Robert Coles, eminent sociologist, has written many books about Americans in poverty. Coles received the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for his 5-volume series, Children in Crisis.

> In 1997 appeared Coles' book, How to Raise a Moral Child. (Note: I write "parenting" in my title to bypass control language by honoring a ROLE, supporting my argument that "YOU ARE THE CHOICES YOU CAN MAKE AND THE ROLES YOU CAN PLAY". And I mean "parenting" in the general sense of any one assuming the ROLE of HELPING A CHILD TO MATURE. Thus, I'd paraphrase the ellipsis of Hillary Clinton's book, It Takes a Village [to Parent a Child].)

No, I don't think Coles is aware of the above distinctions. And that very ignorance disturbs me, since he cannot use the distinction to cope with the strategic differences between a top-down philosophy (morality) and a bottoms-up philosophy (ethics).

The term "moral" is related to the word "morale", which has a TRIBAL origin. THE COMMITTED MORALIST IS CONCERNED WITH RAISING THE MORALE OF THE TRIBE. (The committed moralist is a "control freak".) For example, it may seem MORAL (morale-raising) to KILL THE STRANGER or conduct ETHNIC CLEANSING of a rival people.

          Lookout! for mean ole MacMoralist!
          His preaching is really the borelist!
          He'd put us in stocks
          And turn back the clocks
          To the Puritan Age, terroralist!
          MacEthicist, instead,
          Gives love and breaks bread
          With strangers that roam the territoralist.

For, the term "ethical" is related to the term "ethnic". THE COMMITTED ETHICIST TREATS THE STRANGER AS AN ETHNIC. Thus, the best ethical injunction I know is the "Golden Rule" of Jesus, given in "The Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31, King James Version): "DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU." It is said to derive from Jewish and Christian sources, as (negatively) in the Book of Tobit (4:15) in the Apocrypha: "And what you hate, do not do to anyone." Or "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Similarly, the injunction: "Thou shalt lover thy neighbor as thyself" -- Matthew 19: 19; 22: 39; Romans 13: 9; Galatians 5: 14; James 2:8.

These exhortations to altruism were also stated negatively by Confucius and other teachers of ethics.

As a side trip, you can see how I can use dramaturgy to articulate my thinking about the DEONTICS of MORALITY VS. ETHICS. (Deontic logic is the study of the MODE, "you must or should".)

Even more, I can appeal to my unique STRATEGY teaching history -- especially the history of scimath -- by having students write an enact scenarios about critical events).

Yes, Ophelia -- starting as "early" as possible -- I urge PARENT to improvise or write out scripts involving ethics-teaching-situations for the child to teach ethical behavior to her/his stuffed animals or dolls or other role-players. This can be initiated by GENERATING ETHICAL ACTS involving these stuffed animals or dolls. Then follow with failures or ambiguities of ethical behavior by these "role players", which require the child to try to evaluate.

I take Jesus' "Parable of the Good Samaritan" (found only in Luke 10: 25-37) as THE ETHICAL PROTOTYPE:

• A man going from Jerusalem to Jericho "fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead".
• A "priest" came upon the wounded man and "when he saw him, passed by the other way". And "likewise a Levite ...passed by on the other side". A "certain Samaritan ... came where he was, and ... had compassion on him ... and bound up his wounds , puring in oil and wine, and set him upon his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow [the Samaritan] took out two pence, and gave them to the host [of the inn], and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee."
• Then Jesus said to his Disciples, "Which of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?"

The Parent can direct the child in enacting this ethical drama (in more secular terms, if desired) with stuffed animals or dolls.

As to an ambiguous deontic situation, I've formulated "The Parable of the Half-Good Samaritan", who might help a man wounded or sick by the wayside, but will not bother to post warning signs of dangers of the road.

And a simple dramatizing of Hamlet's conflict between "The Moral" and "The Ethical" provides further opportunity for motivated teaching.

I believe that The Old Testment of the Bible is The Moral Testament, whereas some of The New Testament is The Ethical Testament, for the O.T. describes an Angry God, the N.T. describes a Loving God. (I show this in a sidetrip Table. And I exhort Madsters to build other tables of contrasting Moral and Ethical Acts, drawn from literature and from history.)

And ETHICS achieves special meaning when the role of "figure" against the "ground" of my VARILOVE SPECTRUM of LOVES. And another perspective emerges: MORALITY DERIVES FROM THE COLLECTIVISM OF THE TRIBE -- ETHICS FROM THE INDIVIDUALISM OF CLASSIC GREECE, which gave us PHILOSOPHY, MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, ART, DEMOCRACY.

Critical to the parenting role is the injunction, "Thou shalt not attribute!"

Then, this becomes the perspective of COMPENSATING FOR THE "SCATTERING-EFFECT" OF INDIVIVIDUALISM BY THE COHESION OF ETHICS!

So, returning from my theme of "parenting an ethical child", dramatic play in "love-learning" fits into "The Homological Repertory of Ethical Behavior".

                 (Tune: "The Childen's Hymn")
Ethical Child, I'd be!          	Bread of Blessing feed the Flock.
Debonair in face to see.        	Fish of Mission found the Rock.
Stewardship stew                	Samaritan the mugged
For the hungry mouths.          	On Life's Highway!
Mercy for the maundering.       	Children's Crusade of Love,
Forgiveness for the foundering. 	Valley of Shadows rove,
Invite The Stranger to my house!        Love's Pilgrim lead the way!

Why is ethics CRITICAL now?