Ethics via Art (EvA) Education Project

 As stated in an insightful book written by scholars in the field of psychology, Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child (John Gottman, Ph.D., with Joan Declaire), the way children learn basic emotional and social skills is from their parents and relatives, from neighbors, and from play with other children. The consequences of failing to learn the basics of emotional intelligence and social skills are increasingly dire. Given the current societal realities, we need to make the best use of the golden moments we have with children, by taking a purposeful and active role in coaching key human skills like understanding and handling troubling feelings, controlling impulse, feeling empathy, and exhibiting compassion and ethical behavior.

During the period of middle childhood (ages eight to twelve), children develop a sense of their own values. One may notice that children in this age group become quite concerned with what is moral and just. They may begin to doubt, challenge, and think for themselves. This is a time for exploration, which is facilitated by their developing awareness of the power of intellect. A significant increase in their ability to reason logically develops at approximately age ten.  

Accordingly, the EvA Education Project objective is to: educate participating middle childhood students (ages ten to twelve) in the academic subject of ethics; promote the development of socially-conscious ethics in middle childhood students via the use of their intellect, logic, emotional memory, in addition to their language arts and artistic skills.

The completion of the student’s Ethics via Art Education personal project, a frameable Ethics Lesson Memory page, includes expressing in writing the memory of a interaction with another student/other students that resulted in the student experiencing personal harmful feelings

  Ethics via Art Lesson Plan

- Introduce the subject of ethics

- Provide ethics lesson writing assignment guidance

- Propose ethics lesson memory page layout design

- Select memory page artistic content (images, colors, patterns, embellishments) 

- Compose ethics lesson essay 

- Create memory page

- Mount page in frame for display

- Review ethics lesson