moral education is necessary in our schools. Many states even require such education by law. The collective intent appears to be the formation of today’s adolescents into adults of tomorrow who exemplify good citizenry. Although there is this general agreement that our schools should prepare our students to live a good life, there is also a common ground that our schools should not be involved in actually defining what constitutes a good life Rawls, 1971). It is a common argument that “you can’t legislate morality.” However, this is not necessarily correct. It is dependent upon the nature of the legislature. If a legislature is actually democratic, then the legislation of morality is possible (Berkowitz and Grych, 1998). If this is the case, the decisions and rules which are developed are increasingly likely to be just. Also, through participation in the process, those involved will most likely have their own development stimulated in a positive way (Power, Higgins, and Kohlberg, 1989). The extreme diversity of today’s society as well as the various environmental factors make the transmission of values the possible catalyst for serious conflict. The resultant conflict has the potential for increasing the stress which enhances the disequilibrium most adolescents experience. Although certain moral behaviors may be used to judge the character of students it is important to understand that there are many different possibilities for 1 students to behave in a given manner in a given situation. Therefore any universal assumptions based on observations which are taken out of context can only serve to cause further problems for the adolescent. Furthermore because we define ourselves through our interaction with others, to categorize students based on a limited insight could prove to be disastrous for the formation of their identities. Adolescents want to feel like they are being treated fairly. If teachers view stud...
