Relevance of Moral Science

The other day, my colleague called me and sought my help to deal with a kid who did all his assignments exceptionally well but scored just above average in exams during the last academic year. The kid’s parents were furious and wanted to understand his behaviour to do course correction.  So, my colleague discreetly observed the kid while he was doing the assignment and noticed that he was referring to solutions on internet and completing the assignment. She concluded that the kid was cheating! She planned to speak to the parents and suggest they instil moral values in the kid to correct his behaviour.

What is Morality ?

Before drawing conclusions, I suggested that we a talk to the kid and understand why he did this. He admitted that he referred to solutions online to please my colleague and not to disappoint her. Does this amount to cheating? The answer is yes. How is this different from a situation if he had denied any wrongdoing? The key difference is that the former reflects the kid’s interpretation of morality which can be corrected while the latter would have been an indicator of evolving character trait leading to habitual lying when he is an adult.  Thankfully, as this was a case in former category, my colleague counselled the kid. Thereafter,  his sincere effort to complete the assignments led to improvements in grades.

Behaviour- Underlying Motivation Matters

However, this indecent set me thinking.  What if the kid had not acknowledged that he was cheating? It would have led to reprimanding the kid and most likely leave a permanent mental scar leading to defiant behaviour in his adulthood with no shame or guilt. The oft- repeated quote by my moral science teacher in 6^th grade popped up in my head – “Your behavior is the key to successful life. Always sustain good behaviour, refrain from bad behaviour and create new good behaviours “. I was not particularly fond of moral science class, but a few learnings stuck for life. Today, it is hard to find moral science in school curriculum.  That is the travesty of our present education system! It robs the kids of a chance to set their moral compass during childhood.

Learnings

Given this, onus is on us as parents and teachers to bridge this gap to groom our kids into kind-hearted individuals with humanity, empathy and forgiveness ingrained in them. Here a few thoughts to get started:

1. Start by evaluating our moral values as adults and correct them. If we continue with corrupt or negative values, then we are teaching kids that it is fine to be immoral!
2. Realize that morality is the foundation of good behaviour for life. It encompasses multiple traits such as humanity, humility, conscience, courage, intelligence, autonomy, respect, responsibility, loyalty. Demonstration of some of these traits by kids, will not guarantee presence of moral compass in their adult life. For instance, a kid being punctual to class or meticulous in his class work should not be mistaken for sound moral values instilled in him.
3. Instilling morality is a slow and iterative process. There is no quick fix. We can start by making the traits listed above our second nature and lead by example.
4. Immoral behaviour must be understood in the context of intent driving the behaviour and this cannot be measured based on one observation. This calls for multiple observations in as many different situations as possible. Corrective action will depend on this. A kid copying assignments to please his parents with good grades is a case in point. Corrective action will be to let the kid know that you value a sincere effort with lower grade more than an insincere effort with higher grade.