Moral Life and Education

Overview & Synopsis

Nel Noddings, Lee Jacks Professor of Education, Emerita, at Stanford University, agrees with Professors Lapsley and Woodbury that moral aims are central to education. She has argued that the main aim of education is to produce better people--better in "all aspects of a complete life: moral, physical, social, vocational, aesthetic, intellectual, spiritual, and civic." If we believe this, then we must also agree that every teacher is a moral educator. Such agreement invites continuous, critical discussion of what is meant by "better" in every category, and this discussion should properly be interminable. Open to a variety of rational views and societal changes, we should persist in exploring, discussing, and arguing over what is meant by "moral" and all the terms connected to it. In this article, Nel Noddings considers two main questions: (1) Should schools adopt a particular program of moral education?; and (2) How should teachers be prepared for their work as moral educators? If moral issues are to be addressed whenever they occur in schools, teachers must be well prepared as moral educators. The language of morality must be central to teacher education. Teachers need to be familiar with the history of moral education and the range of practices that have been employed in its name. Such knowledge should warn them against adopting any packaged program in moral education and, paradoxically, provide them with a host of ideas to be analyzed, tried out, and evaluated.