Ethics - Information or Giving-Form?

Abstract

There are three ways of introducing and actually using ethics in schools: the informative one, the formative one and the institutional one. The first is theoretical teaching ethics. The second refers to character building. The third is related to the creation of “ethical infrastructures”. We shall advocate here for the second form and put it in contrast with the first which is considered today as the only one practicable in Romania. We refuse to admit that the role of the first years of human living is the most important period in the moral constitution of the child. In Romanian schools „character building” is almost inexistent. The profound root of this situation and the illusion that we did our best to change this state, is our incapacity to distinguish between giving a moral form to a human being and inform her on moral questions. The implications of adopting this distinction are vast: to reconsider the importance of kindergarten and of the initial learning as having a similar importance as higher education and therefore similar budgets and much more political support; rethinking the universities’ mission and the kind of relations they have with the secondary schools; the role of family, church, schools and local community in the formation of strong moral characters; and most difficult, to assure the convergence of all these factors.