Legal behavior and moral standards are among the components of education about which there is some contentious debate. Some writers claim to favor this formulation, while others address moral education and civic education separately. We choose moral and civic education, the moral behavior of a person, taking into account the numerous obstacles established between the moral phenomenon and the social phenomenon of social life.
Society values
The connection between moral and civic behavior is not accidental. Moral and legal behavior is what children should be taught from birth. Obviously, the two behaviors are related to each other and depend on each other, because you cannot have moral behavior without observing the laws, traditions and values of society. You cannot be civic minded if you do not abide by the values, norms, and rules that govern the life of the community in which you live.
Moral-civic education is an extremely complex component of education, since, on the one hand, its consequences are reflected in the entire state of the individual, and on the other hand, moral behavior is represented by moral norms and legal prescriptions. They subordinate all other values (scientific, cultural, professional, aesthetic, physical, environmental, etc.). Morality and civilization are thus fundamental aspects of a harmonious, authentic and whole personality.
Moral ideal
For a good understanding of moral-civic education, some clarification is required regarding morality and civility. Moral behavior is a social phenomenon, a form of social consciousness that reflects the relationships that are established between people in a social context limited in time and space, with a regulatory function for people living together, stimulating and directing human behavior in accordance with social requirements. Its content is materialized in the moral ideal, values and moral rules that constitute what is called the "structure of the moral system."
Moral behavior is a theoretical model that expresses the moral quintessence of the human personality in the form of an image of moral perfection. Its essence is manifested in moral values, norms and rules.
Prototypes of morality
Moral values reflect the general requirements andthe demands of moral conduct in the light of ideal precepts with an almost infinite range of applicability. We remember, for example, some of the most significant moral values, these are: patriotism, humanism, democracy, justice, freedom, honesty, honor, dignity, modesty, etc. Each of them corresponds to the meaning of good-bad, honest-dishonest, heroism -cowardice, etc. Moral standards are also moral requirements developed by a society or a more limited community that set out prototypes of moral behavior for specific situations (school, professional, family life).
Expressing the demands of moral values, they have a more limited scope than those that take the form of permits, bonds, prohibitions that lead to certain forms of action. The morality of the form of social consciousness is the source of the moral content of education and the reference base for its evaluation.
The moral aspect of social and individual consciousness belongs to the ideal sphere, while morality belongs to the sphere of reality. Morality presupposes effective normative requirements of morality, a moral position translated from the ideal into reality. That is why moral education seeks to turn morality into virtue.
Shaping a person
Civil law indicates an organic connection, vital between the individual and society. More precisely, education contributes to the formation of a person as a citizen, asan active supporter of the rule of law, militant human rights for the good of the motherland and the people to whom he belongs. Moral behavior is the goal of education, which is to form a person as a full-fledged cell that feels, thinks and acts in accordance with the requirements of public morality.
This requires knowledge and observance of the moral ideals, values, norms and rules on which public morality is based. It also requires knowledge of the structure and functioning of the rule of law, respect for the law, the study and upholding of the values of democracy, rights and freedoms, understanding of peace, friendship, respect for human dignity, tolerance, non-discrimination based on nationality, religion, race, gender, etc.
Civic conscience
For the purpose of moral and civic education, the main objectives of this component of education are: the formation of moral and civic conscience and the formation of moral and civic behavior.
It should be noted that this division between theoretical and practical tasks is made for didactic reasons, somewhat artificial, because the moral-civil profile of the subject develops simultaneously from both sides, taking both information and action, feelings, beliefs-facts.
Formation of moral and civic conscience
Moral and civic conscience consists of a system of morality, moral norms and knowledge about values, laws, norms that regulate the relationship of a person with society. This includes commandments that an individualuses in his position and within the numerous social relations in which he participates. From a psychological point of view, moral and civic consciousness includes three components: cognitive, emotional and volitional.
Affirmative action
The cognitive component assumes the child's knowledge of the content and requirements of values, moral and civil norms. Their knowledge is not limited to simple memorization, but involves an understanding of the requirements that they imply, an understanding of the need to comply with them. The results of this knowledge are reflected in the formation of moral and civil ideas, concepts and judgments.
Their role is to lead the child into the universe of moral and civic values, to make him understand the need to observe them. Without knowledge of moral and civil norms, a child cannot behave in accordance with the requirements that arise in society. But, despite the need for moral-civic behavior, moral and civil knowledge is not connected with the mere presence of rules. In order for them to become a motivating factor for initiating, guiding, and supporting civic behavior, they must be accompanied by a range of emotionally positive feelings. This leads to the need for the emotional component of the consciousness of the formation of moral behavior.
Outer obstacles
The affective component provides the energy substrate necessary for the conduct of moral and civic knowledge. Emotions and feelingssubject to moral and civil commands emphasize that he not only accepts values, norms, moral and civil rules, but also lives and identifies with them. It follows from this that both moral norms of behavior in society and affective attachment are necessary for moral-civil interaction. However, they are not enough, because often in the performance of moral and civic actions there may be a number of external obstacles (temporary problems, adverse circumstances) or internal (interests, desires), for which efforts are needed or, in other words, the intervention of the volitional component is required.
Spiritual Needs
From the fusion of the three components of moral and civic consciousness, beliefs emerge as a product of cognitive, affective and volitional integration into the human psychic structure. Once formed, they become “true spiritual needs”, the core of moral consciousness and create the conditions for a person to make the jump from motivated external behavior and consolidate his social and moral behavior.
