remain similar at all ages, only becoming present to a greater extent. This flies in the face of many developmental theories that describe great differences between the thought processes of young children and adults.

If these loving parents witnessed their child struggling more then usual with a particular task they would be able to find documentation on how many other children were able to overcome similar problems in the past. Information Processing's greatest strength has been its commitment to rigorous research and the implications made from this research for education purposes (Burke, 2004). These lucky parents would have all the information that they could possibly process at their disposal! Surely they would be able to find a way to program their child a new problem solving method that would help him overcome the obstacle. Upon starting school the child would have no problems doing the work. This would be where he would most likely excel, do to his linear and logical upbringing.

Unfortunately, there would be areas in which the little guy would be slightly "under developed." Information Processing has been identified as "falling short" in areas of development that are not linear and logical. For example, other aspects of cognition having nothing to do with problems solving, such as imagination and creativity would be severely undeveloped. This young child would most likely have an extremely difficult time relating to other children. Attempting to play with other children would be a disaster the second that an imagination was called for. Tag and hop scotch would not pose as tough of challenges. Emotionally the child would be a mystery. Most likely he would find great pleasure in solving problems in the classroom instead of playing in the sand box like most kids his age. Hopefully this child would be able to catch up socially and emotionally through interactions with his peers because his parents would definitely not be giving him much help at home.

Conclusion:

I believe that I have reaffirmed many of my earlier parenting philosophies through this exercise. Most importantly, I have gotten the ball rolling and started thinking seriously about how I would go attempt the daunting task of raising a child in today's world. Throughout my life I have subconsciously recognized specific parenting techniques that I thought were particularly good or affective when I have seen them. However, I had never really stopped and thought seriously about them until this project. When first writing part one I did not expect to spend all of my time discussing moral development, but as I continued to write it became more and more apparent to me just how important my child's moral development will be to me. I firmly believe that if my child is able to develop strong morals and values that he will be fine. With good morals and values comes a good life, something that I discovered as I was writing this. However, that task becomes more and more daunting as our society becomes busier and busier and bombarded by more and more static. With a little luck and a little more wisdom gained over the years I have left before I become a father, everything will work out perfectly.