Virtue-Based Education: A Solution to Generation Z’s Morality Crisis
Peyton Price
Intern at Texas Public Policy Foundation
August 4, 2023
GENERATION Z’S MORALITY CRISIS
Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, is growing into the young adults that are the future of our society. Like any generation, Generation Z has many problems, strengths, and beliefs. As a member of Generation Z myself, I have firsthand experience with how the beliefs of Generation Z, particularly in the United States, are changing. Moreover, the moral and religious values of Generation Z are diminishing.
Throughout human history, societies have centered around a common moral foundation, whether that be through a structured religion or other spiritual beliefs. Even the founding of the United States of America was centered around a Judeo-Christian based belief system. The Founding Fathers acknowledge this in the crafting of the Constitution. John Adams stated that “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”[1] Morality and virtue are the foundation of our republic and necessary for a society to be free” (John Adams Academy). This makes it clear that having common morality is essential to the United States as a nation and without that, our Constitution does not work.
Throughout its history, America has been a primarily Christian nation, even from its founding: “At the start of the Revolution the largest denominations were Congregationalists (the 18th-century descendants of Puritan churches), Anglicans (known after the Revolution as Episcopalians), and Quakers. But by 1800, Evangelical Methodism and Baptists, were becoming the fastest-growing religions in the nation” (UShistory.org). Despite this change in denominations, Christianity was the majority belief system. As the 1800s progressed, “The repeated and varied revivals of these several decades helped make the United States a much more deeply Protestant nation than it had been before” (UShistory.org). Since then, Protestantism was the primary domination of Christianity in the United States.
So, what is happening in the United States now? With older generations such as the Silent Generation, “nearly three quarters of them identify as Protestant or Catholic.” Amongst older Americans, there is still a common majority around religious beliefs. With Baby Boomers (1946- 1964), there is a drop, but still “61% are Protestant/Catholic.” With Generation X (1965-1980), “just half of them say that they are Protestant or Catholic” (Burge, 2023).
There is a trend here: Christianity is no longer the clear majority belief system in America. But the truly stark change is coming with Generation Z. Not only do just “thirty-five percent of them say that they are Protestant or Catholic,” but “forty-nine percent say that they are atheist, agnostic, or have no religion in particular” (Burge, 2023). The dangerous part of this trend is not simply that Generation Z is not Christian, but that Generation Z doesn’t have any majority structured belief system at all.
Not only is Generation Z in America losing religion, but we are also losing an appreciation and belonging towards the United States. We all belong to the same nation, but this doesn’t have much weight for Generation Z. A Morning Consult poll showed that “only a net 16% of Gen Zers are “proud” to live in the United States,” and “there has been roughly a 20- percentage-point drop of pride in country every generation since the Baby Boomers, 73% of whom express pride in the country” (Stepman, 2023). This loss of pride in America likely plays a role in the lack of cultural unity, which we can see in our increasingly polarized society: “with less attachment to country, there will be fewer things to bind people together in a society that is now ruthlessly sorting out ideologically” (Stepman, 2023). Although Generation Z is losing religion and pride in America, that is not to say that Generation Z has no beliefs and values. They do, but they do not come from a traditional religion or moral structure.
To start, Generation Z deeply values self-authenticity. Instead of looking to an outside source such as religion to understand the world, Generation Z looks inwards to find their own truth. As we learn from an EY report, “The vast majority of Gen Z respondents reported that authenticity is more important than any other personal value tested, including: spending time on things that will help their futures, independence, changing the world, and being rich or famous” (EY). It is clear from this that authenticity is extremely important to Generation Z.
Stanford News reaffirms this: “a typical Gen Zer is a self-driver who deeply cares about others, strives for a diverse community, is highly collaborative and social, values flexibility, relevance, authenticity and non-hierarchical leadership” (De Witte, 2022). Authenticity is listed here along with values related to harmony and diversity. This Generation Z value of community along with self-authenticity is summed up in an article from McKinsey & Company: “They are more interested in belonging to an inclusive, supportive community. They are more individualistic, with a stronger sense of personal expression” (McKinsey & Company, 2023). Through all of this, we can see that Generation Z does have beliefs, but they focus on finding what is true for each individual, instead of looking for common values.
What about Generation Z’s sense of morality? We previously saw how Generation Z is losing religion and structured morality, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t moral beliefs amongst young people today. Closely linked to authenticity, Generation Z believes in moral relativism, which is the idea that there is no universal truth and everyone can decide their own morality: “another prominent trait of Gen Z is a more relativistic worldview.” As we further see through this study, “one-quarter of Gen Z (24%) strongly agrees that what is morally right and wrong changes over time based on society…Twice as many Gen Z than Boomers (12%) believe this….21 percent of Gen Z and 23 percent of Millennials believe each individual is his or her own moral authority” (Barna Group, 2018). Although this is only counting the “strongly agree” responses, Generation Z is adopting a more relativistic view on morality than older generations. This is not surprising considering Generation Z’s perspective towards religion and self authenticity.
