What is the right thing to do?

How can you help children and adolescents to go beyond knowing what is right and what is wrong, to choosing to do the right thing? What do we mean by right and wrong? Why and how do we call some things good and some things bad? What is worth striving for, what makes a life worth living? The chapter discusses the nature and roles of ethics, morals, values, and virtues in our decision-making about the ‘right’ and the ‘good’. Emphasis is placed on the key role of human values, and of reflecting critically on how we make judgements to improve the choices we make. Also discussed are the ethical systems of today, deontology, utilitarianism, emotivism, and virtue ethics that can guide the actions we take to help or teach others. This is then linked to the origins and ethical nature of the Education in Human Values (EHV) model, and that EHV helps students to acquire habits of virtue that facilitate the development of ‘right’ actions. Finally, Action Learning is introduced as a way of trying out ideas for incorporating ethics and EHV into your practice.