Education for Values, Ethics, and Social Responsibility

Teaching What’s Right: Can Ethics Be Taught in School?

Explores the difference between moral instruction and moral formation. Investigates how schools can teach values without dogma, through discussion, modeling, and experiential learning. Proposes ethical literacy as vital as reading and math.

Character Before Curriculum

Argues that honesty, kindness, and responsibility should be explicit learning goals—not hidden byproducts. Highlights programs and schools that place character at the center of the school experience. Examines the impact on behavior and achievement.

The Social Contract in the Classroom

Introduces the concept of the social contract as a framework for student rights and responsibilities. Demonstrates how understanding civic structures can begin with peer agreements and class rules. Connects governance theory to school culture.

Courage in the Curriculum

Explores how education can cultivate moral courage—the willingness to speak up, dissent, and act ethically under pressure. Includes stories, role-play, and analysis of historical and current examples. Makes the case for courage as a core learning objective.

Justice 101: Rethinking Fairness in Schools

Investigates how schools define, practice, and teach fairness—from discipline to grading to access. Challenges implicit bias and structural inequality in everyday systems. Explores restorative justice as a teaching opportunity.

Empathy as a Learning Standard

Proposes empathy—not just achievement—as a measurable educational outcome. Examines how literature, dialogue, and service learning can build perspective-taking. Links empathy to reduced bullying, better collaboration, and social cohesion.

From Rules to Principles: Why Law Begins in School

Explores how legal thinking—rules, rights, exceptions, and ethics—can be integrated into all subjects. Demonstrates how children understand justice early, and how law-based thinking builds critical reasoning and civic responsibility.

What Would You Do? Learning Through Moral Dilemmas

Uses real-world case studies to develop ethical reasoning skills in students. Encourages students to grapple with gray areas, competing values, and unintended consequences. Models how to think ethically, not what to think.

Schools as Communities of Integrity

Argues that values are absorbed from culture more than curriculum. Examines how trust, transparency, and accountability in school culture influence student development. Includes staff modeling, feedback systems, and community ethics codes.

Honesty Is Not Just a Rule

Examines honesty as a habit formed by safety, modeling, and emotional intelligence. Discusses cheating, lying, and plagiarism as opportunities for values-based reflection. Promotes trust as a foundation for real learning.

Educating for the Common Good

Challenges the idea of education as personal achievement alone. Reframes learning as contribution to the well-being of others. Includes community service, systems thinking, and civic project-based learning.

Ethics in a Digital World

Teaches students how to navigate online behavior, misinformation, digital footprints, and influencer culture with integrity. Encourages media literacy paired with ethical reflection. Builds a foundation for responsible digital citizenship.

Why Schools Should Teach Law to Children

Makes the case for age-appropriate legal education—including rights, contracts, and justice systems. Empowers students to understand rules not as constraints but as protections. Introduces civic power and legal literacy as tools of agency.

Compassion as a Competency

Argues that compassion is not soft—it’s strong. Explores how to develop compassionate leadership, conflict resolution, and emotional maturity in students. Uses neuroscience, storytelling, and real-life practice.

Teaching Students to Disagree Respectfully

In a polarized world, disagreement is a key life skill. Offers tools for respectful debate, dialectics, and listening with the intent to understand. Models how to hold values firmly while staying open-minded.

Greed vs. Generosity: Lessons for an Economic Society

Brings ethics into discussions of wealth, consumption, and economics. Encourages critical thinking about profit, philanthropy, and purpose. Asks students: What kind of economic actors do we want to be?

Educating Conscience in an Algorithmic Age

Explores how automation, AI, and data-driven culture can erode personal responsibility. Calls for ethics education to counter passive tech reliance. Challenges students to remain conscious, questioning moral agents.

Schools That Stand for Something

Profiles schools with explicit ethical missions—social justice schools, peace schools, democratic schools. Analyzes how values drive pedagogy, partnerships, and student outcomes. Encourages mission-driven school identity.

The Ethics of Competition

Questions how schools reward ranking, comparison, and scarcity. Explores the psychological and moral impact of high-stakes achievement. Suggests cooperative models, shared success, and intrinsic motivation.

Teaching Responsibility Without Shame

Distinguishes between accountability and punishment. Explores how responsibility can be taught through mentorship, repair, and ownership rather than fear. Builds student agency and self-trust.

Goodness Is Not Naive: Critical Ethics for Tough Times

Counters the idea that kindness and ethics are outdated in a cutthroat world. Offers a bold, realistic framework for moral courage, integrity under pressure, and ethical resistance. Teaches ethical thinking as a form of strength.

Moral Philosophy for Children: Not Just for Grownups

Introduces Plato, Confucius, Kant, and contemporary thinkers in age-appropriate ways. Uses stories, questions, and scenarios to explore timeless questions. Teaches critical thinking through ethical inquiry.

From Me to We: The Role of Altruism in Education

Reframes education as a journey toward interdependence, not just independence. Includes volunteering, peer support, and cooperative learning models. Celebrates generosity, humility, and shared responsibility.

Who Decides What’s Right? Ethics Across Cultures

Explores cultural pluralism, moral relativism, and shared human values. Uses intercultural dialogue to challenge assumptions. Promotes global citizenship rooted in mutual respect and shared humanity.

Reputation, Integrity, and the Inner Compass

Teaches students how to develop a personal code of ethics. Encourages internal motivation over external validation. Builds resilience to peer pressure and manipulation through values alignment.

Ethics in Everyday Decisions

Shows how small choices—cheating, gossiping, helping, excluding—reflect deeper values. Encourages reflection on daily behavior and micro-ethics. Makes ethical thinking a normal part of life, not an abstract topic.

The Courage to Do What’s Right When No One’s Watching

Encourages students to act ethically even without praise, fear, or consequence. Uses stories of quiet courage and unsung heroes to inspire. Builds intrinsic motivation and moral autonomy.

Schools That Cultivate Citizens, Not Just Students

Explores the civic role of schools in democratic societies. Links ethics to participation, activism, and leadership. Frames learning as preparation for responsible citizenship—not just test scores.

Ethical Imagination: What If You Were Them?

Uses role play, storytelling, and empathy-building exercises to stretch moral perspective. Encourages students to imagine themselves in others’ shoes. Builds capacity for justice, inclusion, and human connection.

Beyond Behavior Charts: Authentic Moral Development

Critiques token systems, punishment models, and compliance culture. Promotes intrinsic ethics, self-reflection, and community agreements. Encourages schools to develop conscience, not just control.

School as Moral Laboratory

Imagines schools as places to test, refine, and live one’s values. Uses everyday interactions as opportunities to practice justice, compassion, and courage. Treats ethical growth as an academic and human pursuit.