Stephanie  Moral development during middle childhood happens along with maturation. School-age children “become increasingly able to think about moral issues that may occur during social interactions” (Blume 2007).  Observing this development has led researchers to many different theories. One of the theories mentioned in our textbook was Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory. According to Piaget, school-age children, or children in the concrete operational stage, become “moral relativists” (Blume 2007). This means that those children “now think that an intentional action is worse than an accidental behavior” (Blume 2007). Children in the “concrete reasoning stage of development” are finding out what it means to be an individual within the contexts of their world (I.e. school, peers, family, community, etc.). This theory resonates the most with me and my experiences and observations of moral development. As children grow, I feel their understanding of the world around them and what is expected of them (in this case their behavior) grows, and they grasp an understanding of what is “right and wrong.” The problem with this is that morality differs so vastly amongst families, communities, religious groups, and so on, that no one seems to be able to come to a universal objective moral truth. This leads us to the next topic which is having character education programs in schools.  Character education programs in schools are “programs consisting of techniques for enhancing moral behavior” (Blume 2007). They seek to educate children on “moral values...those values that all people ‘ought’ to uphold no matter what their culture, society, or religion, such as kindness” (Blume 2007). This seems to me like it could be a beautiful thing to implement in schools, but also a difficult thing to implement in schools. Questions I have are, who is deciding what all people ‘ought’ to uphold? How would these ideas be presented and discussed? It may be up to the parents, teachers, and community to decide what kinds of behaviors and characteristics are deemed as moral and immoral. I feel like an easy solution could be integrating more emotional and social awareness in classrooms as school-age children are becoming “moral relativists” and allowing for children to discover on their own (within reason, of course) what feels right/wrong to them. I have seen examples of this, and it has led to intrinsic motivation and ultimately positive self-determination.   Blume, L. B., & Zembar, M. J. (2007). Middle childhood to middle adolescence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson [Vital Source e-reader].   Shannon  Piaget's cognitive development theory states that children are moral realists (Blume & Zembar, 2007). This means that kids know that an intentional act is much worse than something that is done by accident (Blume & Zembar, 2007). Kohlberg, based on Piaget and his approach to development in stages, he said there are six stages of moral reasoning that we go t ...

1. Stephanie
Moral development during middle childhood happens along with
maturation. School-age children “become increasingly able to
think about moral issues that may occur during social
interactions” (Blume 2007). Observing this development has
led researchers to many different theories. One of the theories
mentioned in our textbook was Piaget’s cognitive
developmental theory. According to Piaget, school-age children,
or children in the concrete operational stage, become “moral
relativists” (Blume 2007). This means that those children “now
think that an intentional action is worse than an accidental
behavior” (Blume 2007). Children in the “concrete reasoning
stage of development” are finding out what it means to be an
individual within the contexts of their world (I.e. school, peers,
family, community, etc.). This theory resonates the most with
me and my experiences and observations of moral development.
As children grow, I feel their understanding of the world around
them and what is expected of them (in this case their behavior)
grows, and they grasp an understanding of what is “right and
wrong.” The problem with this is that morality differs so vastly
amongst families, communities, religious groups, and so on,
that no one seems to be able to come to a universal objective
moral truth. This leads us to the next topic which is having
character education programs in schools.
Character education programs in schools are “programs
consisting of techniques for enhancing moral behavior” (Blume
2007). They seek to educate children on “moral values...those
values that all people ‘ought’ to uphold no matter what their
culture, society, or religion, such as kindness” (Blume 2007).

2. This seems to me like it could be a beautiful thing to implement
in schools, but also a difficult thing to implement in schools.
Questions I have are, who is deciding what all people ‘ought’ to
uphold? How would these ideas be presented and discussed? It
may be up to the parents, teachers, and community to decide
what kinds of behaviors and characteristics are deemed as moral
and immoral. I feel like an easy solution could be integrating
more emotional and social awareness in classrooms as school -
age children are becoming “moral relativists” and allowing for
children to discover on their own (within reason, of course)
what feels right/wrong to them. I have seen examples of this,
and it has led to intrinsic motivation and ultimately positive
self-determination.
Blume, L. B., & Zembar, M. J. (2007). Middle childhood to
middle adolescence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson [Vital
Source e-reader].
Shannon
Piaget's cognitive development theory states that children are
moral realists (Blume & Zembar, 2007). This means that kids
know that an intentional act is much worse than something that
is done by accident (Blume & Zembar, 2007). Kohlberg, based
on Piaget and his approach to development in stages, he said
there are six stages of moral reasoning that we go through
(Blume & Zembar, 2007). These stages start with punishment
and obedience and go on to principled morality. I do believe
that we can take steps in learning right from wrong and what
behaviors are acceptable. Despite this, not all cultures are the

3. same. What I believe to be morally acceptable may not be the
same for someone else. I was taught to treat others how I want
to be treated. When I say taught, it means I got pointed in the
direction of determining how I want to behave towards others. I
wasn't born knowing I could easily hurt someones feelings. I
had to learn and sometimes I had to learn the hard way.
Character education are programs that find ways of
promoting moral behavior (Blume & Zembar, 2007). Moral
values are the values that we should take part in no matter
where we come from, our religious beliefs or the culture we are
a part of (Blume & Zembar, 2007). Morality can be instilled in
us from a young age, into school years and beyond. Children
can be taught in stages if that is how they are able to learn.
Character education programs should be a priority. It
shouldn't just be up to a school district to implement this. Moral
standards should start at home. We need to show our kids that
compassion and caring for others can go a long ways. Then
these things should be a part of the curriculum already set in
place at schools. It doesn't have to be a separate entity. It can be
taught in every single class. Parents and teachers, together, can
have a zero tolerance for any type of bullying. Parents need to
be proactive in making sure their children are not victims of
bullying and are not the ones being the bully. We can promote
positivity by treating everyone like they matter. It shouldn't
matter where you come from, what you look like or if you are
rich or poor. Teaching all of our kids to have respect for others
could help in curtailing the bullying epidemic that we are faced
with. Maybe it is wishful thinking to break people from learned
behaviors. It may not be realistic to get all parents on board in
helping their children to become good, kind and caring people.
This may be due to generations of people being taught the same
way and never being shown moral

4. Blume & Zembar (2007)
Middle Childhood to Middle Adolescence
Development from ages 8 to 18: Pearson Education, Upper
Saddle River, NJ