A considered view on what counts as Spiritual and Moral Development
Young people need to have morals, but this statement begs certain questions. Precisely which moral values should one aim to promote? How can one promote particular moral values in a society, which prides itself on allowing individual freedom? What is the connection between behaviour and moral development? Is a student who doesn't shoplift only for fear of getting caught more or less morally developed than one who believes it's wrong in principle but nevertheless succumbs to peer pressure and steals? How morally developed is a student who behaves impeccably at school but with the sole aim of becoming a senior monitor? At what point does promoting moral behaviour become moralising? But if moral values are difficult that's nothing in comparison to the complexity of spiritual development. Would we recognise a spiritually developed person if we met one? Assuming one can be spiritually undeveloped, can one also be spiritually misdeveloped? How does one assess the spiritual development of a student who is fascinated by ouija boards and tarot cards? Are guided fantasy and transcendental meditation really positive suggestions as some educationalists would have us believe?
And what indeed of the very concept of development? As Gabriel Moran points out, "Development is unavoidably a moral term; that is developmental theories presume that the movement is from good to better, or at least from bad to less worse." But is this an observable phenomenon like physical growth?
The very fact that these are complex and controversial issues has led some to argue that it is impossible for schools to promote moral and spiritual development without being open to the charges of sectarianism, indoctrination and social engineering. Consequently it is suggested that schools should remain neutral on such matters and that they should therefore be left out of the curriculum. However such a position is inherently flawed. For to exclude moral and spiritual development is to disvalue it and that judgement will be stamped onto children by the very fact of its exclusion.
Brian Hill, Professor of Education, asserts, "the irony of it all is that the very controversial nature of religious, moral, and spiritual values is an index of their importance in community life, and the curriculum which fails to address them in an educationally valid way, is a distorted and miseducative curriculum." As David Pascall the Chairman of the now extinct National Curriculum Council asserted about moral and spiritual development that whilst "there are no attainment targets for these achievements ... to relegate their importance would be to deny the humanity of our children." Values are 'in' and it is important that this school addresses the issues in a prominent and workable fashion.
