How does morality develop in children and adolescents? The structure of moral consciousness is built within the subject in childhood through models of behavior of parents and grandmothers, as well as through the images of heroes from fairy tales. In a market economy, relationships between people should not become completely commercial. How to prevent this?
It is imperative to teach children moral standards of behavior in society, to develop an understanding of responsibility and hard work. But it is also important for adults and themselves to abide by the rules with which they teach their children.
Morality is also an objective assessment of human behavior and interaction in a group. But, at the same time, this is a special consciousness.
The semantics of words are built on the rods of moral consciousness: life and death, meaning - meaninglessness, love - hate. Paying attention to the moral education of your child is a first-rate task for parents. And we will see how to do it right.
Moral consciousness is
Morality is a category that defines the human worldview regarding behavior in society or in personal life. Consciousness is formed through speech. The word itself means "with knowledge." That is, the content of subjective consciousness - the knowledge that a person received from the environment or gained through his labor. Good is considered moral, but aggression, revenge and envy have always been considered immoral. Where does this division come from?
In essence, morality is a set of unspoken rules prescribed to every member of society. When a person voluntarily performs what is required to be done for the good of society, he is called conscious or moral. Those individuals who refuse to obey social laws end up being outcasts. Choosing immorality as the main philosophy of life, people often end up in prisons.
Man in reality cannot live separately from society. The personality grown by society is obliged to serve the goals that the environment sets before it. Self-government is largely an illusion, since the individual is always subordinate to the whole. Moral public consciousness is the whole culture, which each era has its own values and its own characteristics. However, in each era, the development and improvement of one’s consciousness and society was a moral choice, and personality degradation and self-destruction were an immoral choice.
Structure
In the structure of morality, norms of behavior and principles are distinguished. In principle, 3 components of morality can be distinguished: moral consciousness, practice and relations.
Some principles are negotiated or prescribed. Others, such as truthfulness, decisiveness, participation, kindness, are desirable but not necessary. Since it is impossible to form all virtues in a short human life, it is necessary to try to develop at least a couple of qualities in yourself to perfection.
First of all, you need to monitor your appearance, avoid sloppiness. These are the precepts of any civilized society.
The philosophy of antiquity. Views on morality
Stoic philosophers taught with endurance to bear all suffering and learn from their mistakes. This school saw stoicism as the main valor of mankind. The idealist philosopher Plato saw the whole world as a reflection of the spiritual world. Therefore, he believed that a person does not know moral values in his life but recalls. In his spiritual guise, he already knew them, just having been born, he forgot. Plato believed that all the moral values of mankind come from God. And it is God who possesses all virtues, man - only a small part of them.
Aristotle was a materialist. The direction of his mind was different. The philosopher regarded morality as a measure, as the ability to limit oneself. Evil, in his opinion, is the lack of measure. Aristotle shared 2 forms - mental and universal forms of morality.
European thinkers have already used the concept of religion to explain the differences between good and evil. From the teachings of enlightenment, the teachings of Hegel, Kant, Montaigne, Dani Didro and other philosophers are known.
The categorical imperative of I. Kant
According to Kant, man is the highest value. Everyone is free in his behavior just enough not to harm another person. Therefore, no one can use a person as a means to an end. This rule is the first law that a moral person is required to comply.
The second rule is that everyone is obligated to treat others as if he would like to be treated with him. This law is the golden rule of ethics, which has always been, and always will be, relevant.
Individual and social consciousness
Methods of developing moral consciousness are ethical conversations, explanations, and examples. Examples are individuals with experience and public merit — labor veterans, writers, and cultural figures.
In schools, children are sometimes asked to write essays on the topic of moral conduct and immorality. When a person begins to think about these categories of philosophy, he will no longer act unconsciously in the future.
The structure of moral consciousness should already be formed in the subjective world of a teenager. Each person is a carrier of culture, and each one develops it with his own work, passing on to the next generation the already modified, improved program of interaction in the world.
Forms of moral consciousness
In philosophy, consciousness defines personal and social. Therefore, there are two forms of moral consciousness: individual moral consciousness (definition of one’s essence) and general cultural consciousness.
Moral public consciousness also has several forms:
- public culture;
- political consciousness;
- scientific;
- working life and the concept of responsibility for one’s future;
- legal consciousness.
All these forms of consciousness are formed gradually already at the senior school age. The qualities of character that the personality develops in itself can be both good and bad.
If you don’t talk with teenagers about the importance of ethics of behavior, about developing a conscience in yourself that will tell a person the right choice, then adolescents will not set themselves the goal of working on their bad qualities in the future.
Moral functions
Moral behavior and moral consciousness is called upon to regulate social relations. The moral must develop humanism in man and the desire for self-improvement. Having analyzed various views on the value of moral consciousness in the life of an individual, we can distinguish 4 main functions:
- Cognitive. Through the prism of his already formed principles, a person continues further, after graduation, to cognize this reality.
- Educational - a person must develop his own attitude to life, to work, to relationships and learn to overcome difficulties.
- Regulatory. Control of one’s behavior, choice of friends, place of work, active contribution to the general activity of society - everything is regulated by the individual. Those questions of the organization of life are essentially questions about where a person is directed, where he is looking for happiness and what he believes in.