Moral relativism may not seem harmful, but it has its consequences. One issue with moral relativism is that even when people say everyone should determine their own morality, they still take moral stances. And the moral stances are changing: “fully three out of five among the eldest generation (61%) strongly agree that lying is immoral, while only one-third of Gen Z (34%) believes lying is wrong. There is a continuous slide by generation in conviction about this moral principle.” Lying was once considered a universal moral wrong, but that’s not the reality anymore. Everything is up for moral question, and what was once considered clearly wrong is no longer so straightforward.
Moral relativism certainly plays a role in causing the political polarization in our society today. When there is no central morality, how are we supposed to agree on prominent moral issues such as abortion? Some argue that abortion is murder, and others argue that restricting abortion is restricting human rights. Both sides believe they are morally correct, but who is to say when we live in a society where everyone is encouraged to determine their own morality? This is just one example of the conflict our nation is facing and will only continue to face as time goes on.
To see the full impact of Generation Z’s belief system, we should look at the problems Generation Z is facing. It is no secret that Generation Z is facing great mental health issues. In fact, “an astounding 42 percent of those born between 1990 and 2010 – Gen Z – have been diagnosed with a mental health condition.” This is dangerously high, and there are many factors
that are likely contributing to this. For one, social media use and time spent online is at an all time high, and “multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts” (Robinson & Smith). Speaking of loneliness, “Generation Z is the loneliest generation that the world has seen” (Bowler, 2020). Generation Z is struggling, and clearly the belief system they are subscribing to is not helping.
WHY VIRTUE-BASED EDUCATION COULD HELP GENERATION Z This crisis of moral foundation within Generation Z is deeply important to me as a 17- year-old member of Generation Z myself. In the past, I have worked to address this issue through my own content shared online and through social media. As a current intern at Texas Public Policy Foundation, I was inspired to determine what ways public policy can be used to instill a stronger moral foundation into Generation Z.
One of the most direct areas of a young person’s life that concerns public policy is education: “"A typical U.S. student will attend school for a total of 8,884 hours over nine years to complete primary and lower secondary education’”” (ED100). Because every child in the nation is spending a large portion of their childhood in a classroom, it is undeniable that this would be impacting their values. If we aren’t teaching young people about the importance of establishing a moral foundation, why would we expect them to value these things? It comes as no surprise that a generation that has never been taught about these values would care about them. Thus, it also isn’t surprising that Generation Z is struggling.
Virtue-based education could be a solution to this problem. Virtues are “a universal behavior that is recognized by people of many different cultures.” (Silverline Montessori School, 2017). To go deeper, “Virtue ethics is a theory of the human moral conduct and personal character that focuses on the carefully developed, stable, long-term inner dispositions of a moral agent as the foundation of the agent’s moral excellence and good life.” (Seok, 2011). Understanding the importance of morality through virtue ethics would help ground Generation Z.
Virtue ethics has existed for over 2,000 years, and has its roots in Aristotle’s teachings: “In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defines ‘eudaimonia’ or human flourishing as the highest good…Virtue ethics is based on an acceptance of certain human givens (or a notion of a human
nature) as a basis for morality. The person who achieves this rich sense of flourishing is one who embodies ‘arete’ or human excellence – a much richer sense of ‘virtue’ than just doing the right thing.9…Arete could be described as excellence of character. Aristotle describes key moral characteristics such as courage, justice, friendship and self-control…Aristotle recognises both the moral virtues such as those cited above and intellectual virtues such as reason and wisdom” (Haghdoost, Alexander, & Wiley, 2015). From this, we can see that virtue ethics is a form of morality that we can all come together around.
An article from FutureLearn states that “By adopting an Aristotelian virtue ethics approach, character education should enable young people to develop character virtues and practical wisdom, which helps them decide what to do when faced with moral dilemmas. A common challenge to this position is: “What sort of character should we teach? And what virtues make up good character?” The Centre’s list includes the following virtues (among others): courage, justice, honesty, compassion, self-discipline, gratitude and humanity. These are all human virtues that transcend one religion, nationality or societal structure.” (FutureLearn, 2014). It is clear through this that virtue ethics is not subject to a particular belief system or religion. Rather, virtues are at the foundation of the western world and go back thousands of years.
Currently, Generation Z is not focused on virtues; they are not a central part of our world view and not a priority, and they certainly aren’t being taught in most schools. Plato once said that “Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.” Unfortunately, our education system is not teaching children the right things to desire, and the result of this is a generation that is lost.
Virtue education would give Generation Z a sense of morality outside of their own worldview. Understanding that morality is not purely subjective would provide Generation Z with a stronger sense of stability. One article summarizes the idea that even though moral beliefs vary, we can all come together around certain core virtues: “What does it mean to be a good person? Answers to this question will vary from place to place, time to time, and culture to culture. But most likely the answers will remain roughly the same: a good person is kind, brave, honest, wise, responsible. . . Answers like these implicitly buy into a specific moral philosophy: virtue ethics” (Summers, 2022).
In order to understand how virtues would help Generation Z, let us look specifically at the “four key virtues, the cardinal virtues, the cornerstone of Aristotle’s moral framework: prudence, justice, temperance, and courage. According to Aristotle, possessing these virtues makes a person good, happy, and flourishing” (Summers, 2022).
