'Raising children': a character-based approach to residential child care

Traditionally, we tend to think about ethical behaviour as that which concerns our actions towards others. Training children and young adults to behave ethically is a notoriously difficult endeavour, partly because we are not living their life, we are observing it from an outside perspective. People...

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Main Author: June Jones
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: CELCIS 2010-10-01
Series:Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care
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author June Jones
author_facet June Jones
author_sort June Jones
collection DOAJ
description Traditionally, we tend to think about ethical behaviour as that which concerns our actions towards others. Training children and young adults to behave ethically is a notoriously difficult endeavour, partly because we are not living their life, we are observing it from an outside perspective. People choose to behave in a variety of ways, not all of them exemplary. A different way to approach ethics is to consider what sort of people we ought to be. If we develop character traits that are beneficial to ourselves and others, we find that individual actions will tend towards ethically decent behaviour. This paper will explore a character-based approach to residential child care, where the aim is to develop a child's character so that right action will flow more readily than focusing on the rights and wrongs of individual acts. The aim is not to prescribe a set character that children ought to aim for, but examine how moral character develops and how those with responsibility for the child can aid the developmental process.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2976-9353
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publishDate 2010-10-01
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series Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care
spelling doaj-art-11e3cade64a243e1a6f44c1a6c3aa5b62025-01-14T16:39:50ZengCELCISScottish Journal of Residential Child Care2976-93532010-10-019210.17868/strath.00085327'Raising children': a character-based approach to residential child careJune JonesTraditionally, we tend to think about ethical behaviour as that which concerns our actions towards others. Training children and young adults to behave ethically is a notoriously difficult endeavour, partly because we are not living their life, we are observing it from an outside perspective. People choose to behave in a variety of ways, not all of them exemplary. A different way to approach ethics is to consider what sort of people we ought to be. If we develop character traits that are beneficial to ourselves and others, we find that individual actions will tend towards ethically decent behaviour. This paper will explore a character-based approach to residential child care, where the aim is to develop a child's character so that right action will flow more readily than focusing on the rights and wrongs of individual acts. The aim is not to prescribe a set character that children ought to aim for, but examine how moral character develops and how those with responsibility for the child can aid the developmental process. social careresidential child carechild abuseethical behaviours
spellingShingle June Jones
'Raising children': a character-based approach to residential child care
Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care
social care
residential child care
child abuse
ethical behaviours
title 'Raising children': a character-based approach to residential child care
title_full 'Raising children': a character-based approach to residential child care
title_fullStr 'Raising children': a character-based approach to residential child care
title_full_unstemmed 'Raising children': a character-based approach to residential child care
title_short 'Raising children': a character-based approach to residential child care
title_sort raising children a character based approach to residential child care
topic social care
residential child care
child abuse
ethical behaviours
work_keys_str_mv AT junejones raisingchildrenacharacterbasedapproachtoresidentialchildcare