Moral Education in a Democracy

In Moral Education in a Democracy, Charles Thomas Taylor argues that a common morality is essential for the security and well-being of a democratic society, but that the traditional dissemination of such moral values is now insufficient and inadequate. This deficiency requires a dramatic shift of the burden of this activity from the religious institutions to the public schools. Taylor proposes both a curriculum and a methodology for public moral education. While he maintains that an appropriate body of ethics can be derived from the ethical tenets of the major religions, he offers as a working model his own composite of such an ethics code. He further proposes a program of adult remedial moral education for use as an integral component of criminal rehabilitation and mental healthcare for convicts.