윤리도덕의 위기와 인성교육의 방법

Abstract

This study begins by rejecting the Socratic assumption that morality - including the virtues of good citizenship - cannot be taught. Children need to become good, not merely to know about the good. Hence we have to teach morality. However, a great diversity of ethical values are jostling for a place in children's upbringing. They are Aristotelian virtues, utilitarian considerations, intuitionist insights, Kantian values of autonomy and respect for persons, a harm principle, commitment to one's personal projects, and more besides. If these, or most of these, are to be included, are children to be taught to arrange them, in the rationalist mode, in some kind of systematic hierarchy of importance? Or are they to be encouraged, more after the Aristotelian pattern, to resolve conflicts intelligently within and between irreducible values in the light of specific circumstances? Confronted with the sorry state of affairs in the field of ethics, this study proposes an effective pedagogical tool for teaching ethics and that is service-learning. Service-learning is the incorporation of community service as a tool of educational inquiry. As applied to a training program for ethics teachers, prospective ethics teachers are encouraged to put in 10-15 hours of service during an academic semester at an agency, such as homeless shelter, hospital, senior center or engage in environmental activities such as trail building or improving nature sanctuary. As they provide community service, they are expected to investigate an ethics issue, such as poverty, reproductive rights, attitudes about euthanasia, or a variety of issues of environmental ethics, and incorporate their findings into the class through presentations, class discussion, and papers. In sum, it is the main argument of this study that service-learning can be a very effective approach for the prospective ethics teachers and that service-learning should be incorporated into the training program for prospective teachers.