When posed with the question can morals be taught I feel that one must first define teaching? Teaching can be defined as many things, one being showing of instruction and another being the showing and reciprocal action being taken. With that said, can morals be taught? The answer to this seeming gray question is fairly black and white, no morals cannot be taught. Yet, that answer doesn’t encompass the entirety of the question, and so I second part the question with can moral actions be taught? The answer to this question is yes moral actions can be taught. The difference between morals and moral actions is that actions are the physical doing and since people are taught how to respond to situations. Then the answer is even clearer that moral actions are taught rather than morals themselves.
According to Niccolò Machiavelli, who gives moral ranges, a person needs to appear to have moral values, but not actually practice them. By following Niccolò Machiavelli we will see morals are instilled in every person, and no amount of teaching will bring about a better person. Serial Killers were normal people at one time, they had parents, and they went to school. Parents and schools try to instill a sense of right and wrong in the young person’s mind. Apparently, either they failed because of a brain dysfunction or moral ideals taught were not reciprocated. Either way, teaching moral values cannot be accomplished, because of the multitude of view points ranging from Christian to Atheist.
Benjamin Franklin believes morals can be taught from a strict regiment. He outlines thirteen virtues that a person can practice to achieve perfection. The major flaw in Franklin’s plan was that only religious being can be perfect. All the while, Franklin was trying to teach himself morals, but in retrospect he was practicing not teaching morals. When he tried to overcome one moral at a time he was not teaching anyone or himself. He was improving upon knowledge he already had. Therefore, while examining the content of the essay “Arriving at Perfection” Franklin fails to achieve perfection and also fails to teach morals and values to anyone including himself.
The ultimate goal in teaching is to have the action reciprocated. When Socrates told students to go find the truth that is what they did. They left and searched which is what Socrates wanted them to do. So the question Can morals be taught? Is fundamentally flawed because teaching requires someone or something to return the action taught which brings me to my title “Can you teach a cat to sit?” The answer as any cat owner will tell you is no. An owner can sit there and show and force the cat to do the action, but until the cat does the action on command then the owner has not taught anything. So, when asked if morals can be taught, I have to say no. That is because the morals being taught are ideals not actions. Let’s take a look into the past to when we were still in the D.A.R.E program. We were taught to say no, walk away, and tell an adult. These are all actions taking place not just the ideals behind being drug free. Therefore, the goal that teaching strives to achieve is wasted on just ideals.
Human Beings are creature of habit. Once something has been repeated over and over again we find that the behavior becomes everyday practice. When teaching a dog to sit we force the dog to sit over and over again while using the same voice command. The ultimate effect is that whenever the dog hears that command they sit. If in turn we just sat the dog down and did that with not voice command the ideal of the trick would be lost. So if
animals, which humans are, are creatures of habit then once we see the moral action done time and time again we begin to formulate our own ideas about that action and adopt it as part of our own behavior. So the teaching of morals actions will definitely result in the action being done again which validates my definition number two of teaching. Therefore, the answer the second question, can moral actions be taught, is yes, because moral actions are ingrained in memory while ideals are lost in transition. So the ultimate goal of teaching is only achieved when moral actions are taught and not just the morals themselves.
In conclusion, the goals of teaching seem to surround our everyday lives. The basic goal of teaching is to have at least one pupil reciprocate the action taught. The moral actions taught in schools and other institutes are used today to try and lead today’s society toward a better goal. On the other hand, morals that are taught do not become in grained in memory because they are just ideals and ideals are very debatable. Actions are ingrained because they are better applied and understood. So the best chance to teach morals is used the definition of teach that means reciprocal actions. The actions that will be done are exactly that action not ideals. Therefore, the ultimate goal of the question can morals be taught is still no, but the question rephrased returns a positive answer that creates a sense of dignity in one’s step and leads to a better tomorrow.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Interesting points. However, your starting point should have included a definition of morals. More to the point, if you had asked the question why humans invented morals in the first place it would have revealed a new direction for thought. This is the approach taken by moralcompass.org and it provides an interesting insight about the impact of economic theory on our concept of the moral.
thabks for the suggestion
I think morals are taught, to the extent that they are learned from the environment in which you are raised.
Each individual is effected by his or her parents, educational background, economic background, and all of these influence what he or she believes is "right" or "wrong", which is why some have differences in opinions on societal rights and wrongs.