Educating for The Good Life

Educating for Good Lives, Not Just Good Grades

In summary…

• We desperately need to teach children “ethical literacy”.? Here’s why and how (with 2 classroom activities for primary and secondary students).
• UK schools are in a behaviour and wellbeing crisis with multiple causes.? The challenge is how do we improve behaviour and increase pupils’ wellbeing??
• One thing that could help both areas is “ethical literacy”; explicitly teaching children to think skilfully about right and wrong, good and bad, true and false.? They need the ethical vocabulary and the practice of thinking through and evaluating their actions together.? As Aristotle would argue, they need to evolve their virtues to live the “good life”. ?
• Ethical literacy is not a panacea for the behaviour and wellbeing crisis, but it’s a key element.? Two practical classroom activities are provided for teachers of primary and secondary students.

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In More Detail…

Good lives as well as good learners?

Are the children in your school being taught to lead good lives as well as to be good learners?? I ask teachers this question quite often, and it elicits an interesting variety of responses.? These are not untypical:

·????? “They are taught to behave very well, and on the whole, they do!”

·????? “As much as we can – it’s really down to the parents though.”

·????? “It’s much easier to develop good behaviour in primary schools than in secondary.”

·????? “Private and grammar schools have it easy – selective admissions see to that.”

·????? “Our very strict behaviour policy won’t tolerate it.”

·????? “You try taming this lot – it’s almost impossible!”

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Bad Behaviour Is A Problem For All Of Us

Of course, a lot of schools do an incredible job of helping their pupils and students to behave kindly towards each other.? No question.? However, just one source of evidence for bad behaviour can be found in the NASUWT “Behaviour In Schools Report” (Sept 2023).? It cites some deeply depressing statistics about pupil behaviour in English schools.? Furthermore, it’s clearly making life miserable for thousands of teachers, pupils, and parents.? Little wonder that teacher recruitment and retention are severely challenged, not to mention school attendance at record lows.? For example, the report states that in the previous 12 months (from a sample size of 6,586 NASUWT members):?

·????? 13% of teachers have experienced physical abuse or violence

·????? 90% reported verbal abuse ?

·????? 38% have been shoved or barged

·????? 6% have received online abuse

·????? 97% have experienced backchat or rudeness

·????? 93% reported that the numbers of pupils verbally abusing staff has increased.

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What are the most challenging ages??

The peak age for physical or verbal abuse was from pupils aged between 12 – 14 years old (identified by 72% of surveyed participants) followed by 15 – 16 year olds (60%).? Interestingly, in the 8 – 11 age bracket, the percentage is relatively small (though still high) at 23%, and only 5% of those working with 17 – 18 year olds.? Puberty is clearly where abuse issues peak.

The report also details the multiple negative effects that this has on morale, confidence, wellbeing and mental health.? The overall picture is dismal. ?But why is it happening?

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Why is it happening?

Causes are many and varied.? Covid, the cost of living crisis, poor leadership and funding from government, skewed Ofsted pressures, breakdowns in family life, gang culture, social media… the list of possible influences goes on.? It can seem an impossible task to even understand these interwoven causes, never mind tackle them in achievable ways. ?Practically speaking, then, we must focus on what can be done in schools and not get lost in the vortices of blame and helplessness.?

So what can we actually do to tackle these urgent challenges?? One area that is well worth exploring is ethical literacy.?

What is ethical literacy?

Ethical literacy is my own term for a child’s ability to think and act well towards themselves and others.? It involves specific vocabulary, critical thinking, empathy, and the chance to reflect on their thoughts and actions with others.? It impacts pupils’ behaviour as well as their sense of wellbeing.?

Ethical literacy has an august pedigree that predates Character Education by millennia.? In 340 BCE Aristotle wrote a seminal text on how we should live The Good Life or ‘Eudaimonia’ in his Nicomachean Ethics.? In essence, he argued that the truly fulfilled life was not simply one of self-interest and satisfied desires. ?The good life does involve pleasure, but it also requires our capacity to be morally good too.? Fulfilling our potential requires us to be of benefit to others too.? In short, it requires meaningfulness which is a key component of wellbeing.?

Wellbeing - it feels good to do good!? If pupils experience being of benefit to others, their sense of worth is increased.