To start, prudence is a virtue that “involves a pattern of reflective reasoning informed by experience in the pursuit of long-term well-being through moderate judgements and actions” (Kumar, 2022). In simpler terms, prudence is “practical wisdom…prudence is the habit of applying right reason to action through deliberation over what is to be done for the sake of an end.” (Morgan, 2005). Developing the virtue of prudence will undeniably allow people to wisely consider the long-term impact of actions. Regardless of specific religious beliefs, we can all come together to agree that prudence is important and will help Generation Z make better decisions in their lives. Unfortunately, prudence is not being taught to Generation Z, despite its existence as a central moral virtue for centuries. In the words of Aristotle, “[Prudence] is the virtue of that part of the intellect [the calculative] to which it belongs; and . . . our choice of actions will not be right without Prudence any more than without Moral Virtue, since, while Moral Virtue enables us to achieve the end, Prudence makes us adopt the right means to the end.” (AZ Quotes).
As previously discussed, Generation Z values self-authenticity and expression. Our culture consistently encourages us to “do what makes us happy” and seek personal happiness at all costs. The virtue of temperance goes directly against this, because it means often restraining yourself from what you want. Temperance is discipline. Temperance is not always what we desire in the moment, but it is key to a fulfilling and productive life. The idea that we should not feed into every human desire we have is increasingly controversial for Generation Z, and that is why a virtue like temperance is so important.
Justice is another one of the cardinal virtues. We all understand the idea of justice, but the virtue of justice goes much deeper: “Justice is a kind of moral virtue which helps us to achieve our end. It is a complete virtue that embraces personal and public life” (Debbarma, 2020). More specifically, justice refers to being fair and upholding what is morally right. Justice is important for maintaining order and resolving conflicts. Generation Z is known to care about justice, but understanding the root of justice as a virtue will allow Generation Z to best carry out this value.
Finally, we have fortitude. Fortitude is closely linked to courage and is the quality to overcome adversity. Fortitude also represents the ability to stay true to our beliefs and moral foundation, which is especially important for Generation Z. To sum up fortitude, it “is the virtue that allows us to overcome fear and to remain steady in our will in the face of obstacles. Prudence and justice are the virtues through which we decide what needs to be done; fortitude gives us the strength to do it” (St. John The Baptist Orthodox Church). Fortitude is essential for Generation Z to make a difference in the world and develop values that they can stay true to, even when it is difficult.
These are just a few examples of virtues that could help Generation Z. Now, it is important to note that virtue ethics is not a perfectly objective system of morality that everyone agrees on. But, the core virtues have existed for centuries and can be used as a baseline morality that we can use to help young people understand the importance of morality and of living a virtuous life.
CURRENT OPTIONS FOR VIRTUE-BASED EDUCATION AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
Now that we have analyzed what virtue ethics is and what it would teach Generation Z, we will discuss what virtue-based education does and could look like in a practical sense. Currently, a virtue-based education can be found primarily in classical schools. There are many classical charter schools in Texas that implement virtue-based teaching. Classical schools teach virtue in many ways. For one, “Rigorous study develops virtue in the student. Aristotle defined virtue as the ability to act in accordance to what one knows to be right. The virtuous man (or woman) can force himself to do what he knows to be right, even when it runs against his inclinations. The classical education continually asks a student to work against his baser inclinations (laziness, or the desire to watch another half hour of TV) in order to reach a goal mastery of a subject” (Wise Bauer). In addition to these classical charter schools, ther are also private school and homeschool options that allow for a virtue-focused approach. Despite the benefits these charter school, private school, and homeschool options provide because of their focus on virtues, not every child has access to these schools. This supports the importance of allowing for educational freedom in Texas through school choice policies so that every student can have access to virtue-based education if they choose to. Policies for things such as an Educational Savings Account would allow families to give their children the virtue based education that they believe in. Education Freedom is actively being pursued in Texas:
“The Governor detailed his plan to keep public schools fully funded while also expanding state funded Education Savings Accounts to every Texas student. The Governor noted the success of states that have empowered parents to choose the best education option for their child, pointing out that the quality of public education improved in states with robust school choice programs.” (Governor’s Office, State of Texas, 2023). From this, we can see that school choice is a priority of Governor Abbott and would allow for greater access to virtue-based education.
Even with this, there will still be students in public schools. So, how can we improve public schools to teach Generation Z the virtues that matter? Public education exists in order to prepare the youth to be productive and informed citizens. Right now, there is virtually no focus in public schools on raising morally educated citizens, which is essential to maintaining our nation. So, public education should be reformed to include classes on classics and virtues. Another way to promote values in schools is through teaching religion. Understanding world religions is important regardless of personal religious beliefs because religion plays such an important role in our world and history. Plus, most world religions share common values, and understanding these is useful in establishing a moral foundation.
To conclude, we can see that Generation Z is facing a morality crisis. If we do not work to fix this, morality in the United States will continue to turn into a free-for-all, and this will only enhance Generation Z’s struggles. Spreading virtue-based education is a potential course of action that can be taken through public policy, beginning with educational freedom and reforming public schools to include virtue ethics.
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