- Estimated. An adult gives an assessment of the phenomena and makes decisions depending on what he considers correct, permissible, and what is categorically unacceptable.
Material success actually depends on morality. Anyone who believes that you can lose all friends for your own success is deeply mistaken. Loners quickly break down under the pressure of circumstances, having no support. And if not, then their successes cease to please them.
Why do we need moral values?
At all times, that there is a human form of life, morality has existed, albeit first in the form of taboo. Laws of residence in a group require that the young generation initially form concepts of values - friendship, support for loved ones, about the inadmissibility of killing one's own.
Compassion for the neighbor is in animals, for example, elephants. They always grieve over the congener who was killed. In a person, these values are also programmed, but fear for one’s life, which is formed under unfavorable conditions in childhood, can make a person aggressive, that is, his instincts of aggression begin to prevail over the program for protecting relatives, since his own skin is always closer. But this behavior cannot be considered normal.
Moral values remain only an ideal if they are not made the principles of their life. On the basis of moral principles, the spiritual life of a person is built. When a person realizes what morality consists of and what social norms are for, it naturally becomes a worthy member of society and achieves success.
Which highlight moral values?
It is necessary that the child understands that it is good to be kind and sincere, so that he wants to be good.
But what qualities are considered moral:
- Compassion.
- Industriousness.
- Kindness and sincerity.
- Determination.
- Will.
- Reliability.
A person with several moral values is respected in society. Of course, they do not expect a liar at work, but they are waiting for a responsible and truthful employee. And the family needs sincerity and dedication. The moral consciousness of man is the wholly practical requirement for him of the society in which he develops.
How to develop in a child?
Moral moral consciousness is primarily developed in the child by the parents, showing what is moral and what is not, their behavior. Then, when the child learns to read, he learns life through fairy tales, songs and cartoons. It is important all this time to monitor what penetrates the brain of the child, and how he programs himself.
It is pointless to expect a child to take care of himself in old age, if he does not instill respect for his elders in childhood, if he does not accustom to take care of someone other than himself.
How to develop such a consciousness in children? The formation of consciousness begins with inculcating the concepts of good and evil. Gerda in the tale of the Snow Queen symbolizes a kind, conscious personality. While the Snow Queen violates Kai’s free will, makes him his slave. Each time, reading a fairy tale, you need to explain to the child what is good and what is not. As well as asking him what he understood and what kind of hero he is sympathetic to. In such conversations, the first concept of good is formed.
Preschoolers, children 5-6 years old are just beginning to understand the consequences of their actions. And at this time they need to be taught to be independent, neat, purposeful. Parents must be given a stable inner core before they reach school age. He must know that he is required to develop self-control for a reason. That is what will help him to be collected in the lessons, get good grades and so on.
High School Development
The task of moral education of a high school student is to develop an active life position, teaching a teenager to take responsibility and love work. And mental and physical labor tempers a person, while inactivity and passivity generates weakness, lack of will and fear. All these nuances of adult life need to be explained to the teenager before he enters the university and begins to answer for himself.
Methods of forming moral consciousness - this is primarily communication and reading. Fiction reflects the core values that this generation lives on.
In most classic novels, the main characters are people with strong beliefs and values. The literature studied in high school is designed to develop in the child the very moral qualities that are in the hero. Now, value orientations are freedom of expression, humanism, tolerance, a developed mind and ingenuity.
Teachers and parents need to work together at this time. Schools need various trainings for parents; work should be aimed at explaining to parents their role and the importance of their support. You can not miss the time and let the situation go by chance. It was during this period that a person himself begins to shape his life. He should already be able to build relationships with people and independently raise his cultural level in order to be an interesting conversationalist.
The right knowledge is now easy to find. But to learn goodness and beauty is possible only in interaction with highly moral people.
Morality and spirituality. Difference
In fact, morality is not fully spiritual. This is a philosophical concept that relates to ethics. A person who has grown up in a particular society absorbs moral foundations, perceives the categories of good and evil, and then, in adulthood, he decides whether to act according to the unspoken rules of morality or not.
Spirituality is a completely different concept. A spiritual person performs actions based on an understanding of the depth of things and out of love for others. According to Nikolai Berdyaev, spirituality is inseparable from the true, and man’s path is to reveal the truth within himself.
The spiritual qualities of character are an even higher level of development. These qualities include patience, compassion for one's neighbor, humility, and others.
Moral values today
Because of the philosophy of enjoyment and permissiveness in the modern world, moral values are declining. Children cease to respect their parents, expect only gifts and money from them. Parents, in turn, love children not for what they are, but for school success and mental ability. But in the future, such a trend threatens the extinction of society as such, its split and war. Growing up, a child with such values begins to divide people into useful and useless. This makes him callous, selfish and lonely.
When purely material values prevail over the consciousness of the unity of society and the well-being of the family, society falls into decay, and at the same time, each person is defeated.
Fantastic literature influences our era in many ways. Now teenagers perceive the concepts of good and evil from fantasy epics and TV shows. All books and numerous modern TV series create a generalized image of a moral hero and antihero among young people. That is, what you need to become in order to be accepted in society.
Based on these in-depth programs, they will build their field of activity and their personal lives. And since moral consciousness and moral values are now built on the plots of fantastic worlds, it is practically impossible to predict who will change the image of the world in the future, and who will be considered moral and who is immoral.