A friend sent me a link to a story that appeared in the New Paper on 17/18 February.
It’s heartbreaking to read that there can actually be people like that in our affluent society. But then again, morality has nothing to do with education. After all, which subject in school these days teach you that you must take care of your parents when they grow old?
“CME!” some would readily quip. But do these lessons really? More often than not, Civics and Moral Education classes are just a convenient excuse used by the ignorant majority to console themselves that all is not lost, as far as morals are concerned. For the record, there is NOTHING in there that teaches anyone those values.
There is a big difference between the explicit and implicit moral lessons of education. While content knowledge is taught through explicit means, morality is taught through the design of a curriculum. For morality to affect someones behaviour, it has to be manifested through goals and values. We do not hold our beliefs based on what we are told, but what we have experienced.
Schools, in fact, are only interested in moral and behavioural training. Most of the content knowledge we gain from our time in school is forgotten, but what remains is our work ethic and certain procedural habits.
For more on this notion:
http://tristanverboven.wordpress.com/
Aminhotep