170 pages
228 x 145mm
ISBN-10: 1 85856 084 5
ISBN-13: 978 185856 084 7

We want children to behave in a responsible and caring way but how can they be taught to do so, particularly when prominent adults set such a poor example?

Morality is supposedly in decline; teachers and adults supposedly unsure of their moral convictions, standards of behaviour are reputed to be falling, communities to be in crisis, children no longer to know the difference between right and wrong.

Yet the current debate, in which journalists, politicians and government advisers have all joined, too often oversimplifies and distorts the nature of morality. It reduces it to a matter of conformity and rigid rules, and ignores the complexity of values in this multicultural society. Teaching Right and Wrong tackles the key issues in moral education at the informed and sophisticated level the subject requires, but in an accessible style for educators and general readers. The problems that are glossed over by most commentators are here explored in a vivid way that does justice to the realities of people's lives today, and provides helpful conclusions to guide the practice of moral education.

The contributors have all written extensively on morality and education. Nick Tate and Marianne Talbot lead off, and there are chapters by Nigel Blake, Carole Cox, Joseph Dunne, Mary Midgley, Michael Rustin, Tony Skillen, John White, Bill Williamson and editors Richard Smith and Paul Standish.