Saturday, October 15, 2011
A crisis of character?
The writer seems to claim that recent events of social unrest, such as the riots in London, were caused by a lack of character (or individual morality). Do you subscribe to this view, or would you look to more societal or economic causes? Are young people less virtuous than they were in the past? Is it time to bring the teaching of ethics and character-building back to the classrooom? If so, what would (or should) this look like?
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Nowadays, the people’s thinking is rapidly changing. There’s no such big need of helping each-other and developing our own personality, but there’s much bigger urge to have a materialistic satisfaction. Due to this fact, our characters are changing in an ill way and so there’s an increase in a bad awareness among the people, especially young people.
ReplyDeleteThe virtues such as justice, fortitude, hard work, gratitude are not so popular as they had been in the past. Moreover, they’re almost forgotten! Instead of this, irreverence, disdain, lies, sham are more present in the awareness of the current society. People are keen on their satisfaction that’s why they do not hesitate to seize the opportunity without taking any care of impacts on surroundings.
A person of character, who is mentioned in the article, is just “ideal model,” which is rarely seen. However, why is it like that? It’s because people are not smart enough to realize that we are able to have a pleasant world? Everything is up to us! If we want to have a peaceful and fair world, we can have it!
The organizations which are described in this article are trying to solve character’s problems. However, the whole society solves only consequences, and these organizations are not exceptions, but more important is to solve causes. I am aware that, solving causes of deteriorating character is, let’s say, herculean (but not unreal). I really appreciate the hard work which is done by these organizations. They are providing the trainings, discussions and so the attendees affect the surrounding in a positive way. I think, they could add to their program also topic about “mental health,” because character’s problems and unhealthy mind are quite similar in some ways.
I strongly agree with an opinion of experts in characters. The wealthy life style – sport activities, diet, beneficial social life and education of high quality are conditions of proper character, which is the base of society’s development. Students nowadays must study less and less. In Slovakia, there has been a school reform. The main idea of this reform is to reduce the curriculum at high and primary schools, because students are considered to be overextended. Also, students are expected to do a self-study. I think this is the back-step. Schools, especially grammar schools should provide service in a high quality. If certain student doesn’t want to study hard, why doesn’t he attend other type of school? These problems with education are closely related to character development. As students have less duty, and also have less opportunity for their actively passed leisure, they just waste their time by playing PC games, chatting on social networks etc.
I think teaching of ethics and character-building is a good tool to solve these problems. But on the other hand, I think these lessons would be contributive only for student, who are actually virtuous. Parents play very important role in developing kid’s character. And if parents do not think the virtues are important, the lessons of ethics and character-building are quite useless for these students. But if these lessons would help only one student, they have an import.
The issues creating our modern society, such as stress, the pursuit of property, exhaustion, less communication, are forming a Gordian knot, which is still growing. This is the base of deteriorating character. Some individuals, for instance organizations mentioned in this article are trying to unsnarl, at least, a peace of this knot, but I think it’s impossible to do it all. The sword will be needed. But in which form it will came, we still do not know.
In my opinion, this article does not deal with the topic thoroughly enough. I would join Matúš saying the definition of character the author used is too idealistic. I agree the personal virtues mentioned have always been honoured and should also be today, but it is almost impossible to be a person with all these traits. Even though I am convinced there always have been virtuous people in the past, it is very hard to find such person today. Sadly enough, people are indeed more concerned about their income than their personality. From my angle of view, people of honesty and wisdom are lost in today’s society of breaking rules, egoism and affliction. Unfortunately the world is truly speeding up causing people to be in constant hurry and stress. Thus there’s a lack of effort put into self-cultivation.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, the most important factors affecting character development are in the family. What else affects children more than the family background they grow up in? The really sad thing is that there are still fewer good functioning families with healthy atmosphere and the right role models. This may be due to more liberal and also capitalistic tendency in the society. The common results are more frequent divorces, weaker emphasis on raising children, little time spent together as a family etc. The increasing number of people suffering some mental health problems is also an example of society’s decadence. But we can’t avoid seeing all the bad things happening in the world. Look at the mass media! I am sure everybody has already noticed the proportion of disconcerting news to any neutral topics. So tell me, how can anybody grow up to a virtuous adult in these conditions?
Now sorry for being so sceptical, but I don’t think that an organisation providing character building session can globally help. As Matúš already said, there is the problem of dealing only with symptoms of character recession a not with the cause of it. The author had a good point reminding adults to become proper role models for children, but this certainly cannot be achieved easily if it can be at all. Nevertheless, I liked the statement: “If we are not a virtuous society, we may cease to be a free one.” since it is a challenge for everyone to think thoroughly about the importance of character.
@Kristína
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kika that family is one of the essential factors, which affect character development. It makes sense to me that the kid raised in the healthy environment has higher chance of becoming a virtuous adult, compared to the opposite, when it is more likely that the kid will lack a character. On the other hand, I also think the school or various sessions aimed at building character might help as well. In my opinion, it is not pointless to hold a character building sessions in schools from time to time. At this point, I would slightly disagree with Kika. Character building sessions might not help globally, but we need to enhance the attitude by doing these small steps. Additionally, I would strongly encourage the schools to start teaching ethics even in the higher grades, not just in the elementary. Finally, I am not a religious person, but I think that having a religion classes in school might positively affect the character as well.