How experts view the importance of moral literacy

DR. Tiongco introduces us to Nancy Tuana, an expert on the topic of moral literacy, who puts the need for moral literacy this way:

“Moral literacy should be no different than math or reading literacy. Since all of us as individuals, as professionals, and as citizens will need to make numerous moral decisions throughout our lifetime, what stronger argument can there be for making moral literacy a component of our formal educational experience? (p. 366)

“It is clearly in the best interest of our people (whether we talk of children, students in a school, professionals, or ordinary citizens) that they be individually and collectively helped to develop moral literacy as part of their integral education and human development as persons.

“So, among those who need to develop and enhance their moral literacy are parents (as the first and primary educators of their children), teachers and school administrators, legislators and public policymakers, human resource managers and developers, and practitioners of ‘caring’ professions (health care, guidance and counseling, social work, etc.).

“Because of their position or the nature of their work, these individuals and groups of people need to understand their role in developing moral literacy in those who are under their care and responsibility. They should see and appreciate the need and duty to be morally literate themselves if they are to be of effective help to those they are supposed to care and be responsible for. They also need to reflect on what they are doing (or not doing) in relation to developing moral literacy in those whom they are meant to serve and care for and how they can carry out their tasks, duties, and responsibilities more effectively. Indeed, if they do not do their job, we run the risk of becoming a nation of moral illiterates.

“In that regard, we need to remind ourselves that if we are not morally literate, we are likely to end up inventing our own “morality” — a do-it-yourself kind of “moral code” crudely patched together from “sound bites” we pick up from TV or movies or from drinking buddies. In that case, we will not be any better than a drunk person staggering and stumbling along the way.

“In particular, developing moral literacy is a basic and important first step in addressing the general perception of moral decline among young people, as well as specific moral problems in families, schools, and communities (e.g., those I pointed in discussing the need for family life education).

“It is important for individuals and groups who have people under their care (such as those I have mentioned) to undergo appropriate education or training, whether formal or informal, for the task of developing moral literacy in the people who depend on or are under them.”

Given this expert´s view, we have ahead of us in the next few decades a very tall challenge to rise up to: how to educate ourselves morally and how to acquire moral literacy as much as we have been emphasizing basic literacy limited to reading, writing, and arithmetic.