Orienting to the Public Good: Developing a Moral Self in the Middle Grades

Abstract

This study takes up the challenge of middle level researchers to investigate the extent to which schools prepare young adolescents to commit themselves to serve the public interest. One way of assessing the orientation of children and adolescents to the public good is through their emerging self-understanding. This study analyzes middle school students’ descriptions of the ideal, real, and dreaded selves. Fewer than half the participants describe themselves with at least one moral characteristic and many of them focus narrowly on attaining material and social success. These findings raise questions about the hidden curriculum of individualism in schools as well as in the wider culture.