Good Morality
The old morality, with roots in religion, speaks of respect, service to others, sacrifice, resistance to temptation, and moderation in the pursuit of pleasure. Now, we see that the new morality celebrates self-centeredness and self-indulgence.
There are current examples we can find everywhere, including campuses at schools, for children’s wrong behavior as follows:
1. Juvenile crime: More than half of all serious crimes in the United States are now committed by youths 10 to 17 years of age.
2. Disrespect for authority: Children and teenagers defy their teachers, even swear at them. Violence continues to mount. Each year, more than 100,000 teachers and hundreds of students are assaulted in school.
3. Children’s cruelty to each other: We’re seeing just children’s meanness.
4. Cheating: Students are cheating on tests, but get good grades as a result.
5. Drugs and drinking: The number of teenage alcoholics is estimated to be 2.5 million in US.
6. Teenage sex: One in five teens has had intercourse by age 15. Half of all illegitimate babies in US are now born to teenage mothers.
7. Theft: Student shoplifters don’t seem to care when they get caught. They don’t think they’ve done anything wrong.
In fact, we should help children a) learn to think for themselves, b) take on responsibilities, and c) develop a positive self-image. Actually, the same approaches that help children grow morally also help our family members manage their conflicts constructively and enjoy a greater measure of happiness.
       We have some good ideas about getting children to behave and become fair-minded:
1.        Give them choices: Our child doesn’t want to stop playing and have dinner, so we ask: “Would you like to come to dinner now, or go to bed?”
2.        Offer challenges: “Let’s see if you can get to the table by the time I count to ten: One, two, three,…” etc.
3.        Use stories to teach good behavior.
4.        Call time-outs: When children are misbehaving, we need to give them 10 minutes to calm down by having them stop what they’re doing.
5.        Spanking may help: One study found that parents who occasionally spank their children do not nag or yell at them as much as parents who never spank. Moreover, spanking may succeed in controlling a particular behavior.
6.        Be sure to teach good manners: We have to show children good manners, and give them plenty of praise when they remember their manners.
7.        Have them help with the household chores.
8.        Teach them to develop a sense of what’s fair.
9.        Make rules and be sure to enforce them.
10.    When our children are behaving well, we point out to them how much we like it.
Almost everybody, including children and adults, has to learn to become independent-minded. Everyone in the school, from the principal down to the students and the staff, cooks and janitors, must pledge to follow the established behavioral rules, and be compassionate and caring towards others. In other words, it won’t work unless it’s practiced at all times and by all people.
Moral values are the foundation of people’s characters. Genuinely, we might say that, nowadays, strong and undeterred individuals have been shaped by their moral values, thoughts, and beliefs. It’s also really very important that as a decent person in society, we must invest time and effort in our moral growth. The vital moral values are respect, honesty, compassion, kindness, gratitude, cooperation and generosity.
Respect is a vital moral value that all people have to learn, regardless of their age, religion, nationality, beliefs, or points of view. As a matter of fact, every person must be taught from a young age to respect every religion, race, culture, and lifestyle in society. Then, “Honesty is the best policy.” Being true to our parents, teachers, relatives, friends and others, definitely, help us to form a good personality trait and reputation. Compassion is defined as the feeling of love and concern for others. If parents taught compassion to their children from an early age, there would be significantly less hunger, conflict, homelessness, and unhappiness in the real world. The significance of kindness through empathy, acceptance, justice, pleasant gestures, and thoughtfulness is happy enough that it could also imply doing good without expecting good in return. Next, gratitude is the willingness to express appreciation for what we have. And it all starts with happiness. So, it is very grateful for what we have in life to cultivate contentment and thankfulness. Cooperation is the act of assisting others in the pursuit of a common objective. The first step toward developing a spirit of cooperation is to collaborate at home. A family should practice collaboration by doing domestic chores together and listening to one another’s difficulties. Besides, healthy competition can encourage people to cooperate in order to be successful as a society. Last but not least, Generosity is developing a nice and socially responsible person since our childhood. A generous child will be willing to offer his or her time and assistance to others, regardless of the circumstances. We should learn to lend a helping hand to those in need in and outside the classroom at any time.
      All in all, we consider moral traits are so important for us because morality can benefit us in our whole lives. Moral traits have social values. If we know a person is honest and compassionate that we can associate with that person safely, and then, we can begin a fruitful relationship with them. Furthermore, from an adaptive perspective, moral traits signal to us that we can increase our wealth and improve our health in the long run.