Kohlberg

I've been reflecting on different things in our school systems. It seems that somewhere along the lines, we forget the fundamental ideas we all learned from the works of Piaget and Kohlberg. I am speaking of Kohlberg's stages of moral development. We all want our students to graduate from stage 1 of their moral development. Just as a reminder, stage 1 is where we follow the rule only in fear of punishment.
We need to reflect on how we run our schools. Is our discipline system being followed because of fear of punishment? Do our students understand why those rules are in place? Do they honestly believe in a need for social laws and order? Do they understand that our policies are for general social order in the school? Even further, have we created policies that are really there to just promote social order, without any other agendas?
What about the things we ask students to do? The community service, the activities, etc. Do the students do all fulfill those things because the rule says they have to do a certain amount of hours, or do they do them because they feel they are the right thing to do? Are we setting them up for success with these programs, and ensuring that they move up the stages of moral development?
It's time for us to go back to our roots. It's time for us to take a real look at the things we do, the policies and programs we put in place.