Moral Dilemma: School works to instill sense of morality in students

By Royal Gamber, Viewpoints Editor

For teenagers, morality may be in the eye of the beholder. “How am I perceived?” is a question that that many teens ask themselves every day. The awareness of others’ opinions is something that contributes largely to the way many carry themselves, whether this stems from a desire to be appreciated and accepted, or from a more internal drive of simply being comfortable with who you are.

The school outlines core values that the members of the community are taught to take to heart. According to its Mission Statement, the school strives to “foster a passion for learning; promote the balanced development of mind, body, and character; encourage service; and instill a respect for others.”

“It’s always hard to judge a state of consciousness by outward standards. We make a sincere effort to cultivate the development of students’ moral lives, and I feel that we are quite successful,” said Dan Kasten, Faculty Chair of the Honor Council.

Whatever is meant by morality, there is a direct correlation between the nurturer and the nature of the individual person.

“I think that the environment that we are in certainly makes a difference in how we relate to other people. That’s why, obviously, this community tries so hard to address those character-building elements, but I think that people are hardwired in different ways, and have different personality qualities that will cause them to react to the stimuli in their environment in quite different ways,” said Mr. Kasten.

David Braemer, Head of Upper School, agrees that the school environment should foster morality. “I don’t know if morality is innate or not, but there is no question in my mind that there are both nurture and environmental components towards the development of morals in an individual. I see it in my own children, as I try to impress upon them certain values and certain morals in certain ways, in regard to what is right and what is wrong in certain situations,” he said.

“If left to their own devices would they figure it out? They may or they may not. Ultimately, anytime there are people living together, they have to figure out ways to get along and to coexist successfully, and when they try to do this, certain expectations of behavior develop, and I think out of that comes a certain degree of morality. I think it is the natural outgrowth of people trying to live together peacefully,” he said.

According to senior Hunter Leachman, a person’s character is constantly developing just by living and interacting with others.“However, certain things can hinder moral development such as a bad environment or if a person limits themselves ideologically,” he said.

Growth as an individual involves moral growth, and nature allows growth through responses to their environment.

“I don’t know exactly what a moral person is. I think I would prefer perhaps someone who I think is an intentional person, someone who has thought about what kind of individual they want to be. One who sees success in life being the positive development of self and community and that’s the kind of person I want as my friend and neighbor and student,” said Mr. Kasten.

According to Mr. Braemer, morality is not black and white but subjective. He said that people make mistakes and suffer consequences every day, but an immoral act does not always come from an immoral person.

“There’s morality as I see it and then there is morality as a student sees it. There are things that students do that they don’t necessarily think are immoral and when I was a teenager, I might not have thought those things were so immoral either. So a lot of it comes from perspective. Teenagers are always trying to test limits; it is the nature of the age, and part of testing limits for some students is pushing the limits of what is right and or wrong in given situations and compromising morals as a result. Does this make them immoral people or just people making bad choices? I would say that most often it is the latter because in my experience I’ve seen plenty of good people make bad choices in the process when growing up,” Mr. Braemer said.