Ethical and Moral Development in Education : หน้า 110/164

Metaphors with a Dharma Master at home and what they are bringing into the classroom. And, how many bad habits can we actually fix? The teachers tend to blame the parents and the parents blame the teachers, particularly if the children grow up to be bad people. But this all comes from human defilements, ignorance and impure elements – and, of course, from using the wrong methodology. So, we could say that ignorance + living together → defilements! If we develop ethics correctly (and other things, too, of course) then we help to develop a great child. But it also depends on how he can develop himself. True knowledge about the nature of life is something that we learn if we really want to get rid of problems. And vice versa: when we learn it, then we can choose. Education is missing a certain piece. And that is the ethical and moral development of the child. No one can guarantee the ‘wisdom’ or habits or ethics of the graduate from college or university because they do not know about the mind. The Buddha gave us a standard and that is the qualification of a person who has a good education is a person: (1) responsible for his own mistakes or, the opposite, his own awareness and mindfulness, (2) responsible for the morality of society and (3) responsible for the economy of morality. When a person follows the first four precepts, he or she will not hurt others, and will be responsible for his own morality. That person will not hurt others in any way, through physical force or malicious slander, and follow the eight fold path. When the person becomes responsible for society, he or she will stay away from people with prejudice and/or bias due to love, hate, fear, or ignorance. And, when we talk about the economy of morality, we are talking about how we must not follow the path to our own decay: drinking, dishonest nightlife, corrupt entertainment, gambling, associating with bad people, and laziness. These are indeed the road to ruin. If the economy is good at a school, then young people don’t worship money as god, and then a little drinking does not lead to more drinking, and gambling does not lead to more gambling. But, we need to teach young people how to take responsibility for their own actions. Humans, of course, need companionship. And we are surrounded by people on every level with which to obtain this companionship. But we need people who are surrounding us to be moral and ethical people because the qualities that we are looking for in our companions do not simply drop down from the sky. We have to be responsible for our outside environment, just as we are responsible for our inside environment. So we need to be responsible for our own six directions: our parents, our teachers, our (spiritual) leaders, our family, our colleagues, and our friends. Each person has their own six direc-