Levels of Moral Development

 Why do you do the (right, good, nice) things that you do?

Here is what the meadow room children said:

Cause it’s nice

To make somebody feel good

If your teachers said you should, then you have to, like clean up

To make someone happy

It’s kind

 If someone’s crying

Share.  (teacher – why?) – cause its really nice

Because it’s nice

Because sometimes you share toys with people that you don’t need any more, to be kind

We could share so somebody else shares, if you share maybe they will share with you

Some people are poor and they don’t have toys.  You can give them toys cause they have nothing to play with.   (teacher - Why would you give them toys?)  To make them feel better

If someone is dying you should help them, cause if they die then that would be sad

If someone is nice to a mean person then it’s hard for the mean person to be mean

This is the second year that we asked this question to the children.  We became interested in Lawrence Kohlberg’s model of the levels of moral development after hearing Rafe Esquith talk at the Richmond Forum last year about using this model with his 5^th graders.  Kohlberg's stages are adapted from of a psychological theory introduced by psychologist Jean Piaget. 

The theory proposes six stages of moral reasoning, each more adequate at responding to moral dilemmas than its predecessor.  Reasoning at level one does not mean that one's actions are "less moral" than someone reasoning at level six, only that moral behavior would be more responsible, consistent and predictable from people at higher levels.  In other words, two people may make the same choice with different reasons behind the decision.

So, we wondered what the meadow room children would say about what drives their decisions, or at least what reasons they could think of, even if it wasn't the driving force in the moment of action.  

Here are the levels, with simplifications given by Rafe Esquith:

Why do you do what you do?

1. Obedience and punishment orientation - (to avoid punishment)

2. Self-interest orientation - (for a reward, what's in it for me?)

3. Interpersonal accord and conformity (to please someone else, the good boy/good girl attitude)

4. Authority and social-order - (because of the rules, law and order morality)

5. Social contract orientation - (to be considerate of other's feelings)

6. Universal ethical principles (because of an internalized code of conduct - I'm nice because I am, I work hard because I do)

Rafe Esquith said that with his 5th graders, he was happy to see level 5 thinking.  See how many levels you hear in the Meadow Room children's conversation.