Can Ethics Be Taught?

Where do ethics come from? Is it nature or is it nurture? Brain research suggests it must be both. It seems likely that there could be a gene associated with ethics passed along; of right vs. wrong. Basic ethical processing would have been needed for early humans to engage socially with any success at all and the trait would have survived. However, the way in which the gene manifests itself would be shaped by the environment within which it is activated and the influences brought to bear. “Right” in our religious community is often different from “Right” in our business community. Research also suggests that we may possess as many inactive genes as active ones and that our inactive genes go right on sleeping unless they are awakened by “practicing” the trait they carry. Thus “practicing” ethical processing affirms the gene trait. But the ethics practiced might be those decided by the communities within which we currently reside (peer groups, neighborhood, and schoolyard) or… those that are carefully taught.
Brain research into ethical behavior suggests that ethical processing is developmental. It requires the higher cognitive reasoning of the frontal lobe to ameliorate the tendencies of the limbic, or emotional, areas. The brain develops in much the same order it evolved over man’s existence, from bottom to top. Thus the reptilian brain with basic essential functions for living comes first, the paleomammalion brain with its apparatus for emotion second, and the neomammalion brain with its refined processes including concept formation and cognitive reasoning, last. While researching how the brain makes judgments scientists discovered that an area of the upper brain known as the somatosensory cortex was activated when making difficult choices. This area supplies emotional context to the bodily sensations of pain and temperature, among others, as well as (apparently) feelings brought about by conscience. That is why we literally “feel” the pain of a difficult choice or decision.
But a child possesses a young frontal lobe not yet mature enough to process all of the consequences arising from unethical behavior, or to project the future relational difficulties that can arise from lying, stealing, or disrespect. Emotions arising from a fully developed limbic system can not be regulated by an under developed frontal lobe. Nor can he feel the “pangs” from an incomplete somatosensory cortex. And so a pre-pubescent child lacking brain development in areas critical to the abstract projection of feelings and consequences will require a construct or framework in its place. When we think in terms of a leadership curriculum for junior school students, we need to include a system that prepares them for ethical thought processing. Problem solving modules, decision making ladders, and similar templates that include the ethics component should be included. It is equally important, however, to model this behavior within the school community in a meaningful way.