Creating Moral Citizens: Answers from the Ancient, Non-Western World.

A review of educational systems in ancient India and traditional Native America reveals that these cultures went beyond superficial, conventional, or rule-based morality and trained thoughtful, principled wisdom. Common characteristics that may have contributed to training character and creating moral citizens include: a strong sense of community; a communal choice to genuinely value morality; a sense of direct, lifelong accountability to one's teacher, family, and society; the maintenance of high standards in education, character, and citizenship; consistency between moral teaching and behavior by teachers, parents, and community; and the consideration of morality as a universal element of instruction, integral to every domain of the curriculum and life. Since the modern Western world is failing to train moral citizens, perhaps we could incorporate one or more of the characteristics of ancient systems. Some possible routes include mobilizing parents to demand character training in schools; training teachers to teach and model morality; selecting teachers based in part on their moral understanding; educating parents to consistently enforce and support good character; incorporating morality as a universal element in the curriculum; and supporting good character in teachers with respect, higher status, more money, or better students. (Contains 13 references.) (TD)