From this, Aristotle argued that people need to develop their virtues.? Virtues are qualities of character such as kindness, patience, intellectual rigour, courage, resilience and open-mindedness.? We could say there are three basic types of virtues: intellectual, social and personal.? In schools, I would argue that the intellectual virtues (such as critical thinking, rigour, open-mindedness, concentration) are usually the most overlooked.? Social ones (e.g. respect, tolerance, fairness etc.) are much more common.

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Values Versus Virtues?

Almost all schools have their stated values, or “principles for action”.? If I value world peace, then world peace will guide my actions.? World peace is a value but not a virtue or a character trait.? However, respect and tolerance are also values or principles for action.? Respect, for example, can be something I find important and therefore it guides my actions.? Respect and tolerance, then, are both values AND virtues or character traits.? Consequently, we could say that all virtues are values but not vice versa.? Virtues are character traits that we value amongst all the other things we find important.

Try looking at your list of school values and see which ones are virtues (character traits), and which ones are simply ‘things we find important’.

In essence, school values often include a subset of virtues.? The point is that virtues are open to being specifically taught and developed within young people.? ‘World peace’ as a value, contrastingly, is not.

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When I work with schools, teachers often say that virtues such as respect or good critical thinking are evolved implicitly or in the hidden curriculum. I am sure they are.? My argument here, though, is that they need to be taught far more explicitly and skilfully. ?Behaviour codes & policies, reward & punishment systems, and modelling approaches are quite evidently not enough in themselves.

How can we develop ethical literacy?? Two Class Activities

There are many practical ways of developing virtues in school life, both in and out of the classroom and for all ages.? Here just two examples of activities I explore during my training courses.?

1)??? ?When Virtues Clash!? (Primary example)

I give pupils the scenario of two friends who go shopping together.? One of them shoplifts a shirt, witnessed - to their horror - by their friend.? They go to leave the shop, but are stopped by a store employee who calls the police.? The policeman asks the innocent young person: “Did you see the other person steal the shirt?”.? What should they say?? [Embellish the story for dramatic effect!]

This scenario homes in on a key aspect of virtuous behaviour.? There are two virtues (good character traits in themselves) that are in tension with each other; honesty and loyalty.? Honesty would guide us to tell the truth (I did see my friend take the shirt).? Loyalty, however, would guide us to act in favour of our friend (I saw nothing).? Here is where the Prince of Virtues comes in: critical thinking.? How do I decide what to do?? How do I deal with two clashing virtues?? Through class discussion that models good critical thinking, we can explore core ethical concepts such as consequences, conscience, responsibility, justice and truth.? It can be pointed out that ethical literacy involves the skill of weighing up virtues (our character values).? It is an essential skill for a good life.

In essence, the children are learning how to think much more carefully about their motivations and to take thoughtful responsibility for what they do.

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2)??? ?Goldilocks and The Golden Mean (Secondary Example)

Explain to the students that our virtues stand at a balance point that needs to be judged well.? Model this with the virtue of courage, for example.? What happens when I have too much or too little of this virtue?? If I am driven to act by too much courage, I become foolhardy.? If I am motivated by too little, I become cowardly.? To act courageously, then, I need to evaluate and enact the ‘just right’ point where I am neither foolhardy or cowardly. ?Similarly, the virtue of respect is very valuable when kept to its ‘Goldilocks point’, but too much can lead to servility or flattery, whereas too little can lead to contempt or insolence. ?Virtues, then, can be seen as the good Golden Mean between undesirable behaviours.

Again, in both cases, the Prince of Virtues – critical thinking – is needed to judge virtuous actions well and to lead, ultimately, to a good ethical life.

Give the students a list of virtues on a spectrum (see examples below).? Can they find the vocabulary to say what happens when there is too much or too little of that virtue?? Can they make up real life scenarios where these judgements would be tested?? For example, courage and trench warfare, or respect in the case of the school bully.

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TOO LITTLE??? ??????????????????????????????????? VIRTUE??????????? ??????????????????????? TOO MUCH?

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Cowardliness????????????????????????????????????? Courage?????????????????????????????????? Foolhardiness

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Contempt??????????????????????????????????????????? Respect?????????????????????????????????? Servility

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????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Loyalty???????????????????????????????????? ??

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(Hint ask Chat GPT to list 40 virtues for more ideas!)

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Much more where that came from!???????????????? ???????????

There are many other strategies for developing ethical literacy in schools.? They all empower teachers to develop good character in their pupils.? This can really help with improving both their behaviour and their wellbeing.

Do get in touch with me (www.thinkingeducation.co.uk) if you’d like to find out more about courses that will support your school.

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