A fundamental part of personality that defines behavior and the way person reacts or perceives things is ‘ethic’. Ethics like education always remain with you as a very significant part of your character. Ethics is a Greek word that means character or manners. But unfortunately it is collapsing in each and every sphere of life, so teaching this fundamental way of life is the need of an hour.
Unethical practices may lead to major disasters. Increasing crime forced us to think if we are left with any moral values and ethics. There is no industry that is untouched by unethical practices. So it is highly important to teach importance of ethics. Deteriorating value system laid further stress on this.
It is the responsibility of parents and teachers to impart and transmit ethical value to children and students. It is important to teach ethics at schools and even at college level to create better citizens and society. Ethical values do not allow you to act violently and unethically. Crime against women, theft, and other immoral issues in a society can easily be tackled by imparting ethical values.
Some people claim that ethics cannot be taught so making these a part of curricula is not practical. Even one of the editorial on the topic in the Wall Street Journal stated that “ethics courses are useless because ethics can’t be taught”. In addition to this there are no rules and standard definition of the concept. What is right for you may not be the same for other person. Cultural, religious, spiritual and many such factors make ethics and these obviously differ from person to person and community to community.
But students must be taught ethics and their importance. Students should participate in moral building activities. This should not be taught like science or math but should be taught in interactive and innovative sessions. Student level involvement and interaction can make this a very interesting issue. Schools can organize group discussions with experts, it can be taught in the form of story, or rhyme or act can be presented to clarify the concept of ethic. Aga Khan has recently suggested that ethics should be taught along with other subjects. A young mind is like clean slate so teaching ethics at such a tender age would be highly beneficial.
As per experts person crosses three levels in ethic and moral development. There is a preconventional level in which right and wrong of a person is guided by an authority figure like father, teacher etc (in case of young kids). Then is the conventional level when right and wrong is based on the group loyalty level (in case of teenagers). The most desired is the postconventional level when no one can influence you but your decision is based on universal ideas. The outcome would appeal to a reasonable person.
I personally feel that ethics should be taught in schools for the complete development. Only a person with ethical value can contribute to the positive development of the society as well as nation.
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