Teaching Virtue

By Peter R. Greer

At the same time that K-12 teachers are being called on to intensify their efforts in teaching ethics and character to students, we must all--teachers and officials, university scholars, and parents--pay informed and close attention, so that what takes place in the classroom under the heading of ethics education makes a genuine difference.

Based on 15 years of experience in implementing programs on ethics and character education in the schools, I can identify four of the most important issues that we must address in any program aimed at cultivating good character in our young people. These four issues run very deep. Solutions to them will take much discussion and resolve.

Of first concern is teaching. Too many willing and wonderful educators attempt to teach ethics without the requisite background and study. This ineffective time with students can never be retrieved. Teachers have far more impact in discussing private decency and virtue with their students when they are themselves well-grounded in the subject (have studied, thought about, conferred with colleagues and others, and written...